The best diets for health, the Mediterranean and the DASH

Every January the ‘US News & World Report’ publishes a list of the best diets based on the criteria of a panel of health experts, who give priority to the fact that they are easy to follow, nutritional, safe, and effective for losing weight and that they protect against diseases such as diabetes or heart disease. The Mediterranean diet is the one that has obtained the best score in 2021 – as it has over the past four years, on this index endorsed by the prestigious University of Harvard. The second one is the DASH, created in the 1990s by the Health Institutes of the United States to help tackle dietary problems causing high blood pressure.

The report emphasises that people living in the Mediterranean live longer and are less prone than the Americans to suffer from cancer or heart disease. The experts acknowledge that this is due to an active life, weight control and a diet low in red meat, sugar and saturated fats, and high in fruit and vegetables. The Mediterranean diet offers many benefits, including better heart and brain health and it prevents cancer and diabetes, as well as chronic diseases such as high blood pressure.

The second diet chosen by the panel of experts is the DASH, (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). It is a balanced diet that is based on eating fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, low fat dairy products and foods rich in the minerals calcium, potassium and magnesium, which encourage drops in blood pressure. The diet recommends a particular control over the amount of salt used for cooking and it advices against foods that have a high content of saturated fats – such as fatty meat, whole fat dairy foods and coconut and palm oils, along with sugary drinks and sweets. It also recommends reducing processed or precooked products. The flexitarian diet is another of the ones chosen by the experts. It is a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and vegetable proteins that allows meat or fish to be eaten occasionally.