As people move into a new year, the most common New Year’s resolution made is to get healthier! U.S. News and World Report’s expert panel reviewed around 40 eating plans and came up with those they felt would be best to help people improve overall health. Here are the top three: Mediterranean Diet, DASH, and the Flexitarian diets. Keto came in 5th, for those of you who are wondering!
Some of you may know that we have our own eating plans called the The Hauser Diet. Basically, it is comprised of 5 different diet types (Lion, Otter, Bear, Monkey, Giraffe) varying in the amount of carbs, protein, and fat. Why? Because each person’s physiology is different, requiring differing amounts of these macro-nutrients.
We are, however, big fans of the Mediterranean diet. The reason we like it is that it is the type of diet that fits many people and promotes overall health. The Mediterranean diet is high in vegetables (yes!), fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and olive oil, as well as allows moderate consumption of dairy and red wine. Meat is eaten in much smaller amounts. This type of diet typically stabilizes blood sugar and improves cholesterol and triglycerides, thus reducing cardiac risk factors. However, those with significantly elevated blood glucose and lipid levels may need to follow a higher protein/fat diet due to their individual physiology – thus the keto type diet is more effective in reducing these levels, similar to the Hauser Lion or Otter diets.
The DASH and Flexitarian diets tied for second place. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension and adds more fat-free or low-fat dairy products, fish, and poultry, as well as lower salt consumption. Flexitarian eating plans encourage people to consume a mostly vegetarian diet with occasional meat-based meals, also limiting sugar and sweets like both above diets do as well.
Our take on the sodium issue is that if you consume a fresh food diet, then your food will be naturally very low in sodium. Living in a hot weather climate causes us to perspire more, thus, we typically lose more minerals, such as sodium, when we sweat, particularly if we are avid exercisers. So, we do caution against going too low in sodium.
In summary, as we have said many times in prior articles, eat real food; eat your veggies; eat fresh; control portions; reduce sweets; and keep moving! You only live once! Let us live well and prosper! Happy New Year, friends! Here is to a fantastic 2021!
