When you’re choosing a diet for weight loss you notice the differences first. It’s as if you need to declare a position and make a stand: “I’m a meat lover.” “Plants rule.” “Bring me balance.” “Show me the science.” But as you dig deeper, you realize how many similarities diets really share.
[See: U.S. News’ 40 Best Diets Overall.]
Diets work mainly by addition or subtraction — they introduce nutritious new foods into your life or take entire food groups away. Number-crunching is part of most diets, even if you’re not counting calories. Some seemingly different diets incorporate nearly identical scientific underpinnings.
What really ties diets together is this: They make you think about what you’re eating. If you’ve been relying on drive-thru fast food, filling up at the buffet or grabbing a candy bar in the checkout line, deciding to diet means fundamentally changing what you put on your plate. By committing yourself to a diet you can eat in a healthier way than you used to — if you choose to.
Many diets allow plenty of leeway in foods that meet their requirements. “Let’s make it as healthful as possible,” is good advice for people who want to try trendy diets, says Jill Weisenberger, a Virginia-based registered dietitian nutritionist and the author of “Prediabetes: A Complete Guide.”
For example, a young man might decide he’s ready to watch what he eats. The only diet that really appeals to him is Paleo, famous for its focus on “caveman” unprocessed meats. Yet, salmon could also be a main course on Paleo, as it also could be on the Nordic diet.
That guy who used to barely tolerate lettuce on tacos might now be piling salad greens on his plate, just like someone who chooses the DASH diet. He could be snacking on nuts and blueberries, much like his parent on the brain-boosting MIND diet.
Extreme Restrictions
Further-on-the-fringes diets resemble one another in a different way — although they might attract enthusiastic new followers, they leave nutrition experts shaking their heads.
Weisenberger is not a fan of the super-strict Whole30 diet. During a month of self-deprivation, adherents cut sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes and dairy food as a nutritional “reset.”
Although healthy eating isn’t necessarily the top priority for the average person on Paleo, Weisenberger says, it might be impossible for someone doing Keto. “It’s too hard, because it eliminates too many foods,” she says.
With Keto’s recommended fat content ranging from 70 to 80 percent or higher, a modest amount of protein and as low as 5 percent carbohydrates, “I don’t see how you’re going to get all the nutrients that are in plant foods,” Weisenberger says.
A positive approach wins out over a restrictive mentality, Weisenberger says. She’s encouraged that many diets, even though they aren’t plant-based, still incorporate healthy fruits and veggies.
“What I like to see — and I do see some people doing this more — is instead of identifying foods not to eat, they’re putting more emphasis on healthy foods to eat,” Weisenberger says. “If people are eating fish and broccoli on Paleo or whatever then I’m looking at two healthful foods on their plate.”
[See: The 13 Best Diets to Prevent and Manage Diabetes.]
As diets evolve, certain tweaks promote healthier nutrition, says Maria Bella, a registered dietitian and founder of Top Balance Nutrition in New York City. “Many diets in the past promoted their own products, such as brand-name diet cheese or yogurt,” she notes. “So the positive in these fad diets is the reliance on natural foods.”
Restrictions often ease over time. “There are modified versions of Keto that allow you to eat 15 percent of your daily calories in carbohydrates versus 5 percent,” points out registered dietitian nutritionist Tara Condell, also with Top Balance Nutrition. “However, it’s a stretch to call the diet balanced as many vegetables are still limited.”
Crossover foods are now recommended in a number of diets for their nutritional benefits. Watch for raspberries and blackberries, chia seeds and sardines, Condell says. You’ll also see creative uses for cauliflower — not just in rice, but also ice cream, pizza crust and gnocchi. Seasonal eating is another rising trend.
Look, No Calories!
While calorie-counting is still a mainstay for many diets, other plans stay away from tallying calories. But with many diets, you’re still counting something.
Several years ago, Weight Watchers began assigning a single SmartPoints nutritional value to individual foods for followers to more easily track. With Volumetrics, food density is the key number. The Nutritarian diet focuses on four core principles — nutrient density, nutrient adequacy, toxin avoidance and hormonal favorability — rather than calorie reduction.
The Glycemic Index diet ranks foods from zero to 100 based on carbohydrate content. Other diets, like South Beach, incorporate low-GI foods. At least one version of the up-and-coming Nordic diet includes a low-GI aspect.
Although calorie-counting might not be in style, cutting calories is at the heart of every diet, according to Weisenberger. “I don’t think it’ll ever be a thing of the past,” she says. “Honestly, with all the diets that work, they work because they somehow cut calories.”
However, intuitive eating is gaining traction, Condell says: “It relies on using feelings rather than calories to determine portion control.”
[See: 15 Best Weight-Loss Diets at a Glance.]
Would you choose the breezy-sounding Mediterranean diet or go for the sensible-sounding DASH? Although the former may have more flair, both are considered healthy, well-balanced eating plans that consumers can stick with indefinitely. The two diets are currently tied for top spot among U.S. News Best Diets overall.
As some diets merge or inspire spinoffs, the similarities only grow. For instance, the MIND diet blends Mediterranean and DASH facets that may help protect the brain from dementia. The DASH diet spawned OmniHeart diet variations shown to reduce blood pressure, harmful cholesterol levels and estimated heart disease risk among followers.
“Many of my patients have come in recently and asked for long-term, sustainable weight loss after years of yo-yoing,” Condell says. “We joke and call it the how-to-eat-until-you’re-90-years-old diet. I’m optimistic that people are caring more about wellness versus strict weight loss, even with all the crazy fad diets on the internet.”
More from U.S. News
7 Reasons to Choose a Plant-Based Diet
The 10 Best Diets for Fast Weight Loss
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The Sweet Spots Where Diets Meet originally appeared on usnews.com
