According to annual data from Google, “How slim down” It is one of the most requested searches in the world. And nobody is surprised. In a world in which obesity can be described as an epidemic, achieving weight loss is the goal of more and more people.
This is how we enter the vicious cycle of diets, a world in which you have to walk with leaden feet, because it is easy to end up paying attention to the trickster on duty and bet on the miracle diet on duty.
Perhaps it is necessary to repeat that the most efficient way to lose weight is not by dieting, but by following a healthy joint eating that we can keep in time. But there are regimes whose purpose is precisely this.
Every year, US News & World Report publishes your popular ranking with the best diets. And, for a long time, the top positions have always been occupied by the same regimes. And is that to lose weight there are no secrets. There may be discussions about whether a diet should have more or less fat or carbohydrates, but they are all going to prioritize vegetables, lean meats, fish, and whole grains.
This year, however, the Mediterranean diet has tied for first place with the one known as the DASH diet, leaving the one known as the Flexitarian diet in second position. These are its main characteristics:
Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet is the traditional diet which has greater scientific support, but many times, also in its cradle, we forget what it consists of.
In short, the Mediterranean diet is based on a high intake of fruits, vegetables, fish, whole grains, legumes and olive oil, and a very low red meat content, sugars and saturated fats.
The Predimed study – the largest research ever conducted on nutrition and health worldwide – has demonstrated this diet, always with a controlled total calorie intake and enriched with nuts and extra virgin olive oil, it reduces the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke by 30%.
To follow this diet you have to follow a series of fixed guidelines:
- The total consumption of fats it must be less than 35% of the energy consumed, and saturated fats cannot exceed 8%.
- Must be consumed chicken or fish twice a week.
- It can take up to seven eggs a week.
- It should be consumed daily milk, cheese or yogurt.
- The Red meat It can only be consumed once or twice a week.
- You can consume one or two glasses of wine up to date.
DASH diet
This regimen is not one of the best known in Spain, but it is hugely popular in the US, where it is one of the most used by the medical community. The DASH diet responds to the acronym Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (“Dietary approach to stop hypertension”) and, of course, it was a diet originally intended for people with high blood pressure.
The efficacy of this regimen, which was designed by researchers from the National Institutes of Health of the United States (NIH), has been tested over time in numerous studies that have also served to further refine the recommendations.
It is quite a diet limited in calories (2,000 daily), in which the consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grains is prioritized. It also includes plenty of low-fat dairy products, chicken, fish, legumes, nuts, and vegetable oils. On the contrary, the consumption of saturated fat and high-fat dairy products. The consumption of sugars is reduced to a minimum.
The SaltAs is logical in the case of a specific diet to treat hypertension, it is reduced and controlled to a minimum daily, which implies banishing most canned, cold cuts and instant soups from our diet. However, if you do not have problems in this regard, you can be less strict when it comes to this part.
Flexitarian diet
The third diet of the ranking It is the newest, but it has more and more followers. Flexitarianism is a recent neologism – a mixture of “vegetarian” and “flexible” – that was created to designate those people whose diet is fundamentally vegetarianBut they don’t disgust meat in certain situations, where being too strict about it can be a hassle. Although vegetarians and vegans do not really recognize flexitarians as equals, it is a first step for many people who decide put the meat aside.
Extensive research shows that vegetarians tend to eat fewer calories, weigh less, and have a body mass index lower than meat eaters.
As is logical, the diet emphasizes the consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and vegetable proteins, which replace those that meat would provide (thanks, above all, to the vegetables). It also allows the consumption of eggs and dairy. Meat and fish are only added in very small amounts as an ingredient in pasta dishes or salads.
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