We all know the Mediterranean diet is very good for us. The diet, which is a healthy eating plan based around olive oil, colourful vegetables, plenty of oily fish, whole grains and a little bit of meat, has been found to carry loads of health benefits.
From alleviating the precursors to high blood pressure and heart disease to increasing your antioxidant levels and even helping you lose weight, the Mediterranean diet comes highly recommended.
There's another reason to choose the Mediterranean diet plan. In the US News & World Report's 2020 rankings, the Mediterranean diet was named the best diet overall for the third year running.
Looked at by a panel of experts, including neurobiologists, professors of nutrition and cardiologists, the Mediterranean diet was rated top among 35 different diets including ketogenic, flexitarian and the Nordic diet.
The panel rated the Mediterranean diet "eminently sensible" which is perhaps the best compliment you can give to a long-term diet plan. It needs to be flexible, allowing for plenty of different kinds of foods in moderation, in order to remain sustainable for a long period of time.
The incredibly popular ketogenic diet was also rated highly in the "short term weight loss" category, due to its low-carb nature, but didn't score well overall due to its restrictive nature. The ketogenic diet is difficult to follow for an extended period of time, and doesn't include all the micronutrients a healthy body needs.
One Harvard University report wrote the keto diet may leave followers "at risk for deficiencies in micronutrients, including selenium, magnesium, phosphorus, and vitamins B and C". Other restrictive diet plans, which involve cutting out whole food groups, face similar criticism.
Want to give the Mediterranean diet a try? Check out our guide to the Mediterranean diet plan, including more studies on why it's great and the ingredients you'll need to get cracking.
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