New year, new you… or so you thought. If you haven’t started the year off on the right foot or if your current diet isn’t working for you, it’s time to change how you think about food. While diets of the past suffered from a lack of scientific evidence and misunderstandings about weight loss, current diet plans are advanced and structured to suit your specific dietary needs. In fact, when you hear the word “diet,” you shouldn’t associate it with thoughts of food restriction. Consider these 2019 diets healthy lifestyle changes that will make you a more well-balanced person.
Mediterranean Diet
According to U.S. News and World Report, there is a new top diet this year. The Mediterranean diet has earned the spot as 2019’s most popular and effective overall diet according to the publication. This type of meal plan emulates the cuisine of the Mediterranean in order to create healthier meals and eating habits that maximize health and weight loss.
A Mediterranean diet focuses on fish, vegetables, and olive oil for well-balanced and filling meals. With an emphasis on fruits, veggies, beans, nuts, legumes, and whole grains, this diet is believed to both increase lifespans and prevent chronic diseases.
Mediterranean diets rely heavily on olive oil, as well as spices and herbs for lots of flavors. Moderate amounts of poultry, cheese, yogurt, and eggs are also served, along with fish or seafood several times a week. This diet might sound too tasty to be true, but remember all things in moderation. The benefit of ingesting healthy fats, such as those found in olive oil, provides overall satiation of hunger that empty calories won’t give you.
DASH Diet
Another popular diet of 2019, the DASH diet is gratefully not related in any way to the Kardashian clan. Started by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the DASH diet was created in order to help lower blood pressure.
Comprised of healthy, low-sodium foods, the DASH diet focuses mainly on vegetables, fruit, lean protein, whole grains, and low-fat dairy. In contrast to other popular diets, high-fat foods are eliminated, as well as sweets and sugary drinks.
Another result of this diet that you may not have expected is that it is believed to lower the risk of depression for older adults. You read that correct; evidence leads to the conclusion that following the DASH diet could lower your chances of developing depression later in life.
Keto Diet
Perhaps you’ve heard your friends discussing their keto diet, but you never really took the time to explore what it had to offer. The keto diet has nearly a century of practice backing it, as well as a solid basis built upon nutrition science and physiology.
This diet tends to be effective for wide varieties of people because it targets a number of underlying weight gain causes. Keto diets are structured to navigate hormonal imbalances such as insulin resistance and high blood sugar, as well as the all too familiar cycle of restricting and binging that many dieters experience due to hunger.
The keto diet is not as complex as you might have thought. It focuses on cutting down carbs and increasing healthy fat consumption. Devoid of glucose, the body is instead forced to produce ketones and burn fat. This results in quick and stable weight loss and an all-over healthier approach to eating.
Flexitarian diet
The final diet that we’re going to explore today is the flexitarian diet. While we’ve all heard of going vegan or vegetarian, a flexitarian isn’t as common a dieting term. With giving up beef said to reduce carbon footprints more than forgoing cars, there are a number of advantages to being a vegetarian. For many, however, forgoing meat is easier said than done.
The flexitarian diet offers what can be considered a transitional option between vegetarians and meat eaters that you can explore if you’re considering going vegetarian, or if you just want to eat a more conscientious diet than traditional meat eaters.
A flexitarian diet encourages meat alternatives while leaving flexibility for real meat options. This diet is ideal for people who want the benefits of a plant-heavy diet without giving up meat entirely. The flexitarian diet focuses on five food groups, which include “new meat,” veggies and fruit, whole grains, dairy, and spices and sugar. The “new meat” includes alternative options such as tofu, lentils, peas, beans, nuts, seeds, and eggs.