What do most of us think of when we hear the term diet? Most likely we immediately think of some sort of weight-loss regimens such as Atkins, Keto, or Paleo diets which all seemingly promise to be the newest, fastest way to help us shed that excess weight that seemingly crept up on us out of nowhere (We swear we’ve been eating well and kept up on physical activity!). These, however, may more appropriately be referred to as “fad diets”, that is, diets that are popular for a time before falling into obscurity as celebrities and influencers promote the coolest new trend in weight-loss.
When referring to nutrition, however, diet simply refers to the sum of all food and drink regularly consumed. Hardly an exciting term, but quite an important one that has a tremendous impact on our health, nevertheless. The WHO states that unhealthy diets are among the leading risks to global health whereas healthy diets protect against malnutrition and the onset of non-communicable diseases (WHO 2020). Diet is so important, in fact, that nutritionists dedicate their careers to creating dietary ideals, which, if followed, should provide health benefits and improve one’s well-being and overall health.
Just like fad diets, dietary ideals find themselves published among a myriad of other dietary ideals with different focuses and stemming from different data sources. These dietary ideals include the EAT Lancet Planetary Health Plate, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hyptertension (DASH) diet, and Mediterranean Diet Score (MED) alongside dozens of others (Miller, V. et al., 2020). Comparing these diets between each other and their health outcomes proves difficult due to a lack of standardization in data collection and diet coverage leading to data gaps in the field of nutrition (Micha, R. et al., 2018).
With so many fad diets and dietary ideals out there confounding one’s ability to choose one (let alone stick to a diet…), are they even worth the trouble? Well, the question is still out there for fad diets, but data shows that certain dietary ideals can lead to a decrease in chronic disease risk, including mortality, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and total cancer (Miller, V. et al., 2020, Schulze, M.B. et al., 2018). While dietary ideals still have their limitations and need to be worked on in order to fill data gaps and harmonize datasets, they provide promising glimpses into ideal levels for human nutrition that meet the needs of individuals while minimizing their susceptibility to non-communicable diseases. And if, in the end, they help us lead a healthier life (and shed a few pounds while we’re at it!), then who are we to complain?
References
Micha, R. et al., 2018. Global Dietary Surveillance: Data Gaps and Challenges. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 39(2), pp.175–205.
Miller, V. et al., 2020. Defining diet quality: a synthesis of dietary quality metrics and their validity for the double burden of malnutrition. The Lancet Planetary Health, 4(8).
Schulze, M.B. et al., 2018. Food based dietary patterns and chronic disease prevention. Bmj.
WHO, 2020. Healthy diet. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet [Accessed August 19, 2020].