The Mediterranean diet has been named the healthiest way to eat for the sixth year in a row by a panel of experts for US News & World Report.
The eating plan, based on a traditional consumption patterns in countries like Greece, Italy, and Spain, includes plenty of vegetables, healthy fats like olive oil, lean protein such as seafood, and complex carbohydrates like whole grains and beans.
The Mediterranean diet has dominated the rankings in recent years, in part because it balances good nutrition with being easy to follow, according to Gretel Schueller, managing health editor at U.S. News & World Report.
"The diets that rise to the top are ones we've known for years use a common sense approach to healthy eating, incorporate whole foods, and are flexible," she told Insider.
The Mediterranean diet has evidence-based health benefits, incorporates a wide range of foods that make it easy to stick to long-term, avoiding the restrictiveness and extremes that tend to cause diets to fail long-term, according to experts.
The highest-ranked diets are rich in whole foods, emphasize plants, and balance proteins and fats
The rankings were determined by a panel of specialists in nutrition, heart health, diabetes, and weight loss, who ranked 24 diets (down from 40 last year).
The panelists weigh considerations such as long-term sustainability, accessibility of ingredients, potential for weight loss, and research on how the diets may affect risks of chronic illnesses.
The Mediterranean diet checks all the boxes by emphasizing a balanced variety of unprocessed foods, without specific calorie or nutrient limits, according to Schueller. Other top contenders like the DASH diet and flexitarian diet have similar traits.
"We're seeing there are more diets becoming more Mediterranean-like, that include whole foods and mostly plants," she said. "It's an overall approach that doesn't emphasize carb or calorie counting, and has a healthy protein and fat balance."
Diets that previously had their own place on this list, such as the Nordic diet and traditional Asian diet, have been incorporated into the Mediterranean diet because of their commonalities. The combined traits are similar to the concept of dietary Blue Zones, or areas of the world where people live the longest, healthiest lives, including Greece, Sweden, and Japan.
In addition to being named the best diet overall, as well as the best plant-based diet overall, the Mediterranean diet ranked highly for heart health and diabetes management.
It also tied for first place in two categories that are new to the rankings this year: best diets for bone and joint health, and best family friendly diets. The family-friendly designation reflects the fact that the Mediterranean diet includes accessible ingredients, meals that are easy to prepare, and can be appropriate for all ages, Schueller said.
"It's looking at real-world constraints like budget, and how easy it is to find ingredient, as well as nutritional value for different ages, so that everyone more or less could eat from the same table," she said.
The Mediterranean diet may not be ideal for fast weight loss
While healthy diets have some patterns in common, there's no ideal diet for every person, according to Schueller.
"They're not a magic bullet when it comes to healthy eating. You have to consider lifestyle and preferences," she said.
While the Mediterranean diet may help with weight loss long-term, it ranked poorly for fast weight loss, and doesn't mandate how much you should eat, or specific meal plans.
In contrast, some of the top-ranked commercial diets provide coaching or group guidance to help people stay on track, according to Schueller.
While the Mediterranean diet reigns supreme, there's still room for an eating plan in the future to the healthy eating elements with more structured community support, she said.
