Two diets are good for weight loss but bad for heart health

A team of American cardiologists, nutritionists and other health professionals compared and evaluated various popular diets against dietary guidelines for heart health. As the group now reports in the journal Circulation, they also took into account for their ranking how easy and well the different menus can be followed in the long term.

The clear winner is the DASH diet (“Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension”). Animal fats are avoided to a large extent, instead fats from nuts and oilseeds as well as lots of vegetables, fruit, whole grain products and fish are on the menu. In addition, the salt intake is reduced and preference is given to low-fat dairy products.

Pescetarian and vegetarian diets also performed well. Vegan and very low-fat diets performed worse. The paleo and keto diets advertised on TikTok and Co. performed worst, however.

Restrictions on the consumption of fruit, whole grain products and legumes critical

While the Paleo diet is modeled after what was believed to be food available in the Stone Age and excludes whole grains, refined grains, legumes, oils and dairy products, the ketogenic diet limits carbohydrates to less than 10 percent of daily calories. Instead, fats from animal sources are used.

In particular, the experts are critical of the restrictions on the consumption of fruit, whole grain products and legumes in these two forms of nutrition with a view to heart health. “They’re very restrictive and difficult for most people to sustain long-term,” explains first author Gardner. Short-term benefits and significant weight loss, while likely with both the Paleo and Keto diets, are difficult to sustain because of the high hurdles: “A diet that helps individuals maintain their weight-loss goal must, from a practical standpoint, do so.” be sustainable.”