Another Year Magazine US News & World Report Has developed a ranking of the best diets in the world. It has done so for the thirteenth year in a row and has not thrown any major surprises at the top positions. The Mediterranean diet tops the list, followed by the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, similar to the Mediterranean) and the Flexitarian diet (based on the consumption of fruits and vegetables, though with a smaller percentage assigned to quality protein). . There is nothing new when it comes to healthy eating, except that according to the experts of the magazine little known in our country but with countless benefits has risen to the top of the diet list: Diet Pritikin, which ranks But is on the eleventh in the ranking.
This publication highlights that the Pritikin diet, which is basically based on a high consumption of whole carbohydrates and very little fat, is nutritionally sound, allows you to enjoy a variety of foods and tastes, and It does not compel the person doing so to count calories or lose weight. Self Meal. This establishes, roughly, the consumption of 75% whole carbohydrates, 15% fat, and 10% lean protein. specialist in US News & World Report They also point out that this diet allows for the preparation of many dishes and, being rich in foods with a high fiber content, favors intestinal transit. On the downside, the Pritikin diet has “a lot of rules to remember,” plus eating out is very limited, requires a lot of meal planning, and can be difficult to participate in.
Brown rice, a food abundant in the Pritikin diet
The Pritikin Diet was created in 1979 by engineer and nutritionist Nathan Pritikin, who developed an eating plan based on carbohydrate consumption when low-carb diets had not yet caught on. In fact, nutritionists at the time based their recommendations on the classic food pyramid (with carbohydrates as the main nutrient), a model now obsolete that has been replaced by the so-called Harvard Plate, developed by scientists at Harvard University. has been made. It establishes that the diet should be based mainly on the consumption of fruits, vegetables and vegetables, which should account for 50% of the daily intake, with 25% healthy fats and 25% proteins.
Therefore, the Pritikin is clearly a diet in accordance with the time in which it was created, when there was still a demonization of fat that contemporary nutrition has been in charge of to explain. Dietician-nutritionist Lídia Casademont explains it: “If we have to summarize what the Pritikin diet consists of, we can say that it is fundamentally based on a drastic reduction in fat consumption. In a healthy diet, This can be between .20% and .30% as long as they are healthy fats, and this diet reduces them to between .10% and .15%, which effectively leads to weight loss as well as significant nutritional deficiencies. can also reduce.
Experts from ‘US News & World Report’ also tell that this diet allows you to prepare many dishes.
In fact, Dr. Pritikin designed this eating plan for people who needed to improve their heart health for a variety of reasons. Despite the fact that the first book, published in 1979, called for less than 10% fat intake in the prescribed diet, the doctor gradually increased this figure to 15%, with 75% carbohydrates and the rest lean proteins. Included. To be a vegetable According to Casademont, this percentage of fat is still insufficient. “It is important to understand that a healthy diet requires the consumption of fats, as there are many of them, such as omega-3, that we can only get through food,” explains the nutritionist, who Also remember that these fatty acids exist. On top of all that in oily fish, they also help absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. All of these vitamins are more readily absorbed by the body with the presence of dietary fat, so that this diet can—Cassedemont—”cause a lot of collateral damage if it continues over a long period of time”.
However, it can be difficult to understand that a diet high in carbohydrates can be used to lose weight, bearing in mind that fad diets have become popular in recent years due to their speed and effectiveness. Preach the opposite: Consume less hydrates. Carbon. This is the case with the famous Atkins or Keto, which is very fashionable lately. “Certainly you can lose weight by eating carbohydrates. In fact, most fattening in the diet is fat, so if you reduce your intake, weight loss can be much quicker,” explains Casademont. Nutritionists stress, however, that the diet is not only not balanced, but “very repetitive.” He also explains that one should not become obsessed with losing weight, no matter how tempting it may be, because “no human body can lose three kilos in a week and be healthy, if If such nutrients are significantly reduced in the diet, there is little such as fat.
Oats, one of the great heroes of the Patrikin diet
Healthy fats are those obtained from foods such as extra virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts or fish. This is indicated by several studies in recent decades, which urge the consumption of all these foods as a fundamental part of a heart-healthy diet. one of them, test Prediction (Prevention with the Mediterranean Diet), conducted between 2003 and 2011 with nearly 7,500 volunteers at high cardiovascular risk, led by the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, concluded that a Mediterranean diet with olive oil could reduce the risk of heart attack by 30%. reduces to the myocardium. And 40% suffer from stroke.
Another study, this time published in the journal Spreading, indicates that a diet rich in nuts causes greater vascular elasticity, meaning that arteries and veins respond better to the body’s demand for blood, thereby promoting blood flow. A diet rich in walnuts was also associated with a reduction in adhesion molecules related to the formation of atherosclerotic plaque, which causes vascular blockage.
Healthy fats are those obtained from foods such as extra virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts or fish.
The same goes for fatty acids from foods like avocados. According to research by scientists at the University of Illinois published in the journal Journal of NutritionAvocado not only helps reduce the amount of cholesterol in the blood, but also induces intestinal microbes that break down fiber and improve digestive health.
Therefore, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to drastically reduce fat in the diet, in the same way that following a low-carb diet is not a good idea, quite the opposite: high consumption of fat and protein and too many low-carbohydrate carbs. “While it is true that low-carbohydrate diets are very effective, because the body enters ketosis and it begins to burn fat very quickly, it is also best not to resort to it if they have not been hungry for a long time.” Good. Diet but to retrain food”, explains Casademont.
A (real) whole wheat bread is made from 100% whole wheat flour.
The nutritionist urges you to follow a diet rich in whole grains, lean proteins, legumes, nuts, oily fish, and most of all, fruits and vegetables. In other words, a lifelong Mediterranean diet, “which forces us to adjust the percentage of nutrients because it regulates itself, if we do it in a balanced way.” So the idea is, “To adjust the quantities and recipes gradually, always adopt them in the daily life of the individual until they are fully integrated and there is a change in the mind little by little, which There is no need for any kind of diet”, explains. Nutritionist. Casademont also recalls that “metabolism declines with age, so that we may not be able to eat the same at forty or fifty as we did at thirty. If we don’t learn to reduce calories gradually, this progressive weight gain can grow,” he concluded.
