Which Diet? Top Diets Ranked By Experts
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
A panel of 69 doctors and nutritionists examined the evidence for 38 diets, and scored them in 21 categories (e.g. best for weight loss, best for heart, best against diabetes, etc).
We’ll not keep it a mystery: the Mediterranean diet has been ranked as “best overall” for the 8th year in a row.
The Mediterranean (And Its Close Friends & Relations)
We’ve written before about the Mediterranean diet, here:
The Mediterranean Diet: What Is It Good For? ← What isn’t it good for?
👆 the above article also delineates what does and doesn’t go in a Mediterranean diet—hint, it’s not just any food from the Mediterranean region!
The Mediterranean diet’s strengths come from various factors including its good plant:animal ratio (leaning heavily on the plants), colorful fruit and veg minimally processed, and the fact that olive oil is the main source of fat:
All About Olive Oil ← pretty much one of the healthiest fats we can consume, if not healthiest all-rounder fat
The Mediterranean diet also won 1st place in various more specific categories, including:
- Best against arthritis (followed by Dr. Weil’s Anti-inflammatory, MIND, DASH)
- Best for mental health (followed by MIND, Flexitarian, DASH)
- Best against diabetes (followed by Flexitarian, DASH, MIND)
- best for liver regeneration (followed by Flexitarian, Vegan, DASH, MIND)
- Best for gut heath (followed by Vegan, DASH, Flexitarian, MIND)
If you’re not familiar with DASH and MIND, there are clues in their full names: Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension and Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, and as you might well suspect, they are simply tweaked variations of the Mediterranean diet:
Four Ways To Upgrade The Mediterranean ← DASH and MIND are the heart-healthiest and brain-healthiest versions of the Mediterranean; this article also includes a gut-healthiest version and a most anti-inflammatory version
What aren’t those best for?
The Mediterranean diet scored 1st or 2nd in most of the 21 categories, and usually had the other above-named diets keeping it company in the top few.
When it comes to weight loss, the Mediterranean scored 2nd place and wasn’t flanked by its usual friends and relations; instead in first place was commercial diet WeightWatchers (likely helped a lot by being also a peer support group), and in third place was the Volumetrics diet, which we wrote about here:
Some Surprising Truths About Hunger And Satiety
And when it comes to rapid weight loss specifically, the Mediterranean didn’t even feature in the top spots at all, because it’s simply not an extreme diet and it prioritizes health over shedding the pounds at any cost. The top in that category were mostly commercial diets:
- Jenny Craig
- Slimfast
- Keto
- Nutrisystem
- WeightWatchers
We’ve not as yet written about any of those commercial diets, but we have written about keto here:
Ketogenic Diet: Burning Fat Or Burning Out?
Want to know more?
You can click around, exploring by diet or by health category, here 😎
Enjoy!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Recommended
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
What Your Skin Texture Says About Your Health
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Dr. Andrea Suarez, dermatologist, shows us what to watch out for:
To the touch
We (and videos that we share here!) talk a lot about the appearance of various skin conditions, but skin texture is more about the physical feel and surface quality of your skin—including roughness, flaking, bumpy follicular changes, thickening, thinning, crepey fragility, or a doughy or hardened feel—and while many changes are harmless, certain patterns in the certain contexts can be signs of disease, including of the kind that are more than skin-deep.
What different skin textures mean:
- Persistent roughness and flaking: ongoing dry, rough, flaky skin is usually due to barrier dysfunction from overexfoliation, harsh cleansers, hot water, low humidity, or aging, but in some cases is because of hypothyroidism or an essential fatty acid deficiency.
- Velvety dark thickened skin: velvety, dark, thickened plaques in skin folds such as the neck or underarms suggest acanthosis nigricans, a sign of insulin resistance commonly associated with type 2 diabetes, that can appear before blood sugar levels cross diagnostic thresholds.
- Sudden adult acne or oily skin: new-onset oily skin and acne in adulthood may relate to hormonal shifts such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), hyperandrogenism, perimenopause, or chronic stress affecting cortisol, especially if accompanied by irregular periods, hair changes, or metabolic warning signs.
- Waxy puffy doughy skin: thick, swollen, doughy skin—sometimes progressing to myxedema with mucopolysaccharide buildup—alongside fatigue, cold intolerance, and hair thinning suggests hypothyroidism and often improves with appropriate treatment.
- Fragile crepey easily bruised skin: thin, fragile, crepey skin known as dermatoporosis is most commonly due to cumulative sun damage but can also result from chronic glucocorticoid use, prolonged topical steroid application, or malnutrition.
- Keratosis pilaris: rough follicular bumps (keratosis pilaris) are common and often genetic, but can also be associated with atopic dermatitis, asthma, allergic rhinitis, ichthyosis vulgaris, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, Down syndrome, or (rarely) certain medications.
- Phrynoderma: larger, hyperpigmented, hard follicular bumps called phrynoderma are generally linked to vitamin A deficiency and can occur with malabsorption, chronic illness, or severe dietary restriction.
- Skin tags: a few skin tags are common and harmless, but numerous tags—especially alongside acanthosis nigricans—can be a sign of insulin resistance due to elevated insulin-like growth factor stimulating epidermal proliferation (i.e. too many skin cells being made in one place).
- Scleredema: non-pitting, woody skin thickening on the upper back and neck is called scleredema has three variants (post-streptococcal, monoclonal gammopathy–associated, and diabeticorum); the diabetic form most often seen in long-standing, poorly controlled diabetes.
Some quick myths to bust, while we’re at it: textural changes don’t indicate toxin buildup, liver failure, candida overgrowth, or leaky gut, as these claims are common online myths often used to market unnecessary products.
For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
Take care!
Share This Post
-
The Comfort Book – by Matt Haig
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
This book “is what it says on the tin”. Matt Haig, bestselling author of “Reasons to Stay Alive” (amongst other works) is here with “a hug in a book”.
The format of the book is an “open it at any page and you’ll find something of value” book. Its small chapters are sometimes a few pages long, but often just a page. Sometimes just a line. Always deep.
All of us, who live long enough, will ponder our mortality sometimes. The feelings we may have might vary on a range from “afraid of dying” to “despairing of living”… but Haig’s single biggest message is that life is full of wonder; each moment precious.
- That hope is an incredible (and renewable!) resource.
- That we are more than a bad week, or month, or year, or decade.
- That when things are taken from us, the things that remain have more value.
Bottom line: you might cry (this reviewer did!), but it’ll make your life the richer for it, and remind you—if ever you need it—the value of your amazing life.
Share This Post
-
Why Psyllium Is Healthy Through-And-Through
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Psyllium is the powder of the husk of the seed of the plant Plantago ovata.
It can be taken as a supplement, and/or used in cooking.
What’s special about it?
It is fibrous, and the fiber is largely soluble fiber. It’s a “bulk-forming laxative”, which means that (dosed correctly) it is good against both constipation (because it’s a laxative) and diarrhea (because it’s bulk-forming).
See also, because this is Research Review Monday and we provide papers for everything:
In other words, it will tend things towards being a 3 or 4 on the Bristol Stool Scale ← this is not pretty, but it is informative.
Before the bowels
Because of how it increases the viscosity of substances it finds itself in, psyllium slows stomach-emptying, and thus improves feelings of satiety.
Here’s a study in which taking psyllium before breakfast and lunch resulted in increased satiety between meals, and reduction in food-related cravings:
Satiety effects of psyllium in healthy volunteers
Prebiotic benefits
We can’t digest psyllium, but our gut bacteria can—somewhat! Because they can only digest some of the psyllium fibers, that means the rest will have the stool-softening effect, while we also get the usual in-gut benefits from prebiotic fiber first too:
The Effect of Psyllium Husk on Intestinal Microbiota in Constipated Patients and Healthy Controls
Cholesterol-binding
Psyllium can bind to cholesterol during the digestive process. Why only “can”? Well, if you don’t consume cholesterol (for example, if you are vegan), then there won’t be cholesterol in the digestive tract to bind to (yes, we do need some cholesterol to live, but like most animals, we can synthesize it ourselves).
What this cholesterol-binding action means is that the dietary cholesterol thus bound cannot enter the bloodstream, and is simply excreted instead:
Heart health beyond cholesterol
Psyllium supplementation can also help lower high blood pressure but does not significantly lower already-healthy blood pressure, so it can be particularly good for keeping things in safe ranges:
❝Given the overarching benefits and lack of reported side effects, particularly for hypertensive patients, health care providers and clinicians should consider the use of psyllium supplementation for the treatment or abatement of hypertension, or hypertensive symptoms.❞
Read in full: The effect of psyllium supplementation on blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials ← you can see the concrete numbers here
Is it safe?
Psyllium is first and foremost a foodstuff, and is considered very safe unless you have an allergy (which is rare, but possible).
However, it is still recommended to start at a low dose and work up, because anything that changes your gut microbiota, even if it changes it for the better, will be easiest if done slowly (or else, you will hear about it from your gut).
Want to try some?
We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon
Enjoy!
Share This Post
Related Posts
-
What’s the difference between freckles, sunspots and moles?
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
You’ve got a new brown spot on your face, but is it a freckle or a sunspot? Or perhaps you’ve found a spot on your back that looks like a mole but is flatter than your other ones – is it a mole or a dark freckle?
Here’s how to tell the difference between freckles, sunspots and moles – and when you need to get a spot checked to see if it’s skin cancer.
Cottonbro Studio/Pexels Freckles
Freckles, known as ephelides, are small, flat, light brown spots that appear on people with fair skin, or red or light-coloured hair.
These people are more likely to have the MC1R gene, which leads to freckles forming.
Freckles are caused by sun exposure and are more noticeable in summer. When sunlight hits the skin, cells called melanocytes produce melanin, the pigment that gives skin its colour.
In people prone to freckles, the melanin doesn’t spread evenly. Instead, it clumps together, creating freckles.
Melanin doesn’t spread evenly in people prone to freckles. Chermiti Mohamed/Unsplash Freckles generally appear in childhood and may fade with age, especially if sun exposure reduces. As we age we produce less melanin, or it can break down or disperse, resulting in lighter or fewer freckles.
Using sunscreen and wearing protective clothing can help prevent new freckles from developing, especially on the face and arms.
While freckles are completely harmless, they are a sign that someone is genetically at higher risk of developing skin cancer.
Sunspots
Sunspots are also called age spots or solar lentigos (or liver spots, but they have nothing to do with the liver). They are larger than freckles: sometimes the size of a small coin, and appear as flat brown spots.
Sunspots develop over time due to long-term sun exposure, which leads to excessive melanin production. They tend to appear on skin with greater sun exposure, such as the face, hands, shoulders and arms.
Sunspots develop after years of sun exposure. Zay Nyi Nyi/Shutterstock Unlike freckles, which tend to get lighter with less sun exposure, sunspots will not fade with time, and may further darken with continued sun exposure.
However, some people try to remove their sunspots for cosmetic reasons using either a laser, chemical peel or a prescription topical cream.
While sunspots are not dangerous, they do increase your risk of other skin cancers in that area.
It’s also important to monitor them, as slow-growing melanomas may initially look like sunspots. If you see the spot changes in size, shape or colour, see your doctor to rule out skin cancer.
Moles
Moles are often dark, raised or flat skin growths that can appear anywhere on your body.
Although moles can exist from birth, they typically grow during childhood, adolescence and early adulthood (including during pregnancy, when hormones are changing), until around the age of around 40. Moles can increase in size, and new ones can also appear.
Most adults have between ten and 40 moles on their body. A person with a high mole count has 50 or more, while someone with a very high mole count has 100 or more.
Some moles are raised while others are flat. Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock Moles form when melanocytes grow in clusters instead of spreading evenly throughout the skin.
Moles can either be raised or flat, depending upon their type, depth and age.
Raised moles, referred to as compound nevi, have both flat and raised portions and typically have pigment that is deeper in the skin.
Dermal nevi are skin-coloured or light brown moles that are also raised.
Most moles are harmless. Some may have hair growing from them and some may disappear, whereas other moles may darken or alter with age or hormonal changes.
However, some moles can develop into melanoma, a dangerous form of skin cancer.
When to see your doctor
While freckles and sunspots are completely harmless, moles do require more attention, especially if they change in size, shape, colour or texture.
If a mole shows any of the following warning signs, see your doctor, who will use the ABCDE rule to detect if a lesion is a skin cancer:
- asymmetry: if one half of the mole looks different from the other half
- border: if your mole is shaped irregularly, jagged or has poorly defined edges
- colour: varied shades or sudden changes in colour of the mole
- diameter: if it is larger than 6 millimeters (about the size of a pencil eraser)
- evolving: if your mole has any changes in its size, shape, colour, or sensation such as itching or bleeding for more than a few weeks.
Our research shows only 21.7% of people can correctly identify melanoma on their own, so professional checks are essential.
How to prevent skin damage
Since freckles, sunspots and some moles are influenced by exposure to the sun, you can protect your skin by:
- avoiding the sun when ultraviolet rays are strongest
- wearing sunscreen with SPF 50 every day, even when it’s cloudy. Apply it 20 minutes before going outside and reapply every two hours
- wearing protective clothing, including a wide-brimmed hat to cover your face, neck and ears, and long-sleeved shirts and pants to protect your arms and legs.
Correction: this article originally referred to sun sports as actinic keratoses rather than solar lentigos.
Mike Climstein, Associate Professor, Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University; Jeremy Hudson, Adjunct Associate Professor, Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University; Michael Stapelberg, Adjunct Associate Professor, Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University, and Nedeljka Rosic, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
This Week In Brain News
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
While reading this week’s health news, we’ve singled out three brain-related articles to feature here:
Bad breath now, bad brain later?
Researchers found links between oral microbiome populations, and changes in brain function with aging. The short version is indeed “bad breath now = bad brain later”, but more specifically:
- People who had large numbers of the bacteria groups Neisseria and Haemophilus had better memory, attention and ability to do complex tasks
- People who had higher levels of Porphyromonas had more memory problems later
- People with a lot of Prevotella tended to predict poorer brain health and was more common in people who carry the Alzheimer’s Disease risk gene, APOE4.
If you’ve never heard of half of those, don’t worry: mostly your oral microbiome can take care of itself, provide you consistently do the things that create a “good” oral microbiome. So, see our “related” link below:
Read in full: Mouth bacteria may hold insight into your future brain function
Related: Improve Your Oral Microbiome
Weeding out a major cause of cognitive decline
Cannabis may be great for relaxation, but regular use is not great for mental sharpness, and recent use (even if not regular, and even if currently sober) shows a similar dip in cognitive abilities, especially working memory. In other words, cannabis use for relaxation should be at most an occasional thing, rather than an everyday thing.
While the results of the study are probably not shocking, something that we found interesting was their classification system:
❝Heavy users are considered young adults who’ve used cannabis more than 1000 times over their lifetime. Whereas, using 10 to 999 times was considered a moderate user, and fewer than 10 times was considered a non-user.❞
Which—while being descriptive rather than prescriptive in nature—suggests that, to be on the healthy end of the bell curve, an occasional cannabis-user might want to consider “if you have 999 uses before you hit the “heavy user” category, project those 999 uses against your life expectancy, and moderate your use accordingly”. In other words, a person just now starting use, who expects to live another 40 years, would calculate: 999/40 = 24.9 uses per year, so call it 2 per month. A person who only expects to live another 20 years, would do the same math and arrive at 4 per month.
Disclaimer: the above is intended as an interesting reframe, and a way of looking at long-term cannabis use while being mindful of the risks. It is not intended as advice. This health-conscious writer personally has no intention of using at all, unless perhaps in some bad future scenario in which I have bad chronic pain, I might consider that pain relief effects may be worth the downsides. Or I might not; I hope not to be in the situation to find out!
Read in full: Largest study ever done on cannabis and brain function finds impact on working memory
Related: Cannabis Myths vs Reality
Mind-reading technology improves again
We’ve come quite a way from simple 1/0 reads, and basic cursor control! Now, researchers have created a brain decode that can translate a person’s thoughts into continuous text, without requiring the person to focus on words—in other words, it verbalizes the ideas directly. Most recently, the latest upgrade means that while previously, the device had to be trained on an individual brain for many hours, now the training/calibration process takes only an hour:
Read in full: Improved brain decoder holds promise for communication in people with aphasia
Related: Are Brain Chips Safe?
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
No Bad Parts – by Dr. Richard Schwartz
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
We’ve previously reviewed Dr. Schwartz’s “You Are The One You’ve Been Waiting For” and whereas that book doesn’t require having read this one, this one would be an excellent place to start, as it focuses on perhaps the most important core issues of IFS therapy.
We all have different aspects that have developed within us for different reasons, and can generally “become as though a different person when…” and some condition that is met. Those are our “parts”, per IFS.
This book makes the case that even the worst of our parts arose for reasons, that they often looked after us when no other part could or would, and at the very least, they tried. Rather than arguing for “so, everything’s just great”, though, Dr. Schwartz talks the reader through making peace with those parts, and then, where appropriate, giving them the retirement they deserve—of if that’s not entirely practical, arranging for them to at least take a seat and wait until called on, rather than causing problems in areas of life to which they are not well-suited.
Throughout, there is a good balance of compassion and no-bullshit, both of which are really necessary in order to make this work.
Bottom line: if there are parts of you you’re not necessarily proud of, this book can help you to put them peacefully to rest.
Click here to check out No Bad Parts, and take care of yours!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
