The Dash Diet at the Top of the American Ranking: Dr. Bernardi Explains Why to Superquark

Summer is raging, with her the costume test and more and more people choose to give up the famous "P" – pasta, bread and pizza – or to skip meals completely. But is it so right to completely give up carbohydrates and count calories? In reality it seems not, or rather, not in a drastic and arbitrary way. To explain it is our nutritionist, Dr. Elisabetta Bernardi, in the column "Science in the kitchen" of the Rai 1 Superquark television program. Bernardi describes the best diets indicated by US research that analyzed the pros and cons of the most popular diets.

Below is the video of "Science in the kitchen" by Superquark, shot here in SMIH-UPMC, with Dr. Bernardi:

The study, conducted by several experts from the best US universities and hospitals, examined 40 of the most popular diets and compiled a ranking of the 10 best, evaluating 7 parameters: health; effectiveness for weight loss; ease in following it; nutritional completeness; security; potential for prevention and management of diabetes and heart disease. Expert grades range from 5 (the best diet) to 1 (the worst).

In the lead we find the Dash diet, with an overall score of 4.1/5 (weight loss 3.2/5; health 4.8/5). "Designed to help people keep high blood pressure under control – as Dr. Elisabetta Bernardi explains – Characterized by: high consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains; low consumption of meat and dairy products and, above all, limiting fats, sugars and salt".

In second place we find the Mediterranean diet with a score of 4.1/5 (weight loss 3.0/5; health 4.8/5), which involves a lower risk to health and greater longevity; in this type of diet, Bernardi points out "there are no excluded foods, everything must be taken in the right quantities, with a moderate consumption of meat and a low consumption of sugar".

The flexitarian diet is in third place with a score of 4.0/5 (weight loss 3.3/5; health 4.6/5): "a flexible vegetarian diet, in which meat is not completely excluded and neither is fish but it is necessary to reduce its quantities to the minimum possible, maximum once a week", points out nutritionist Smih.

Analyzing diets, then, based on their effectiveness for weight loss, in the short and long term and their safety, always according to the same evaluation criterion, they distinguish: in first place the "weight watchers" diet and in the second place the "volumetric diet"; while the most discouraged are the "keto diet" and, last in the ranking, the "Dukan", among the most widespread but also among those potentially most harmful to health. Hear why, in the video, from the words of our nutritionist.

What diet to follow then?

The important thing is an individualized, tailor-made treatment approach and the anamnesis of the person's situation, as well as his lifestyle. Based on all this, the nutritionist can recommend the most suitable, healthy and efficient diet for everyone.