What The World’s Healthiest Diets Have In Common
To research his 2010 book The 5 Factor World Diet, celebrity trainer and nutritionist Harley Pasternak traveled to the healthiest countries around the world to learn more about what made their meals extra nourishing.
He noted that Japanese people eat a wonderful variety of seaweeds, and that Chinese people tried to incorporate at least five different colors in every meal. But Pasternak also came away with some valuable observations about how different the North American way of life was compared to many other countries. For starters, we eat much bigger portions than people in other countries. Mediterranean Diet
What it is: A traditional Mediterranean diet, eaten by people in Greece, Italy and Spain, emphasizes seasonality, local produce and traditional preparations. Meals are often community or family events.
Signature foods: Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and olive oil are the stars of the show. Fish, poultry and red wine make moderate appearances, while red meat, salt and sugar are bit players. Traditional Okinawa Diet
What it is: This low-calorie yet nutrition-dense diet is big on fruits and vegetables but sparse when it comes to meat, refined grains, sugar, salt and full-fat dairy. This diet came about in a very specific historical context: Its practitioners lived on Okinawa Island in Japan, which was one of the poorest regions in the country before World War II. Consequently, Confucian ideals like eating only enough food to feel 80 percent full played a big role in the island’s eating culture, as did sharing as much as one could with one’s neighbour.
Signature foods: Sweet potatoes, rice (although not as much as mainland Japanese people ate), green leafy vegetables, green and yellow vegetables like bitter melon, soybean-based foods like tofu and soy sauce. Okinawa residents only ate modest amounts of seafood, lean meat, fruit and tea.
What the research says: Modernday Okinawans are catching up economically with their mainland cousins, which means rates of obesity, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease are rising as well. Traditional Asian Diet
Description: There isn’t really one traditional Asian diet, but a group of international nutritionists collaborated together in the ’90s to come up with an Asian Food Pyramid. It prioritizes rice, noodles and whole grains, as well as fruits, vegetables, legumes, seeds and nuts as the most-eaten food groups. Fish and shellfish are optional daily choices, while eggs and poultry should be eaten weekly. Note that recommended servings of red meat are smaller and less frequent (monthly) than even sweets (weekly)!
Signature foods: There are many different countries whose traditional ways of eating follow this model, but they all seem to have white rice as a staple.
What the research says: Asian countries have less incidences of obesity, cardiovascular disease and metabolic diseases like diabetes than Western countries, although that seems to be slowly changing thanks to rising economies and urbanization. Huffington Post