Study after study show that there is not one best diet except the best diet is the one that helps you lose weight. The statement that diet only affects health is thru weight loss is pretty close to accurate. Diabetes risk/harm and heart risk will plummet if you lose 20% of your body weight, weather from a keto diet, or a whole grain, veggie/fruit centric with 40% or more fat, or the same with 30% fat. By the way, the latter two are variants of the so-called Mediterranean diet. I prefer to describe my diet by the goals and nature of it, and not really care about where it comes from.
We know from recent DNA evidence from ‘caveman’ dental plaques that 20,000 years ago, the population apparently ate whole grains. Not farmed but gathered. So much for the Paleo diet having anything to do with what we were actually eating 20,000 years ago. But you can lose weight on a so-called paleo diet, which is a high-fat, very low-carb diet. But even in a high-fat, very low-carb diet, the question of saturated fats is still not fully understood. Trans fats are still out for cardio risk.
One of the first lessons my endocrinologist taught when I was diagnosed with Diabetes is that everyone’s disease is different. Things that work for many may not work for you. And many years later, now that I am wearing a continuous glucose monitor, I am finding out in much greater detail how things work for me. And by making a few small edits to my diet, get better results. And by small, it was things like reducing my portion of oats from 1/2 cup to 1/3 cup for breakfast.
This is one of my favorite sources on diet and outcomes on YouTube. What I like is he shares the studies and shows their strengths and weaknesses. One study proves nothing. And the current media attention of meta-studies is really making me angry given my background is statistics and probability. Dr Carvelho does a good job explaining cofounders and limitations that might be driving the headline result we hear about.
