Scientists have put together a diet that's guaranteed to work: they've combined Mediterranean cuisine with intermittent fasting
Food has moved away from nature
Fried meats, heavy sauces, lots of white bread, sweets and horribly unhealthy snacks like chips. Our modern diet is really far from nature. Yet it has long been proven that what we eat has a major impact on our health. The World Health Organisation identified sausages as a proven cancer-causing agent back in 2015. But hand on heart, who among us has forgiven ourselves for ham or bacon?
We have terrible diets, and on top of that, almost all of us are trying to lose weight. It's part of our culture. If Billie Eilish puts away her faded clothes and appears in public in a tank top one day, she's going to get an immediate blast from half the internet for how fat she's gotten. Bodyshaming has become one of the most popular online activities.
How we eat in the Czech Republic today
Although the American way of eating has long been considered the most harmful, the Czechs have caught up in many ways. Almost half of the people in our country are overweight. According to Margit Slimáková, a specialist in health prevention and nutrition, too many highly processed foods are eaten in this country today. "These products usually contain fewer nutrients, are based on empty calories and additives, and are produced with the aim of building a certain addiction, overeating," warns Slimáková.
The best diet for human health
Cardiologist James O'Keefe of Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas and his team could no longer watch Western civilization destroy its health with bad diets and even worse diets. They started from a simple premise: if a bad diet can cause so many different diseases, then a good diet should be able to protect us from those diseases. But what does a 'good diet' look like?
Many studies have tried to answer this question over the past decades. Dr. O'Keefe has gone through them all and compiled their effective and scientifically proven parts. And then he announced that he had figured out the most optimal diet that has the greatest health benefits for the human body, even in the long run.
This is what the healthiest plate looks like
You may be disappointed. Scientists haven't come up with anything groundbreaking. "Virtually everyone's health will improve if they start eating right. And this is the kind of diet for which we have the most scientific evidence that it is really healthy," says Dr O'Keefe.
The research team is building on the proven ability of Mediterranean cuisine to reduce the risk of heart disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, dementia, depression, cancer and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Unlike the Western emphasis on red meats, this cuisine is based on vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and whole grain cereals. These are complemented by fish and seafood and, above all, unlimited amounts of extra virgin olive oil. Moderate amounts of dairy, poultry and eggs are allowed, while red meat is ideally omitted. Alcohol only in moderation and preferably red wine. However, water, coffee and tea are better choices.
The important thing is when we eat it
In terms of portion sizes or calorie counts, Dr. O'Keefe does not prescribe exact amounts. However, he conditions success on adherence to one method of intermittent fasting, namely observing "fasting hours" when breakfast or dinner is skipped (time-restricted eating). In this case, the daily calorie intake should be taken within a time window of 8-12 hours. The method is actually based on the assumption that the time you eat is more important than what you eat.
Intermittent fasting has been a widely discussed method of eating recently. It does not prescribe what one should eat, but at what time of day. During the time when the body is not taking in any food, beneficial hormonal changes take place in the body that lead to weight loss as well as suppression of any inflammation, cell regeneration, muscle building, etc. Our body can do these things on its own, but by fishing something out of the fridge in the evening, we are preventing it from these beneficial functions.
"Intermittent fasting is an effective method of dealing with insulin resistance, and therefore the diseases associated with it, including overweight and obesity. But I disagree with the claim that you can just limit the time you eat and you can eat anything. Eating real food is the basis of health and therefore healthy weight," says Margit Slimáková.
Strict diets are a thing of the past
If you're used to following strict diets such as low-fat or ketodiets, you'll probably find O'Keefe's recommendations too vague. But current scientific knowledge says that the diets that are beneficial to health are the ones that don't contain too many prohibitions. Completely eliminating a certain type of food is usually only appropriate for people with a health problem. For those in normal health, diets that ban entire groups of essential nutrients are more of a risk. Every body reacts differently, and completely eliminating one part of the diet can lead to eating problems. While strict diets may have the desired effect of losing weight in the short term, they can also cause illness that may not manifest itself for 20 years.
In this vein, nutritionist Margit Slimáková would also warn you against common reduction diets based on calorie counting. This is, in her opinion, simplistic and confusing. "These diets lead to a lower basal metabolic rate in many people, throw out many nutritionally beneficial foods due to their high calorie content, and instead recommend dietary ultra-processed products," Slimáková warns. In short, today's nutritionists are promoting a more relaxed approach to eating with an emphasis on health. No one will recommend a diet where you are on pineapple for a month.
