Katharina Buczek
A recent study conducted by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, reviewed several recommended diets– from the Healthful Plant-Based Diet Index to the Alternate Mediterranean Diet.
And thankfully, the authors offered some good news: individuals who adhere to any of the studied diets are more likely to have better health outcomes.
The team analyzed 32 years’ worth of data collected from 205,852 participants between 25 and 75 years old. The participant pool included 162,667 women as well as 43,185 men.
Over the years, each participant regularly reported details about food intake, medical history, and lifestyle. The median follow-up per participant was 26 years.
Through these reports, the researchers observed 44,975 major chronic disease events and 18,615 cases of diabetes. Additionally, 12,962 major cardiovascular diseases and 17,909 total cancers were observed as well.
And even though the participants in the study were not specifically adhering to recommended diets, the researchers were able to categorize each participant’s reported diet into a level of adherence using a weighted system.
Then, the study compared levels of adherence to several dietary pattern groups against health outcomes. These diet groups included:
- Alternate Mediterranean Diet
- Alternative Healthy Eating Index – 2010
- Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension
- Healthful Plan-Based Diet Index
- Diabetes Risk Reduction Diet
- Reversed Empirical Dietary Index For Hyperinsulinemia
- Reversed Empirical Dietary Inflammation Pattern
- World Cancer Research Fund/American Institue For Cancer Research Diet
Afterward, the researchers ranked each participant’s adherence by comparison to the top 90th percentile versus the bottom 10th percentile.
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