Why the Mediterranean diet is still the best way to lose weight

The diet industry is riddled with fads — from gluten-free to intermittent fasting to juice cleanses. But one popular healthy eating plan has been above the trends for decades, eschewing extremes for a moderate, doable approach: the Mediterranean diet.

Last month, US News and World Report named the diet one of the easiest to follow, and the second-best diet overall. It’s no wonder. Over the past several years, research has attributed a variety of heart-healthy, brain-boosting benefits to the eating plan. And three of the seven buzzy “Blue Zones” — communities around the world where residents live particularly long and healthy lives — are in the Mediterranean region.

The version of the diet familiar to most Americans first appeared as a set of guidelines presented by the World Health Organization, Harvard School of Public Health and nutrition nonprofit Oldways in 1993. It was based on the diets of Greece — particularly its largest island, Crete — and Southern Italy in the early 1960s, because of the populations’ high life expectancy and low rates of heart disease and certain cancers at the time.

The diet has since morphed to fit different needs — there’s a Mediterranean diet for diabetes and another to fight cancer, for example, and many clinics have their own versions — as well as Americans’ diversifying palates.

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