Which diet is best for me? DailyMail.com weighs the pros and cons of seven top

With the glutenous Thanksgiving break out of the way and New Year’s resolutions around the corner, many Americans will be considering starting a new diet.

But deciding which type is best for you can be a minefield, especially when sites like TikTok appear to be churning out a new fad diet every few months.

Intermittent fasting has emerged as the most popular calorie restriction form in the past decade. It’s almost impossible not to know someone who has shed at least some weight by eating within a strict time window or skipping meals entirely.

But while the weight-loss benefits are undeniable, the jury’s out on the long-term effects. A study last week suggested that regularly missing meals can raise a person’s risk of early death by 30 percent.

All-or-nothing types may veer towards extreme diets like the meat-only carnivore diet, which Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson have credits for weight loss and better brain health – while also saying it gave them intense diarrhea.

Tradeoffs exist for all diets and vary from person to person. Use our guide to work out which of the seven most popular is right for you:

DailyMail.com dug into seven popular fad diets to determine which is best. While diets like keto and carnivore can be great for weight loss, they also come with an increased risk of heart disease and other disease. There are many health benefits to going vegan – but it could also leave a person short on some crucial vitamins and minerals

Mediterranean diet

Pros: Longer life, lower cancer risk

Cons: Calcium deficiency

Studies performed in the 1950s found that rates of heart disease were lower in countries like Italy, Greece and Spain than most countries in the west, which initially piqued the interest of scientists in the US.

Subsequent research confirmed that a diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, olive oil and fish carries various health benefits.

Intermittent fasting may RAISE your risk of an early death by 30%

 

Intermittent fasting – one of the most popular and promoted dieting techniques – may raise the risk of early death. A study of 24,000 Americans over 40 found those who ate one meal per day were 30 percent more likely to die from any cause in 15 years than those who ate three. 

Others meats like chicken and beef are limited. The sugary highly-processed deserts are replaced with fruits and the occasional piece of dark chocolate.

Healthy fats, lower sugars and no processed foods keep a person’s arteries clear and healthy. 

Pop star Selena Gomez says that the Mediterranean diet even ‘saved her life’ after she was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease lupus in 2012.

Charlie’s Angels star Cameron Diaz, 50, credits the diet for her ‘graceful’ aging.

Doctors and nutritionists have sung the praises of it as well, with countless studies backing up claims that it can help fend off Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease and expand a person’s lifespan.

A Spanish research team described the diet as a ‘gold standard’ of preventative medicine in 2016 after a meta-analysis linked it to a higher quality of life and lower risk of chronic disease.

Researchers gathered data from 19 studies across 2015 and 2016 that found that people who eat these diets often have lower blood pressure, coronary artery disease, heart disease, and stroke rates.

In 2016, Italian researchers published a massive study that followed 1,712 people over 50 years to see how the diet would affect their lifespan. 

They found that those who followed a standard Mediterranean diet the closest lived an average of 4.4 years longer than their peers. 

Harvard University researchers were a part of a 2018 study finding that people who subscribed to the diet had biomarker indicators showing they were less likely to develop heart disease in the future.

Among the 26,000 participants, Mediterranean diet eaters had lower levels of inflammation, insulin resistance, hypertension and fats in the blood. 

They also had a lower BMI on average. 

A wealth of studies has tied the diet to lower cancer risks, and it can even be beneficial to a person after being diagnosed with the devastating disease.

World Health Organization researchers found in a 2010 study of 14,807 women that eating the diet could reduce breast cancer risk by up to 12 percent.

University of Texas researchers found last year men suffering from prostate cancer could stem the progression of the disease with a Mediterranean diet.

Popstar Selena Gomez (left) said that a Mediterranean diet helped her deal with lupus. Cameron Diaz (right) credits the Mediterranean diet for her graceful aging over the years

While the diet is packed full of many vitamins and minerals necessary for a person to live a long, healthy life, it does leave them short on calcium which is crucial to overall bone health.

Calcium is crucial to maintaining a strong skeleton, but the low amount of dairy products eaten daily can leave a person eating the southern European diet short of the…