Here ’s Why a Diverse Diet May Not Be the Healthiest Choice

Most healthy eating advice focuses on eating a variety of foods to ensure you’re sampling from a range of different food groups. That way, health experts say, you’re more likely to get everything that your body needs. But in the latest review of the topic, scientists found that having a diverse diet may not necessarily lead to better health. In a statement published in the journal Circulation, the American Heart Association reviewed the available studies and reported that there is little scientific support for the idea that a varied diet leads to good health outcomes — especially when it comes to lowering risk of chronic conditions like obesity, heart disease and diabetes. In fact, more diverse diets, according to some of the latest studies the AHA committee reviewed, were linked to worse outcomes on these measures. That’s because existing studies defined diversity in different ways, the scientists found, and also because people interpreted the need to eat a variety of foods in different ways. That’s not entirely surprising, says the statement’s lead author, Marcia de Oliveira Otto, assistant professor of epidemiology, human genetics and environmental sciences at UT Health School of Public Health in Houston. To measure variety, most of the studies asked people about the number of different foods they ate — from snacks to meals to fresh produce. And it turns out that people eating a wider range of foods also tended to eat more unheal...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Diet/Nutrition healthytime Source Type: news