Can We Say What Diet Is Best for Health?
Abstract
Diet is established among the most important influences on health in modern societies. Injudicious diet figures among the leading causes of premature death and chronic disease. Optimal eating is associated with increased life expectancy, dramatic reduction in lifetime risk of all chronic disease, and amelioration of gene expression. In this context, claims abound for the competitive merits of various diets relative to one another. Whereas such claims, particularly when attached to commercial interests, emphasize distinctions, the fundamentals of virtually all eating patterns associated with meaningful evidence of health benefit overlap substantially. There have been no rigorous, long-term studies comparing contenders for best diet laurels using methodology that precludes bias and confounding, and for many reasons such studies are unlikely. In the absence of such direct comparisons, claims for the established superiority of any one specific diet over others are exaggerated. The weight of evidence strongly supports a theme of healthful eating while allowing for variations on that theme. A diet of minimally processed foods close to nature, predominantly plants, is decisively associated with health promotion and disease prevention and is consistent with the salient components of seemingly distinct dietary approaches. Efforts to improve public health through diet are forestalled not for want of knowledge about the optimal feeding of Homo sapiens but for distractions associated wit…
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- Authors
- Katz, D. L., & Meller, S.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- ORCID
- Katz, D.L.
- Venue
- Annual Review of Public Health
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2014-03-18
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 83-103
- ISSN
- 0163-7525 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-2093
- OpenAlex
- W2170900258
- Cited by
- 378
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 72 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 37 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 8
- FWCI
- 4.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Annual Review of Public Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Nutritional Studies and Diet
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Nutrition, Health, and Society Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Dietary Effects on Health
- Keywords
- optimal diet, diet comparison, health promotion, disease prevention, plant-based diet, minimally processed foods, chronic disease, premature mortality, life expectancy, diet and gene expression, public health policy
- MeSH terms
- Chronic Disease, Diet, Dietary Carbohydrates, Dietary Fats, Dietary Proteins, Health Status, Humans, Life Style, Public Health, Risk Factors, Diet, Vegetarian, Weight Loss, Health Behavior
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