Could a diverse diet make it easier to lose weight and eat healthy? According to the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans a diverse diet is an important part of a healthy diet, based on very little hard science. The American Heart Association (AHA) now disagrees with these governmental dietary guidelines.
The AHA instead suggest that advising people to eat a diverse diet can instead lead to greater intake of processed and sugary foods, potentially resulting in weight gain and obesity. Oliveira Otto from the AHA explains this further:
Selecting a range of healthy foods, which fits one’s budget or taste, and sticking with them, is potentially better at helping people maintain a healthy weight than choosing a greater range of foods that may include less healthy items such as donuts, chips, fries, and cheeseburgers, even in moderation.
The take-home message here is that it’s better to eat a less varied diet, if it’s based on healthy foods. A varied diet that includes less healthy and processed foods is worse. So the focus should be on healthy foods, not diversity.
Unfortunately, the AHA is still on the low-fat bandwagon, but it is a step in the right direction to tone down the rhetoric about the need for dietary diversity.