Niki Bezzant: The diet to adopt for life

Heirloom tomatoes, a bottle of olive oil, and a bowl of olives on gray background

Paleo, intermittent fasting or the Mediterranean diet: Niki Bezzant discovers which is best

Something people like to talk to me about is diets. Which one they're on; which ones work; which ones don't. It's a topic many of us like to talk to each other about too; as long as I've been writing about food and nutrition, there's always been at least one diet doing the rounds that everyone's trying. It's one of the things I wish I could say I'd made more progress on in my career: convincing people that diets don't work and the only thing that really does is long-term, sustainable change.

In any case, diets are still hot, even if the creators of the diets now like to say "It's not a diet! It's a lifestyle!".

A recent piece of research from the University of Otago caught my eye because it was a rare example of a study of "real world" dieting behaviour.

It's tricky to study diet – or anything about nutrition, really – in humans, because we are, well, human. We forget things; we don't stick to the rules; we go off the diet. There are some diet studies done in laboratories for that reason. Researchers will sequester people in a lab for several weeks and control everything they eat and drink, and they can measure outcomes very accurately. For obvious reasons, though, this is not something that can be tested for very long.

The Otago research aimed to examine how effective three different diets - Mediterranean, Intermittent Fasting and Paleo - were when participants chose for themselves which diet to follow, without any ongoing support from a dietitian. Very much how things roll in the real world.

The results, after a year, were also very much like they tend to go in the real world. Of the 250 participants, close to half had fallen off the diet wagon. Those who were still going had lost weight - on average two to four kilograms. For those choosing the fasting or Mediterranean diets, there were also clinically significant improvements in blood pressure.

Interestingly, most of the study participants (54 per cent) chose the fasting diet, while 27 per cent chose the Mediterranean and 18 per cent the paleo. After 12 months the Mediterranean diet had the best retention rate with 57 per cent still going, 54 per cent still fasting and 35 per cent still on the paleo diet.

After 12 months, the average weight loss was 4kg for those choosing the fasting diet, 2.8kg on the Mediterranean diet and 1.8kg on the paleo diet. People who stayed on the diets after a year continued to lose weight.

All of this speaks to the point that before we even start on a diet – or a lifestyle change, if you like – we need to ask ourselves: can I do this for a long time? Can I do this for the rest of my life? If the answer is no, we need to also accept that any benefits, including weight loss, are likely to be temporary. And the more restrictive a diet is, the less likely we are to be able to stick to it.

As the researchers here pointed out, their research shows there is no one
"right" diet for everyone. We're all different, and different things will work for each of us. Including the old, tired but still true notion that a little bit of everything and not too much of anything – aka moderation – is a good way to go.

Fact check: organic food is healthier

Organic food is often promoted as being better for us, as well as for the planet. The evidence on the nutritional benefit is fairly mixed, however. Some overseas studies have shown higher levels of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants in organic food than in food that's been conventionally produced. However, other studies – including large reviews - have shown no benefit.

What's not in doubt is that organic food is produced without artificial chemicals, pesticides and fertilisers, which can be beneficial for land and potentially the people who work the land. So if that's an issue you care about, you might prefer organic food.

It's important to note that organic food can be a bit more expensive. And since nutrition experts want us all to eat more vegetables and fruit, we shouldn't let a dedication to an all-organic diet stop us from doing that. Organic or not, eating more plants is a good thing.

* Niki Bezzant is a food and nutrition writer and speaker. Follow her on Facebook or Instagram @nikibezzant