Mixed
High dietary dissimilarity (variety of food attributes) is associated with greater gain in waist circumference and does not reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, refuting the notion that 'eating everything in moderation' improves metabolic health.
Do not assume that eating a wide variety of foods is automatically healthy. If your 'variety' includes many processed, high-sodium, or high-sugar foods, it may lead to abdominal fat gain and higher diabetes risk. Focus on the quality of the foods you eat, not just the number of different types. High dietary dissimilarity (eating many different types of foods with different attributes) was linked to worse metabolic outcomes in this study.
Greater food dissimilarity was associated with higher gain in WC (p-trend<0.01), with 120% higher gain in participants in the highest quintile of dissimilarity scores. Diet diversity was not associated with incident T2D. These results do not support the notion that 'eating everything in moderation' leads to greater diet quality or better metabolic health.
Why this rating
Large prospective cohort (MESA, N=5,160), multi-ethnic, long follow-up (~10 years), validated dietary assessment, adjusted for multiple confounders.
Source
Everything in Moderation - Dietary Diversity and Quality, Central Obesity and Risk of Diabetes
Marcia C. de Oliveira Otto et al. · PLoS ONE · 2015
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0141341
Related findings · Mixed
- Bariatric surgery (VSG and RYGB) is the most effective and sustainable treatment for obesity, producing marked and sustained weight loss that non-surgical interventions cannot match.Strong
- Severely protein-deficient diets (2–3% energy) induce lean body mass loss and metabolic imbalance, whereas adequate protein intake (0.66 g/kg/d minimum) is a prerequisite for maintaining muscle, bone, and physiological function.Strong
- For patients with Class III obesity (BMI >39.9 kg/m2), metabolic bariatric surgery (MBS) is significantly more effective than any currently approved medication, with BilioPancreatic Diversion (BPD) showing the highest estimated weight loss.Strong
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →