The Diet Atlas: Evidence-Based Guide To Different Diets
An evidence-based directory evaluating popular diets on satiety, health, and long-term sustainability.
Not all diets are created equal, and the right protocol depends entirely on your specific goals — whether that is for fat loss, protecting cardiovascular health, or long-term disease prevention. The Diet Atlas evaluates popular eating patterns against clinical research to separate evidence-based strategy from commercial hype.
On This Page
- Diets by Health Outcome
- Start Here: The Basics
- Top Rated Diets
- Regional & Ancestral Diets
- Macro-Based Diets
- Therapeutic & Medical Diets
- Plant-Based Diets
- General Restriction Diets
- Collections of Diet Articles
- The Complete Diet Atlas Directory
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Diets By Health Outcome
Before looking at individual diets, we've got articles on the best diets by outcome. These articles review and compare dozens of diets side by side for specific health goals.
We've cited the 3 best diets if you're looking for something "off-the-shelf", and we've also identified the common elements the best diets have if you want to customise them yourself.
- The 3 Best Heart Health Diets — The right diet can measurably lower your heart disease risk. Here are three proven ones.
- The 3 Best Fat Loss Diets — No single diet holds the key to fat loss by itself. However, some diets are better than others; here are some of the good ones.
- The 3 Best Diets For Your Brain — The right diet can measurably lower your risk of heart disease. Here are three proven ones.
Start Here: The Basics
If you just want to know what diets are healthiest, what the healthiest diets do, and what diets to avoid, we have articles on this.
- 8 Things the Healthiest Diets Have in Common — We reviewed the eight core principles of the best-rated diets. Here's what they have in common.
- The 3 Worst Diets for Your Health — A look at three diets to avoid, explaining how they undermine your health and body weight.
Top Rated Diets
Diets that score at least 4 stars across at least 4 scoring categories. These diets score highly across several of the scoring categories.
- Anti-Inflammatory Diet: A Review — A dietary pattern designed to reduce chronic inflammation, one of the key drivers of long-term disease.
- Blue Zone Diet: A Review — Eating habits drawn from the world's longest-lived populations — plant-rich, moderate, and deeply sustainable.
- DASH Diet: A Review — A clinically developed eating plan with some of the strongest evidence for blood pressure and heart health.
- Mediterranean Diet: A Review — The most extensively researched dietary pattern in the world and one of the most consistently recommended.
- MIND Diet: A Review — A hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH diets, designed specifically to support long-term brain health.
- Nordic Diet: A Review — A Scandinavian whole-food dietary pattern with strong evidence for heart health and sustainable eating.
- TLC Diet: A Review — A clinically designed diet built specifically to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease.
- Volumetrics Diet: A Review — A satiety-focused eating strategy built around food volume and energy density rather than strict restriction.
Regional & Ancestral Diets
Diets that are defined by their geography and historic roots.
- Blue Zone Diet: A Review — Eating habits drawn from the world's longest-lived populations — plant-rich, moderate, and deeply sustainable.
- Mediterranean Diet: A Review — The most extensively researched dietary pattern in the world and one of the most consistently recommended.
- Nordic Diet: A Review — A Scandinavian whole-food dietary pattern with strong evidence for heart health and sustainable eating.
- Okinawa Diet: A Review — The traditional eating pattern of one of the world's longest-lived populations is low-calorie, mostly plant-based.
- Paleo Diet: A Review — A whole-food diet modelled on presumed ancestral eating patterns, with promising but mixed scientific support.
- Western Diet: A Review — The default dietary pattern for millions, and one of the most well-documented drivers of chronic disease.
Macro-Based Diets
Diets that restrict or manipulate certain macronutrients (carbs, fats, and protein).
- Atkins Diet: A Review — A pioneering low-carbohydrate diet with a long track record, real trade-offs, and specific use cases.
- Carnivore Diet: A Review — An all-animal-product diet with bold claims, significant restrictions, and a limited evidence base.
- High Protein Diets: A Review — A well-supported dietary strategy for fat loss, muscle maintenance, and long-term appetite control.
- Ketogenic Diet: A Review — A very low-carbohydrate diet that forces the body into ketosis — effective for some, restrictive for most.
- Low-Fat Diets: A Review — Once the dominant dietary advice for weight loss and heart health, but what does the current evidence say?
- South Beach Diet: A Review — A phased low-carbohydrate diet focused on "good carbs" and "good fats" for weight and heart health.
- Zone Diet: A Review — A macronutrient-balanced diet built around a precise 40/30/30 carbohydrate, protein, and fat ratio.
Therapeutic & Medical Diets
Diets used to manage symptoms or support specific medical needs, rather than for broad general health.
- Anti-Inflammatory Diet: A Review — A dietary pattern designed to reduce chronic inflammation, one of the key drivers of long-term disease.
- BRAT Diet: A Review — A short-term dietary protocol for digestive recovery: simple, gentle, but limited in nutritional scope.
- DASH Diet: A Review — A clinically developed eating plan with some of the strongest evidence for blood pressure and heart health.
- Elimination Diet: A Review — A structured diagnostic tool for identifying food intolerances. It's not a long-term eating pattern.
- Gluten-Free Diet: A Review — Medically essential for coeliac disease, but widely adopted beyond its evidence base by the general population.
- Low FODMAP Diet: A Review — A short-term elimination diet with strong clinical support for identifying and managing IBS symptoms.
- MIND Diet: A Review — A hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH diets, designed specifically to support long-term brain health.
- TLC Diet: A Review — A clinically designed diet built specifically to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease.
Plant-Based Diets
Diets that are based around plants, but not necessarily entirely made up of plants.
- Ornish Diet: A Review — A clinically developed, very low-fat plant-based diet with strong evidence for reversing heart disease.
- Raw Food Diet: A Review — A whole-food dietary pattern based on uncooked, unprocessed foods with genuine benefits and real limitations.
- Vegan Diet: A Review — A plant-only dietary pattern with meaningful health benefits and some important nutritional considerations.
- Volumetrics Diet: A Review — A satiety-focused eating strategy built around food volume and energy density rather than strict restriction.
General Restriction Diets
Diets that reduce overall calories (not specific macros) or alter the timing of when you eat.
- Crash Diets: A Review — Severe calorie restriction for rapid weight loss and why the evidence cautions strongly against it.
- Fad Diets: A Review — A look at what defines a fad diet, why they persist, and what the evidence consistently shows.
- Fasting Mimicking Diet: A Review — A structured, periodic low-calorie protocol designed to trigger the benefits of fasting without full abstinence.
- Intermittent Fasting: A Review — A time-based eating pattern with solid and growing evidence for weight management and metabolic health.
- Juice Diet: A Review — A short-term liquid diet with popular appeal, limited evidence, and some noteworthy health concerns.
- Ultra-Processed Food Diet: A Review — A review of what the evidence consistently shows happens to health when ultra-processed foods dominate your diet.
- Yo-yo Diets: A Review — Not a diet to follow, but a pattern millions fall into, with well-documented health consequences.
Collections of Diet Articles
If you are interested in a specific diet, we have whole collections on some of them, which include dozens of deep-dive articles and resources — more than just a single brief review.
- Dietary Protein — Protein and its amino acids are the foundation on which human life is built. Learn how to eat enough of them and what type of protein you need to eat.
- Fasting — Evidence-based articles on fasting, including intermittent fasting, time-restricted eating, and the science of how fasting affects your body and health.
- Mediterranean Diet — The Mediterranean diet is based around eating vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and olive oil as the main fat, and eating fish with some meat.
- New Western Diet — The current Western diet drives record preventable disease. The New Western Diet offers pragmatic fixes to improve nutrition and restore health.
- Plant-Based Diets — Evidence-based resources on plant-based diet meal planning, recipes, and health benefits: clear, practical guidance for healthier eating.
- Recipes, Meal Plans & Shopping Lists — Here's a collection of our health and nutrition articles that have recipes, meal plans, shopping lists and other practical tips you can use.
The Complete Diet Atlas Directory
As we publish new diet reviews, they are automatically catalogued (in chronological order) under our main diet atlas topic tag.
FAQ
How do you evaulate and score the diets?
Each diet is assessed on the following criteria: health benefits, nutritional quality, weight loss potential, long-term sustainability, strength of the supporting evidence, and safety. Each criterion is scored out of 5, then we calculate an 'overall' median score for the diet.
Scores reflect the current body of evidence and are intended as a comparative guide — not a definitive verdict. A diet that scores well on weight loss may score lower on sustainability, so it's worth reading the full review rather than relying on the overall score alone.
Which diet has the strongest evidence-base?
The Mediterranean diet consistently receives the strongest overall support in peer-reviewed research, with robust evidence for cardiovascular health, fat loss, and long-term adherence.
The DASH diet is also well-supported, particularly for blood pressure and metabolic health. That said, the "best" diet depends on your individual health goals, preferences, and medical history — no single diet is optimal for everyone.
Are any diets genuinely dangerous?
Most popular diets are safe for healthy adults in the short term, but some do carry meaningful risks for certain groups or if they are followed for an extended period of time. Very low-calorie diets, extreme elimination diets, and approaches that severely restrict food groups can lead to nutritional deficiencies, disordered eating patterns, or complications for people with specific health conditions.
Our reviews flag any safety concerns. But if you have a medical condition or are taking medication, speak with your doctor or a registered dietitian before making major dietary changes.
What's the difference between a diet and a dietary pattern?
The term 'diet' is often used to describe a temporary, goal-oriented eating plan. A 'way of eating' (or dietary pattern) refers to long-term habitual food choices. Increasingly, research supports the view that sustainable dietary patterns (rather than short-term changes) are what drive lasting health outcomes. The reviews on this page cover both types.
Do I need to follow a named diet to eat healthily?
No. Most nutrition research points not to specific named diets, but to broad dietary 'patterns': eating plenty of vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, and quality protein; limiting ultra-processed foods, added sugars, and excess sodium; and maintaining a reasonable calorie balance.
Named diets can be a useful structure for people who benefit from clear rules, but they are not a prerequisite for good nutrition.
