How do you make food decisions? Is cost or environment your biggest concern? Or are you following one of many diets you might discover online or elsewhere, like the carnivore diet, or veganism or the Mediterranean diet.
Diet choices are hard. You might feel intimidated by fears over the time, effort and the knowledge required to cook your own meals, or you might be confused over what various social media influencers are telling you online, or by the ads you see on television.
Log in to TikTok and you might be confronted by the Liver King, who wants you to know he eats a cup of raw liver as part of each one of his meat feasts, or the discredited celebrity chef Pete Evans extolling the virtues of bone broth.
You can’t watch your favourite show on commercial television without seeing a promotion for some kind of foodstuff. One study from 2016 found that 11% of television ads were for food, with the most frequently advertised being snack foods, fast foods/take away meals and sweetened beverages.
Let’s be clear, when seeking diet advice, you should seek out an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian and Nutritionist, of which I am one, as that accreditation shows they have done the work to become a qualified, evidence-based dietitian with both a university degree and verification from an independent professional body.
In this article I compare five diets—vegan, vegetarian, keto, carnivore and Mediterranean— comparing on the impacts on your health and busting some myths along the way, to help you make an informed choice about what you decide you need to consume.