Hi Noosers! Anne & Avery, here. Our view on health is simple: small daily actions add up. The basics are the priority: real food, movement you enjoy, and habits that support you. Anne (Registered Dietitian) and Avery (Health Coach) write Monday Noosletters based on research and our experiences — because at the end of the day, we all want to know what everyone else is doing, perhaps due to our innate curiosity around human behavior. We are mothers, friends, and athletes who want to share our knowledge and empower our readers to take their health into their own hands. Every first Monday of the month is free, but if you’d like to upgrade to a paid subscription to receive weekly Noosletters, we’d be thrilled!
Happy Monday, Noosers! With the first Monday of the month comes a free Noosletter, and we wanted to make it a good one (but don’t we always?!). Between the presentation we gave a few weeks ago, feedback from patients and clients, and what we are constantly seeing and reading in our research, there seems to always be a search for the “best” diet. And when we say diet, we mean general eating pattern, not a restrictive/structured short term food plan. In fact, the word “diet” comes from the Greek word, diaita, meaning “way of life” — a far cry from what we tend to associate with that word. Way of life seems much more comprehensive than just nutritional choices, including exercise, habits, and overall well-being — I’m sure if the ancient Greeks were still around they would also include what we watch, listen to and the company we surround ourselves with.
“Tell me what to eat to be ‘healthy’ and I’ll do it” is something we hear all the time from clients, friends and patients. They want to know what the best diet is and it almost feels that they hope for a magician’s wand, to make what they know to be true more enticing. If someone asked you: what is a healthy diet? You likely could respond quickly and accurately, fruits, vegetables, and lean meats or fish. Many of us know that eating more produce and less processed/fried foods will lead to healthy outcomes, but what holds us back? Access? Price? Taste? Emotions? Today we identify the “best” diets and what they all have in common.
when it feels like the “limit does not exist” for fad diets
I am sure you’ve all thought about your intake at one point or another, maybe not, but chances are if you’re reading this essay, you most likely have. Perhaps you’ve even plugged the question, “what’s the best diet for X age female looking to [fill in the blank]” into AI. Like Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, you're hoping to discover that perfect formula—the precise equation that unlocks a previously unsolvable problem.
Have you had any luck? Perhaps your friend shared a diet that’s worked for her or your favorite influencer shared what they do. We all seem to want to know, what is the “best” diet?!
I (Anne) recently read a newsletter from a popular 40-year-old female influencer, who commented: “but what gets my panties in a bunch these days is the “dire” messaging around everything we need to be doing in order to save our future selves.” It stuck with me because it’s true, there is SO MUCH content/language/messaging on all the things we SHOULD/MUST/HAVE to be doing in order to live longer, appear more youthful and so on.
The wellness anxiety is real and intensifying with every scroll. What begins as helpful information quickly morphs into an overwhelming list of health mandates that feels impossible to fulfill. As I turned the corner to 40, my instagram feed went from vacation photos to what feels like a relentless wellness boot camp! I am sure many of you can relate — endless clips on how to use cottage cheese a million different ways.
It seems as if this greater attention on improving our health has led to a compulsion around analyzing and obsessing over our intakes. Sound bites from studies touting “prunes may prevent bone loss,” or “eating pistachios enhances sleep, improves performance, and supports weight management (like taking GLP-1 drugs),” have us racing to the grocery store to buy the new “miracle” food.
But here's what I've learned after analyzing the research and working with patients: we're overcomplicating nutrition to the point of paralysis. While we're busy obsessing over the perfect protein-to-fiber ratio or whether we've had enough obscure superfoods today, we're missing the fundamental truth that's been consistently backed by research for decades.
I am going to let you in on a little secret, the one thing you can and should be doing every day is simply eating more whole foods — particularly fruits and vegetables.
Working daily with patients, I have the opportunity to analyze their diets, and I get to make evidence based recommendations based ona whole host of factors including their health history, current diagnosis, medication interactions, and personal preferences. My experience spans a wide spectrum of conditions where nutrition plays a crucial role: from managing cardiovascular disease and helping patients navigate life with type 2 diabetes, to slowing the progression of chronic kidney disease, reversing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), supporting cognitive function in those with dementia, and addressing various autoimmune conditions.
Through all these diverse cases, one nutritional principle consistently stands out in improving patient outcomes: increasing the intake of whole foods.
what do the most impactful diets have in common?
When we compare the top three most recommended evidence based diets, we can see the similarities clearly. Take a look at the following diets and compare the recommendations below:
* Mediterranean Diet
* The DASH Diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension)
* The MIND Diet (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay).
All three diets share common elements: they emphasize plant-based foods, limit processed foods and saturated fats, and promote whole, natural ingredients. They're also considered among the most sustainable dietary approaches because they're flexible, balanced, and enjoyable rather than severely restrictive.
The sentiment we've noted before: “it's simple, not easy” rings true. Could it be any simpler than “eat whole foods, lots of fruit and vegetables?”
And so while we tend to joke and eye roll at “everything we need to be doing in order to save our future selves,” it's a rather simple notion. Amid the endless flood of wellness content, supplement recommendations, and specialized diets crowding our social feeds, the fundamental truth gets buried: whole foods, particularly plants, are the cornerstone of health.
What many influencers don't realize, though, is the sad reality of what happens after years and years of a neglectful diet. The consequences aren't theoretical or far-off concerns. The Mediterranean, DASH, and MIND diets don't top expert rankings year after year because they're trendy—they consistently prove effective against our most devastating diseases.
Oftentimes we wait until we feel the clinical symptoms of these diseases to make changes to our diet. But many of the diseases we suffer from (Alzheimer's and heart disease) develop over time, long before symptoms appear. I see patients who've had that heart attack, received a bad diagnosis, or saw concerning lab results before their doctors make a referral.
By then, we're not preventing disease — we're managing it, which can be more challenging and less effective. We don’t mean to ring the alarm and send you into a frantic google spiral, but rather, we hope to empower you, because you have more agency than you might be aware of, and as we’ve always believed, awareness is the first step of preventative health care: awareness is key.
you have more control than you might think
I wish many of us understood that the things within our control (diet+lifestyle) can make all the difference in the quantity and quality of the years ahead. The scientific evidence conclusively demonstrates that diet is both a primary cause of and solution to our modern epidemic of chronic diseases.
I love this reflection from Substack writer, Mikala Jamison:
“I’ve written how I used to eat tons of junk food all the time as a habitual binge eater. I also ate it frequently even if I wasn’t full-scale binging. Until I stopped eating so much of it, I didn’t know how bad it was making me feel, or how much better I could feel. As I worked through my disordered eating and changed my habits, I saw that my intuition around hunger, and what I craved—what I thought I wanted—had been totally distorted by hyperpalatable foods.”
Our taste preferences aren't fixed—they're trainable. Science shows that our 'hedonic system' (which we wrote about last summer) governs what foods we find rewarding, but it's heavily influenced by what we regularly consume. When we consistently eat ultra-processed foods designed to hit maximum flavor intensity, our taste buds become desensitized to the more subtle flavors of whole foods. But when you give your palate a chance to reset by eating whole foods that aren't pumped with sugar, salt, and fat, something remarkable happens — your sense of taste recalibrates. You'll begin to discover the complex sweetness of a ripe pear, the crisp brightness of a sweet red pepper, or the rich nuttiness of walnuts or quinoa.
So, as we navigate this wellness-saturated landscape, let's strip away the complexity and return to what research has consistently shown: the power of whole foods. Rather than chasing the latest wellness fad, invest in the foundations that have stood the test of scientific scrutiny. Fill half your plate with colorful produce. Choose whole grains over refined ones. Incorporate legumes and nuts. Limit processed foods. These simple actions, practiced consistently, outperform any algorithm-fed wellness advice in your social media feed. Because ultimately, good nutrition isn't about perfection or complexity—it's about nourishing choices repeated daily that accumulate into a lifetime of better health.
The best diet isn't the most complicated or restrictive; it's the one centered on whole foods that you can actually maintain for the long journey ahead.
We hope you found this post inspiring and empowering! The next time you are confronted with the noise of the latest fad diet or trend, consider going back to basics — travel along the perimeter of the grocery store and you will find the commonality among the most impactful diets: whole foods that will nourish and sustain you.
Until next time..
