From new dietary guidelines to mandated front-of-pack labelling, it has been an action-packed couple of months in the health and nutrition space across the globe. Today we turn our attention to the United States, where once again the Mediterranean diet has been recognised for its many health benefits by the U.S. News and World Report.¹

This year, instead of publishing their annual “best diets” rankings, U.S. News have created a new review called “Top Health and Nutrition Trends for 2026”.¹ Naturally, our team is overjoyed an eating pattern that champions good quality extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) like the Mediterranean diet has been recommended once more. Here is our snapshot analysis of the latest report, to help you decide whether this information should inform your practice.

The ‘old’ ranking system

Prior to 2026, the Mediterranean diet had been declared the “best diet” by U.S. News 8 years in a row!² Whilst this is great to hear, it is important to understand the evidence and methodology behind these claims before we utilise them for education.

Previously, the editors of U.S. News would review medical journals, federal reports and conduct interviews with health professionals/researchers to formulate detailed reports for popular diets (e.g. Mediterranean diet, DASH diet, vegan diet, etc).² These diets were then rated from 1 to 5 and ranked across 21 different categories (e.g. top diets for gut health) by an expert panel of 69 dietitians, medical doctors or researchers.² Together, this formed a clear ranking of diets that considered nutritional adequacy, health risks/benefits, quality of evidence as well as long-term sustainability and acceptability.²

Whilst this isn’t a formal, federal guideline for clinicians to follow; their method utilises good quality evidence and aims to engage with experts who are free from bias.² The rankings serve as a credible and detailed starting point for how nutrition can benefit certain patients/lifestyles. We encourage clinicians to do further research beyond reading the review or refer onto a dietitian so they can appropriately assess a patient’s nutrition needs and support them in adopting the Mediterranean diet.

What has changed?

The short answer is…quite a lot! This year there were no diet rankings, instead the report focused on significant health trends (e.g. expanded use of GLP-1) and asked 58 panel members what they thought the most important nutrition recommendations were for reducing chronic disease.¹

Given our area of expertise, we will be focusing on the latter part of the report. An overwhelming 69% of the panel confirmed that following a Mediterranean diet is the most effective dietary advice for reducing chronic disease, with another 20% encouraging a plant-based diet.¹ Together, close to 90% of the experts stressed the importance of increasing fruit, vegetable, whole grain and legume intake.¹

This is where EVOO shines as both a method for making plant foods more appetising as well as balancing the diet with healthy fats and other beneficial components like biophenols.³ The report also focuses on specific nutrients within food/diet recommendations, stating that increasing fibre and antioxidant/anti-inflammatory foods is key!¹ A very flexible recommendation when EVOO is involved. The first thing that comes to mind is frying some delicious chickpeas in EVOO until crispy, serving on wholegrain toast with a bit of avocado, fresh parsley and sprinkle of salt – yum!   

The key take aways

The Mediterranean diet continues to be a well recommended eating pattern by dietitians, doctors and researchers.¹ Its flexibility, palatability and focus on plants and EVOO make it both nutritionally adequate and realistic for life-long implementation.¹ To support the collective goal of reducing chronic disease incidence, it is important that we continue recommending the Mediterranean diet, with the first step being…cook your plant foods in EVOO!

If you are a clinician wanting to guide your patients though simple cooking skills that will make adopting the Mediterranean diet easier, download our free patient resource and incorporate our lessons into your practice. Visit the resource page here.

Published 10/03/2026

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