The Pioppi diet claims to have found the secret cure for obesity, cancer, and diabetes — but it's not revolutionary
The Mediterranean diet is not a new trend. In fact, it's one of the most well-researched and highly praised diets around. So much so that, Dr. Aseem Malhotra has used it and the town of Pioppi, Italy, as jumping off points for his eating plan that's been trending across the UK.
Still, the Pioppi Diet has some major differences from the classic Mediterranean Diet — and experts are not in agreement that it's necessarily better.
The Pioppi Diet is a plan that is high in fat and low in sugar.
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The Pioppi diet is a higher-fat diet that encourages adherents to eat lots of vegetables, nuts, legumes, and fish and discourages them from eating red meat, starchy carbs, and sweetened treats.
It's basically a take on the popular Mediterranean diet, and follows a lot of those same rules and guidelines, in addition to adding a few of its own like eating three meals per day, according to Coach Magazine.
In order to get the most out of this plan, Malhotra says people must approach it as more of a lifestyle. To do so, he encourages participants to get enough sleep, exercise, and socialize in addition to following the food guidelines.
Ultimately, Malhotra says the Pioppi plan will help you make "simple, achievable, and long-lasting changes to how you eat, sleep, and move."
Although the Pioppi Diet and Mediterranean Diets are similar, they are different in three key ways.
Unlike the Mediterranean diet, the Pioppi plan avoids refined carbs, allows saturated fat, and promotes a once-a-week fast, according to The British Nutrition Foundation found.
The fasting can be an issue if you are doing so for long periods of time, WebMD reports, and it likely won't help you with weight loss in the same way eating a healthy diet will.
As for the saturated fats, the Pioppi plan encourages people, "to stop fearing saturated fat and cholesterol. Stop counting calories. And start considering sugar as public enemy number one," according to the Telegraph.
The Pioppi Diet is controversial.
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The major problem with Malhotra's plan is that there are a few significant differences compared to how people of the Italian town of Pioppi actually eat.
Malhotra's plan took facts — like how the Pioppi people don't eat lots of red meat — and applied them to his plan. He fails to mention, however, that the exclusion of red meat is due the fact that Pioppi people can't afford to buy it.
Similarly, the Pioppi people don't cut out sugars and carbs, according to Spectator Health reported. Malhotra said, however, that they aren't eaten in excess.
"Pasta is rarely eaten as a main course, only a small starter," he said. "Sugar was rare, with desert eaten only once a week on Sundays and pizza was only eaten once or twice a month [in Pioppi]."
The fasting recommendation in the plan is also not an actual tradition of the Pioppi people, Spectator Health reports. The addition of this concept in the plan was rationalized by the fact that the Pioppi residents, "used to be so poor that they sometimes went to work hungry." Additionally, coconut oil — a major component of Malhotra's plan — "has never been [a] part of the Italian diet," according to Spectator Health,
In response to some of the criticism Malhotra has received for these inconsistencies, he said that the plan was based on his observations of the town, as well as the documentary "The Big Fat Fix" and numerous other studies.
Even though it's controversial, there are healthy takeaways from the diet worth following.
The basic concept of eating more fruits and vegetables and less red meat is worth doing, but it's also not unique.
"This is not revolutionary," Dr. Caroline Apovian, director of the Nutrition and Weight Management Center at Boston Medical Center and professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, said. "All of the attributes of this diet come from what the authors have been reading (or more likely listening to) regarding medium chain triglycerides, Mediterranean diet olive oil, full-fat dairy, sleep, and fasting."
Apovian went as far as to call this a fad diet similar to Atkins, due to the portion sizes and lack of starchy carbohydrates. She also noted, like other critics, that the fasting and sleep aspect of the diet seem to "take advantage of snippets of research."
Registered dietitian Nutritionist Malina Linkas Malkani, creator of the Wholitarian Lifestyle, was a little less critical and said that the Pioppi diet is a sound lifestyle, with behaviors and habits proven to promote health. She too noted that this is not a revolutionary approach to health.
"It's always important to look [at] the totality of a nutrition lifestyle and evaluate it as a whole," Malkani said. "Because the Pioppi diet doesn't include red and processed meats [or] processed snacks and sweets, there is room for a little saturated fat from other foods."
The debate about specific points leads to the most straightforward and safe answer to the dilemma — eat a balanced diet, approved by your doctor, filled mostly with whole foods.
Although the Pioppi diet may promote basic healthy eating practices, no single dietary plan should be taken as gospel.
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