Research reveals top three diet trends in Turkey

ISTANBUL

French nutritionist Pierre Dukan’s diet was the most popular diet in Turkey last year, the study says. Dukan poses in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar in 2014.

New research by Aetna International, one of the world’s leading health benefit providers, has revealed the three most popular dieting and weight-loss programs in Turkey last year were the Dukan, Keto and Paleo diets.  

The research highlights the three diets as last year’s most searched for online, with the Dukan diet attracting the most interest with an average of 26,130 searches per month across Turkey.  

The research also has revealed varying diet trends around the world. Dr. Sneh Khemka, the president of International Population Health Solutions at Aetna International, said, “This data tells us that all around the world people are looking for inspiration and answers to help them keep in shape - and there’s no single, right answer to their question. The best advice remains the simplest: a balanced diet and regular exercise.” 

Globally, the Dukan diet - the regime proposed by French nutritionist Pierre Dukan - has attracted the most search interest over the last five years, though its popularity has been declining since a peak of interest in May 2011. 

Dukan now attracts a similar level of worldwide interest as the Atkins Diet - the high-protein, low-carb diet proposed by Robert Atkins in the 1970s. 

The Paleo diet, which traces its roots to academic research on the potential health benefits of the food types eaten by early humans and popularized by a best-selling book in 2002, ranks as the third most searched-for diet regime worldwide. 

The research also identified fast-emerging interest in another diet in the United States which could be the first sign of a new global trend: the Military diet. Sometimes called the Three Day Military diet, search interest in this regime has grown rapidly in the United States since the beginning of 2015. 

Indeed, the level of interest has grown fast enough to rival the Paleo diet as the most searched-for diet in the U.S.