Why are some healthy foods not included on the list of World's Healthiest Foods?

Our list of the World's Healthiest Foods was not easy to assemble! We developed three basic requirements for choosing foods to be profiled on our website. For a food to be profiled, it had to meet all three of these requirements.

Requirement 1: The food had to be a superior member of its food group in terms of nutrient content, and it had to play a key role in the diets and cuisines of cultures throughout the world. We did not want foods that would be placed at the bottom of the nutritional totem pole within their food group, and we did not want foods that lacked a history of use and health benefits within traditional culinary practices in different cultures. This first requirement placed a high premium on the nutrient richness of the food, and it also placed a high premium on existing research about the health benefits of the food when consumed as part of an everyday meal plan.

Requirement 2: The food had to be familiar to the general public in the U.S. shopping for food at ordinary food outlets. We love the idea of experimenting with new and unusual foods in The Healthiest Way of Eating, and we also believe it is important to remain open-minded about unfamiliar foods and their potential health benefits. But at the same time, we believed that our Healthiest Way of Eating should feel not only comfortable to website visitors but also reassuring in terms of familiar foods.

Requirement 3: The food had to be readily accessible and affordable to the general public in the U.S. We did not want cost to be a prohibitive factor in our Healthiest Way of Eating, and we also did not want our website visitors to become enthusiastic about a diet composed of foods that did not exist in their local community.

We've always kept our World's Healthiest Food List to a group of 100-140 foods, and we have always subdivided these foods into common food groups (like fruits, vegetables, nuts & seeds, etc). We recognize that there are many foods not included on our list that are as nutrient-rich-or even more nutrient-rich-than our World's Healthiest Foods. We also recognize that there are long-standing culinary traditions in some parts of the world that are extremely healthy, environmentally sound, and which contain very few of our World's Healthiest Foods. At the same time, we believe that our list of the World's Healthiest Foods is the best possible list for website visitors in the U.S. who are trying to improve their health through higher quality and better-tasting food, while still shopping at their local supermarket and making familiar, reassuring food choices. We are always looking for ways to adjust our World's Healthiest Foods list to bring better health for ourselves and for our planet with higher quality and more nourishing foods for a healthier way of eating that is fun, easy to follow, and delicious!

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