Yesterday, U.S. News and World Report released its diet rankings, a review of 20 diet plans evaluated by a panel of twenty-two diet and nutrition experts. The government-endorsed DASH Diet was deemed the best, although it is, by comparison, one of the lesser-known diets in use today.
The review covered seven categories: short-term weight loss, long-term weight loss, ease of use, nutritional completeness, safety, ability to prevent or manage diabetes, and ability to prevent or manage heart disease. Over the course of six months, data was crunched, profiles created, and rankings (from 1 to 5) were assigned to each of the 20 diets. The expert panel also provided commentary on each of the diets, including information on “what they think people considering the diet should know.”
The DASH diet ranked #1 as Best Overall Diet and the Best Diabetes Diet. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and it is has actually been shown to reduce high blood pressure, and prevent heart attacks and strokes. It emphasizes hearty portions of fruits, vegetables, grains, and plant proteins from legumes and nuts; along with more moderate servings of low- or non-fat dairy products, and small servings of meat, poultry, and fish. The total package is a low saturated fat diet that is also low in cholesterol, and high in dietary fiber, potassium, calcium, and magnesium, and moderately high in total protein, though low in animal protein.
The Best Weight Loss Diet and Best Commercial Diet Plan was Weight Watchers. Weight Watchers is one of the old-time standby diet programs, with over forty years in the business and an estimated 1 million followers across the globe at any given time. One of the reasons this weight loss plan has continued success is the focus on overall health: mental, emotional and physical.
For Best Heart-Healthy Diet, and Best Low-Fat Diet, the Ornish Diet was the top ranked. The Ornish Diet, developed by Dr. Dean Ornish, is a diet and lifestyle program that has been proven scientifically to reverse heart disease and help control cholesterol. It uses a combination of diet and exercise that allows the body's fat-burning mechanism to work most effectively. Emphasizing fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, it also limits the amount of fat and animal products, as well as the number of calories, that are consumed.
Atkins won out as Best Low-Carb Diet. The Atkins Diet weight loss (and weight maintenance) program is based on the theory that your body needs more protein and less carbs. It is rooted in the science of eating fewer refined carbohydrates and refined sugars – what we refer to as ‘bad carbs.’
Medifast came in tops for Best Low Calorie Diet. The Medifast program, founded in 1980, set out to break the popular myths about dieting by helping the prospective dieter understand the true pitfalls and how to avoid them, and providing the tools and prepared meals to achieve weight loss. Rather than promoting a crash diet, weight loss is targeted at up to 20 pounds per month. With almost thirty years in existence, the Medifast program has been recommended by over 20,000 doctors and helped more than 1 million people.
A Bit of Controversy
Atkins Nutritionals, while “pleased” to be included on the list, stated in a press release that “the Atkins Diet has repeatedly demonstrated its effectiveness for diabetes and heart health management, as evidenced by a host of key peer-reviewed scientific studies.” In fact, over 60 peer-reviewed studies have been conducted to support the “efficacy and safety of the Atkins Diet for both short- and long-term weight loss.”
In addition, there is some criticism over the use the federal government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 as one criteria for the U.S. News diet evaluation. For diets like Atkins and South Beach, the dietary guidelines are contrary to their methodology. The Dietary Guidelines promote a low-fat diet and include carbohydrates, something both diets eschew. Rankings would naturally be lower for low-carb diets, when the standard is otherwise.
By both ignoring scientific research and the different approaches, some diets were slighted in certain categories. While Atkins did come out on top of the low-carb diet plans, its overall ranking wasn’t as high as it might have liked.
There was also news in the report that so-called yo-yo dieting was better than no diet at all. Previously conducted research has shown that gaining and losing weight over a long period of time can be harmful to health. New research may point to the contrary, but needs to be substantiated in further studies.
The review covered seven categories: short-term weight loss, long-term weight loss, ease of use, nutritional completeness, safety, ability to prevent or manage diabetes, and ability to prevent or manage heart disease. Over the course of six months, data was crunched, profiles created, and rankings (from 1 to 5) were assigned to each of the 20 diets. The expert panel also provided commentary on each of the diets, including information on “what they think people considering the diet should know.”
The DASH diet ranked #1 as Best Overall Diet and the Best Diabetes Diet. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and it is has actually been shown to reduce high blood pressure, and prevent heart attacks and strokes. It emphasizes hearty portions of fruits, vegetables, grains, and plant proteins from legumes and nuts; along with more moderate servings of low- or non-fat dairy products, and small servings of meat, poultry, and fish. The total package is a low saturated fat diet that is also low in cholesterol, and high in dietary fiber, potassium, calcium, and magnesium, and moderately high in total protein, though low in animal protein.
The Best Weight Loss Diet and Best Commercial Diet Plan was Weight Watchers. Weight Watchers is one of the old-time standby diet programs, with over forty years in the business and an estimated 1 million followers across the globe at any given time. One of the reasons this weight loss plan has continued success is the focus on overall health: mental, emotional and physical.
For Best Heart-Healthy Diet, and Best Low-Fat Diet, the Ornish Diet was the top ranked. The Ornish Diet, developed by Dr. Dean Ornish, is a diet and lifestyle program that has been proven scientifically to reverse heart disease and help control cholesterol. It uses a combination of diet and exercise that allows the body's fat-burning mechanism to work most effectively. Emphasizing fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, it also limits the amount of fat and animal products, as well as the number of calories, that are consumed.
Atkins won out as Best Low-Carb Diet. The Atkins Diet weight loss (and weight maintenance) program is based on the theory that your body needs more protein and less carbs. It is rooted in the science of eating fewer refined carbohydrates and refined sugars – what we refer to as ‘bad carbs.’
Medifast came in tops for Best Low Calorie Diet. The Medifast program, founded in 1980, set out to break the popular myths about dieting by helping the prospective dieter understand the true pitfalls and how to avoid them, and providing the tools and prepared meals to achieve weight loss. Rather than promoting a crash diet, weight loss is targeted at up to 20 pounds per month. With almost thirty years in existence, the Medifast program has been recommended by over 20,000 doctors and helped more than 1 million people.
A Bit of Controversy
Atkins Nutritionals, while “pleased” to be included on the list, stated in a press release that “the Atkins Diet has repeatedly demonstrated its effectiveness for diabetes and heart health management, as evidenced by a host of key peer-reviewed scientific studies.” In fact, over 60 peer-reviewed studies have been conducted to support the “efficacy and safety of the Atkins Diet for both short- and long-term weight loss.”
In addition, there is some criticism over the use the federal government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 as one criteria for the U.S. News diet evaluation. For diets like Atkins and South Beach, the dietary guidelines are contrary to their methodology. The Dietary Guidelines promote a low-fat diet and include carbohydrates, something both diets eschew. Rankings would naturally be lower for low-carb diets, when the standard is otherwise.
By both ignoring scientific research and the different approaches, some diets were slighted in certain categories. While Atkins did come out on top of the low-carb diet plans, its overall ranking wasn’t as high as it might have liked.
There was also news in the report that so-called yo-yo dieting was better than no diet at all. Previously conducted research has shown that gaining and losing weight over a long period of time can be harmful to health. New research may point to the contrary, but needs to be substantiated in further studies.
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