U.S. News evaluated some of the most popular diets, using input from health experts to assist with their rankings. Some of the criteria was the diet had to be easy to follow, nutritious, safe, and be effective for weight loss, as well as heart disease and diabetes prevention.
Take a look at the top-five ranked diets.
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1. DASH diet
The DASH diet was originally created to help fight high blood pressure, but it has also helped people lose weight and achieve a healthier lifestyle. The basic premise for following the DASH diet is to practice what we’re often told – to eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy, while avoiding foods high in calories and fat.
2. TLC diet
Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes Diet’s main goal is to lower your bad cholesterol levels through cutting back on saturated fat. The diet has to set a calorie goal for yourself and then cut back your saturated fat intake to 7 percent of your daily calories.
3. Mayo Clinic diet
The Mayo Clinic diet focuses on weight loss, claiming participants will lose 6 to 10 pounds in the first two weeks and then 1 to 2 pounds a week after. The diet focuses on developing healthy habits that participants can continue for life, and teaches dieters how many calories they should be consuming.
4. Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet claims to help participants lose weight and prevent numerous chronic diseases. The diet focuses on eating a lot of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, legumes, olive oils and herbs and spices. It also emphasizes eating fish or seafood a couple of times a week and eating poultry, eggs, cheese and yogurt in moderation.
5. Weight Watchers
The Weight Watchers diet is aimed at weight loss, and says on average dieters will lose about 2 pounds each week. The Weight Watchers program allows dieters to eat whatever types of foods they’d like, as long as they stay within their daily points goal (each food is worth a certain amount of points, and dieters are given a point total to stick to each day based on their age, weight, gender and height).