The 2013 Ranking Of Best Diets

We love rankings in the U.S., don’t we? It’s not only about music charts, box office or sports. We also like to rank universities, hospitals, restaurants, bars, law firms, etc.

We always want to know who’s the best at doing something. It has something to do with our inner competitive nature but also with some sort of latent insecurity we have. A ranking brings order to chaos. It makes us feel safe.
So it was only a matter of time before somebody would put their hands in the “diet world” and provide us with an official ranking.
Needless to say it, the almighty experts at U.S. News “took the bullet” and delivered a comprehensive evaluation of 29 different diet plans for 2013.



The ranking

The diets were rated with the inputs of a panel of health experts who were asked about aspects of each diet they particularly liked or disliked and to weigh in with tidbits of advice that someone considering a particular diet should know.
To come out on top, a diet had to be relatively easy to follow, nutritious, safe, and effective for weight loss and against diabetes and heart disease.
Surprisingly, the DASH diet snagged the top spot of “Best Overall Diet”. I say surprisingly just because the DASH is not even a weight loss diet, it’s more of a plan to fight blood pressure.
The second spot was taken by the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes, or TLC diet, created by the National Institutes of Health. While the Mayo Clinic Diet came in third place.
Besides the “Best Overall Diets” other profiles were “Best Commercial Diet Plans”, as well as best diets for weight loss, diabetes, heart health, healthy eating and the plant based ones.
It’s worth noting that the Mediterranean diet ranked really well across-the-board snagging the top place among “Plant-Based Diets”.
The Vegan diet didn’t do that well instead. Despite getting high marks as a diabetes or heart disease diet, experts criticised it as been more restrictive than other plant-based options, offering no built-in social support, and skimping on important nutrients.
Not everybody will agree with that, especially vegans who view veganism not as a mere diet but more of a lifestyle and philosophy that goes well beyond the tangible scope of losing weight.

Considerations

Even if you’re not that into rankings, I suggest you take some of your time and scan through the U.S. News Best Diet Rankings. It’s not only about who comes first; it provides some interesting facts on many diet plans (some of which I ignored the existence of) and points out where these excel and where, instead, they fall short.
Here’s the link: happy reading!