Dash, TLC, Mediterranean Top List of Best Diets
— -- The government-sponsored Dash Diet is the best overall diet and Weight Watchers is tops for weight loss, according to a new report.
In its fifth annual "Best Diets" report, U.S. News and World Report ranked 35 popular diets in seven different categories, including best for weight loss, ease of use and healthiest overall.
"All of our profiles are based on the research," explained Angela Haupt, the website’s senior health and wellness editor. “Our reporters spend months analyzing and we only include the research that is robust.”
While Weight Watchers has been highly ranked in most of the categories since the list first started, Haupt said the big surprise was the newly added Health Management Resource -- or HMR diet -- which ranked number two for weight loss.
“Our experts were impressed with HMR because it seems to help people maintain a significant amount of weight loss,” Haupt explained, adding that the very low-calorie meal replacement plan is medically supervised at more than 200 hospitals and weight loss clinics around the country.
The two other newcomers -- the Body Reset Diet and the Supercharged Hormone Diet -- fared less well, ranking number 28 and 30 respectively in the “best overall diet” category.
The experts gave the two diets low marks for being too restrictive, Haupt said. The Body Reset eating plan limits followers to smoothie shakes while the Supercharged Hormone Diet includes a detox phase that completely eliminates alcohol, sugar, dairy, gluten and most oils, followed by a Mediterranean-style diet that cuts carbs and adds dietary supplements, she explained.
Haupt also said she expected to hear from readers who follow the plant-based vegan diet and the Paleo diet, an eating plan based on what cavemen were believed to have eaten. Vegan diets ranked somewhere in the middle-to-bottom in most categories, while Paleo ranked near the bottom across the board.
“People who follow those types of plans have adopted a lifestyle that goes beyond what they eat so they often don’t agree with our rankings,” she noted.
CLICK HERE to read the full report, which includes an explanation of the rankings and detailed descriptions of the diets. And join ABC News Health for a tweet chat today at 1 p.m. ET on New Year’s resolutions during which we will be discussing the best ways to diet, exercise and lose weight.
Below, the top five diets (including ties) for each category on the list.
Best Overall Diets
Dash
TCL
Mediterranean
Weight Watchers
Best Weight Loss
Weight Watchers
HMR Diet
Jenny Craig
Biggest Loser
Raw Food
Easiest to Follow
Weight Watchers
Jenny Craig
Mediterranean
Flexitarian Diet
Volumetrics
Best for Diabetes
DASH
Biggest Loser
Vegan
Mayo
Ornish
Engine 2 Diet
Flexitarian
Best for Heart Disease
Ornish
TLC
DASH
Mediterranean
Vegan
Engine 2 Diet
Best for Healthy Eating
DASH
TLC
Mediterranean
Mayo
Volumetrics
Best Commercial Diet
Weight Watchers
Jenny Craig
Biggest Loser
Slim Fast
SparkPeople Diet
Best Plant-Based Diet
Mediterranean
Flexitarian Diet
Ornish
Vegetarian
Traditional Asian
