How Does Your Diet Weigh In?

U.S. News & World Report has released its Best Diets Overall 2023 report. A panel of leading medical and nutrition experts specializing in diabetes, weight loss, and heart health reviewed 24 diets and rated them for safety, ease of following, healthiness, and for promoting a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. For any diet to receive top rankings, it must be nutritious, safe, easy to follow, effective for weight loss, and protective against diabetes and heart disease. 

Here’s how they stacked up:

#1: The Mediterranean Diet ranked at the top, scoring 4.6 out of 5 overall, 4.2 for overall weight loss, and 4.6 for healthiness. This diet includes eating primarily plant-based foods while incorporating whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, seafood, lean poultry, herbs, spices, eggs, cheese, yogurt, and unsaturated fat such as extra virgin olive oil.

#2: The DASH diet came in second, with 4.4 out of 5 for an overall score, 4.4 for overall weight loss, and 4.5 for healthiness. This diet was developed as an approach to stopping hypertension and emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and low-fat dairy while limiting foods that are high in saturated fats and caps sodium at 2,300 mg per day. The DASH diet is similar to the Mediterranean diet but gives stricter recommendations on amounts and limits for types of foods consumed.

#3: The Flexitarian Diet was ranked third, with 4.4 out of 5 for an overall score, 4.2 for overall weight loss, and 4.3 for healthiness. Also known as a semi-vegetarian diet, the focus is on adding food groups to your diet rather than eliminating them, and encourages eating more herbs, spices, and plant-based foods while avoiding saturated fats and processed foods.

#4: The MIND Diet scored 4.3 out of 5 as an overall score, 3.5 in overall weight loss, and 4.0 for healthiness. This diet combines the DASH and Mediterranean diets but focuses on food that can specifically help improve brain health to potentially lower the risk of mental decline. This diet encourages eating fewer unhealthy fats, processed foods, and sugars that can increase inflammation, oxidative stress, and amyloid beta deposits.

#5: The TLC (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes) Diet scored 4.1 out of 5 overall, 4.3 for overall weight loss, and 4.1 for healthiness. This diet was designed with the goal of cutting cholesterol to reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease and calls for plenty of fruits, vegetables, bread, cereals, pasta, and lean meats while limiting processed foods and saturated fats.

After the top five, the rankings are as follows:

#6: Mayo Clinic Diet

#6: Volumetrics Diet (tie)

#8: WeightWatchers

#9: Dr. Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Diet

#10: Ornish Diet

#11: Noom

#11: Pritikin Diet (tie)

#13: Zone Diet

#14: Nutritarian Diet

#15: Jenny Craig Diet

#15: Nutrisystem Diet (tie)

#15: South Beach Diet (tie)

#18: Keyto Diet

#19: Paleo Diet

#20: Keto Diet

#21: Atkins Diet

#21: OPTAVIA (tie)

#21: SlimFast Diet (tie)

#24: Raw Food Diet