Review of The Best Overall Diet Plans

In an attempt to help consumers sift through all of the dieting hype, U.S. News assembled a team of 22 experts to research, review and releas their list of the Best Diet Plans.

U.S. News's Health News Editor Lindsay Lyon, provided the reasons behind their team releasing the top diet plans. "The goal of the Best Diets rankings is to help consumers find authoritative guidance on healthful diets that will work for them over the long haul."

The DASH diet or Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension came out overall on top of all of the 20 different diets reviewed by the U.S. News Team of Nutrition and Health experts.

The DASH diet was originally developed by the The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) as an dietary approach to reduce high blood pressure (hypertension).

With the DASH diet the empasis is on fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean protein, and low-fat dairy.

People following the DASH diet are advised to cut back on salt, calorie- and fat-laden sweets and red meat. 

The DASH diet is an effective dietary way to reduce high blood pressure in many people.

While there isn't one single Mediterranean Diet, what is known is that people who live around the Mediterranean Sead live a longer and healthier life.

There are different variations depending on whether you want to eat Greek, Italian, French or Spanish influenced meals.

The consumer-friendly Mediterranean diet, developed by the Harvard School of Public Health emphasizes fruits, veggetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, legumes, olive oil, herbs and spices. People following this diet are encouraged to eat fish and seafood several times a week, to eat poultry, eggs, cheese, and yogurt in moderation. Sweets and red meat should be consumed in moderation or reserved for special occasions.

This diet includes a glass red wine for those who want to drink wine.

The TLC (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes) Diet was originally developed to improve cholesterol levels, not as a weight loss diet.

The TLC Diet was created by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Cholesterol Education Program. 

The emphasis on the TLC diet is to reduce the amount of fat, particularly saturated fat (fatty meat, whole-milk dairy, and fried foods). Saturated fat increase the "bad" cholesterol levels, which in turn increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. In addition to consuming a low -fat diet, users also reduce their daily dietary cholesterol intake and eat more fiber,

There is a good reason that the TLC Diet is endorsed by the American Heart Association. This heart-healthy regimen can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and help people magage their high cholesterol through diet, without medication.

The Weight Watchers Diet is a weight management membership program that has been around more than 40 years.

In November 2010 Weight Watchers launched their PointsPlus program. With the PointsPlus program every food is assigned a points value, based on its protein, carbohydrate, fat, fiber, calories, and how hard your body has to work to burn it off. Foods that fill people up the longest and are nutritionally dense (lots of nutrition) have the lowest point values, while foods that mostly empty calories (sugar, fat etc.) have higher point values.

Users can eat what they want to as long as they are meeting their daily PointsPlus target, based on gender, weight, height, and age. 

People sign up for the Weight Watchers program which encourages weight loss with weekly meetings and weekly weigh-ins. There is an online "do-it-yourself version" of the program for those who don't like to or cannot attend meetings.

The Mayo Clinic Diet was obviously developed and researched by the Mayo Clinic. This diet plan is based on their unique food pyramid, that allows for an unlimited amount of fruits and vegetables and limits sweets to 75 calories a day.

In the Mayo Clinic Diet the emphasis is put on eating fruits, vegetables, lean meat and low-fat dairy while limiting saturated fat and salt .

The diet is divided into two parts. During the first two weeks (Part 1) users focus on 15 key habits to add and to eliminate. There is no calorie counting and users can snack on an unlimited amount of fruits and vegetables. During Part 2 users start learning about the healthy food sources and number of calories they need to lose or maintain their weight.

To help users on the Mayo Clinic Diet they have developed a journal where diet information and food intake can be recorded.

The Volumetrics Diet was developed by Penn State University nutrition professor Barbara Rolls. With Volumetrics one changes their approach to eating and focuses on eating low-energy dense foods or foods that are low in calories but high in volume. 

By eating low-density foods like fruits and vegetables, users feel full and satisfied without feeling deprived of food, are reducing the number of calories in a meal and losing weight.

In Volumetrics food is divided into four groups ranging from category 1 which is very-low density, category 2 which is low density, category 3 which is medium density and category 4 which is high density. Foods in categories 1 and 2 make up the bulk of the diet. Foods in category 3 need to be watched, particularly portion sizes while foods in category 4 need to be kept to a minimum.

Volumetrics is more of a weight-control technique than a diet plan. Users learn the Volumetrics philosophy and apply it when possible throughout the day.