The BEST DIETS

A new year and for many of us, new resolutions to keep. Probably the most popular New Year's Resolution is to lose weight. Or you may want to eat healthier for your heart, because you have high blood pressure, or you just want to eat a better, healthier diet in 2012. If you are serious and really want to focus on improving your diet and health, how do you choose a "diet"? Well, to help everyone along, the U.S. News & World Report just published its second ranking of many popular diets. They asked a group of 22 experts in their fields to rate the various diets. So what are some of the top diets and what are some failures? In this blog post we will focus on their top ranked diets.

Top Diets – based on being easy to follow, safe for your health, effective in losing weight, nutritious and good for those with heart disease or diabetes.

DASH – for those who haven't heard of it, the DASH diet stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Thus, it is a great diet for those with high blood pressure. However, it is also a great, healthy eating plan for most of us. Worried about heart disease? This is a good, nutritionally sound diet for anyone to follow. The focus of this diet is plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low fat dairy and low fat meats. One also cuts back on salt, sweets, fatty foods and red meat. So what are the health benefits? Try lowering blood pressure, increasing your good cholesterol (HDL), lowering your bad cholesterol (LDL), and lowering your triglycerides. This diet is a heart healthy diet.

TLC Diet
– like the DASH diet, this one was also developed by the National Institutes of Health. TLC stands for the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes Diet. This diet is designed to be heart healthy. The first focus is cutting back on fat especially saturate fats found in fatty meats, fried foods, whole fat dairy products. Like the DASH diet, the focus is on eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains and choosing low fat dairy products and lean protein such as fish or skinless poultry.

Mayo Clinic Diet
– this "diet" is really more of a focus on eating healthy and making this a habit. Not too surprising the focus once again is on fruits, vegetables, whole grains. If you fill up on these foods you won't be as hungry for the more fattening fare. This program offers guidance on what to add to your diet and what to begin taking away. This diet is also heart healthy and good for those wanting to fend off diabetes.

Mediterranean Diet
– this "diet" is really one all of us can work towards following as it is a great, overall healthy way of eating.

Weight Watchers – for those looking for a weight loss program to follow, U.S. News & World Report ranks Weight Watchers as one of the easiest programs to follow. Although there are many commercial weight loss programs available, this one scored high because it is easy to follow, promotes not only short term weight loss but teaches you how to keep the weight off. It even lets you "indulge" albeit occasionally.

Want to know more about each of these top diets? Check out the article at:

http://health.usnews.com/best-diet


 


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stay Hydrated This Summer

Image
At long last, SUMMER!!    With the heat and humidity, we need to focus on staying hydrated.   Water is always a good choice for hydration.    MSN has an interesting article on  5 Easy Ways to Stay Hydrated This Summer .   Stay away from the sugar sweetened beverages loaded with sugar and calories.   Yes, enjoying some lemonade is fun but it is not a juice and it is loaded with added sugar.    What are some ways to stay hydrated?   How do you know you need hydration?   Thirst is the first sign of becoming dehydrated.   Your body is telling you to drink more fluids.   Eight cups is a good goal but you may need even more when exercising outside or being outside in the heat. Unsweetened Coffee – most people think coffee dehydrates you, but coffee is a fluid and can count towards your daily fluid intake.   And coffee can help you feel more alert and keep you energized.     Unsweetened Ice Tea – ice tea is a favorite in the South.    Skip the added sugar.   Or if you must have som
Read more

Get Ready for New Food Labels!

Image
This week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced proposed changes in our food labels.    Major changes in the food labels appearing on everything from chips to soup haven’t changed much in 20 years.   So what are some of the proposed changes? Serving sizes – ever look at the serving size on ice cream.   It states one half cup is the serving size, yet who eats only one half cup?   In teaching my nutrition class, I show a video in which the dietitian notes the one half cup serving size on ice cream.   The students are always surprised it is so low.   When I told my husband, he insisted that one half cup was too low and went to the freezer to prove it.   Of course, the ice cream container verified that one half cup is the serving.   So one of the proposed food label changes is to increase the serving size on foods such as ice cream to reflect what people actually eat.   Thus, for ice cream the serving size will increase from one half cup to one cup.   FDA notes , By law,
Read more

Easy food habits to adopt for a healthier you in 2023.

Image
So many people develop New Year’s Resolutions focusing on giving up things or on losing weight.   Why not focus on adopting some healthier habits in 2023 and some healthier lifestyle changes?   Last year I discussed some recommendation by a   nutritionist in London, Kate Llewellyn-Waters, on how you can adopt a healthier lifestyle.   Below are some of her easy-to- adopt suggestions and I have added some suggestions of my own. Protein at every meal – Protein is filling and helps stave off those hunger pains between meals.   What are some high quality protein foods?   All animal foods provide high quality protein.   Focus on lean proteins like chicken breasts.   Chicken and other lean meats, provide not only high-quality protein but also many nutrients like iron, zinc, selenium and many B vitamins.   B vitamins are known as the energy vitamins as they help your body produce the energy needed for all your activities.   A top-rated protein is found in eggs.   Actually, eggs are rated
Read more