Top 5 Healthiest Diets

With the help of a panel of experts, U.S. News- Health evaluated and ranked 29 of the healthiest diets, popular in U.S.

A healthy diet helps you maintain or improve your general health, lowering the health risks, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and cancer. The eating plan of a healthy diet is usually based on fruits, vegetables and whole grains, as excellent sources of carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Other foods generally admitted by a healthy diet include low-fat dairy products, lean meat, poultry, and fish. Saturated fats, trans fat, cholesterol, salt and added sugars should be used in limited amounts while following a healthy diet.

A successful healthy diet can help you:

• lose weight;
• prevent heart diseases, diabetes, cancer, obesity;
• manage some illnesses which are already messing out with your body.

An important part of a healthy diet is the physical activity. Physical exercise can help you burn calories (in some cases the calorie expenditure is higher than calorie intake).

Most of the healthy diets are lifestyle regimens and not some short-term  diet

To determine how healthy a diet is, U.S. News- Health asked the help of a panel of experts. They evaluated and ranked 29 of the healthiest diets, popular in U.S. The evaluation criteria included referred to 7 aspects of a diet:

1. short-term weight loss;
2. long-term weight loss;
3. ease of following;
4. nutrition;
5. safety;
6. preventing and keeping under control diabetes;
7. preventing and keeping under control heart diseases.

                                                                            The TOP 5 Healthiest diets are:

5.  Weight Watchers Diet;

4.   Mayo Clinic Diet;

3.   Mediterranean Diet;

2.   TLC Diet;

1.   Dash Diet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Weight Watchers diet – The diet is based on Weight Watchers’ PointsPlus program, launched in November 2010, which assigns every food a points value, based on its protein, carbohydrate, fat, fiber, calories. The diet is more than a diet- it is a way of life. The 4 pillars of the WW Diet are: Eat smarter, Move More, Get Support, Helpful Habits.

4. MAYO Clinic Diet– With its “Habits to break” and “Habits to make” rules, the Mayo Clinic Diet teaches you to eat right, get fit, and lose weight. Following a 1200-1800 daily calorie plan, the diet allows you to eat a wide variety of foods, but still lose weight.

3. Mediterranean Diet– This diet is inspired by the Greek, Italian and Spanish cuisine. This diet emphasizes the vegetarian foods. Olive oil is the star in a lot of recipes and low fat dairy products, and low fat fish, poultry and red meat are consumed in low to moderate amounts. Total fat in this diet is 25% to 35% of calories, with saturated fat at 8% or less of calories.

2. TLC Diet– This diet is the perfect choice if you need to lose weight, to improve your heart health, and to lower your bad cholesterol level (LDL).

1. The Dash Diet– The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension is highly recommended to fight against high blood pressure. It has positive effects both for the hypertension condition and for general health, too.

Other diets included in the list of healthiest diets are: Flexitarian Diet, Volumetrics, Jenny Craig. Biggest Loser, Ornish Diet.

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health.usnews.com