25 Of The Best Diets Are Rated

It seems as though every month there is another dieting fad, that promises to melt away the pounds over night and keep you trim. The fashions come and go, rotating from the unknown, into flavor of the month, and often over to controversy and even disgrace. In the early 2000s the Atkins of high protein became such a fad that fast food restaurants began offering "carb free" burgers. Controversy soon followed, and now we are offered the "Caveman Diet" that claims to replicate how our ancestors would have eaten.

An interesting article in the health section of US News.com offers a frank analysis of the top 25 diets being suggested today. The newspaper took a panel of 22 nationally recognized experts in areas ranging ftom diet, nutrition, obesity to food psychology, diabetes, and heart disease. They rated each diet in seven categories:

How easy it is to follow
Its ability to produce short-term
Its ability to produce long-term weight loss
Its nutritional completeness
Its safety
Its potential for preventing and managing diabetes
Its potential for preventing and managing heart disease.

The experts were also asked about aspects of each diet they particularly liked or disliked and give advice to anyone considering a particular approach. Each plan was looked at by at least 19 members of the panel and the plans were rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 the best score and 1 the worst. The consultants were also asked to identify any bias they might have including any companies they were working with that might cause a conflict of interest.

The diets reviewed are as follows and the details of the findings available on the US News.com website :

Abs Diet
Atkins Diet
Biggest Loser Diet
Cookie Diet
Dash Diet
Dukan Diet
Eco Atkins Diet
Flat Belly Diet
Glycemic Index Diet
Jenny Craig
Macrobiotic Diet
Mayo Clinic Diet
Medifast Diet
Mediteranean Diet
Nutrisystem Diet
Ornish Diet
Paleo Diet
Raw Food Diet
Slim Fast Diet
South Beach Diet