Ranking Diet and Eating Plans
U.S. News & World Report worked with diet and nutrition experts to review 32 diets and eating plans.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's "DASH Diet" ranked number one overall.
The "Weight Watchers" diet ranked number one for weight loss.
The "Ornish Diet" ranked number one for heart health.
A recent study seems to give us some additional motivation to shed pounds and get fit. Researchers in Canada say their analysis shows it's really not possible to be fat and fit. Even when overweight people have no signs of metabolic heart or health conditions, they have a higher risk of dying earlier than healthy people at a thinner weight, the study shows.
Katie Ferraro is a registered dietitian, nutrition professor and author. She said it doesn't take long to undo the damage of longtime poor eating behavior.
"Health damage benefits can be seen almost immediately with exercise and diet that leads to weight loss," she said.
Ferraro said the recommended weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds per week.
"Cutting back 250 to 500 calories per day from their baseline can begin to do this," she said.
For some people that means just cutting out their daily soda intake, she said.
