After all the eating during the holidays, people have gained weight and inches and would want to engage in a new diet plan at the start of the year.
Not just one but two best diets to try out this year give us no more excuse not to eat clean.
Want to lose weight? Follow these top diets -- the Mediterranean Diet and the DASH diet which both garnered a score of 4.1 out of 5 in the best overall diets list, according to the U.S. News & World Report's annual assessment.
You Are What You Eat
The best diets guide will give you well-informed, personalized choices to maintain an overall healthier lifestyle. What you eat will impact your health in the long-term.
An expert panel composed of nutritionists, dietary consultants and doctors specializing on diabetes, heart health and weight loss were convened to score each of the 40 most common diets in the United States.
Each diet was ranked based on categories like ease of compliance, short-term and long-term weight loss and effectiveness against diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
The Mediterranean diet that is well known for emphasizing on eating plant-based foods, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and consuming and healthy fats and oils was ranked in the top spot of 40 diet plans tried by at least 25 million Americans who diet each year.
The DASH diet, or the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension is an easy-to-follow diet for weight loss, lowering of cholesterol levels in the body as well as management and prevention of diabetes.
Both diets are easy to follow and allow flexibility especially for busy people and families.
Going Mediterranean
The objective of the Mediterranean diet is easy. Eat healthy and live longer.
It is accepted that people in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea live longer than most Americans. In fact, studies have shown that this diet may help in weight loss and in the prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart ailments.
Follow this diet by consuming a wide variety of fresh, plant-based foods like vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts, olive oils, herbs and spices.
Fish and seafood can be consumed at least a couple of times a week. Moderately consume eggs, cheese and yoghurt. Meat, especially red meat and sweets should be eaten only on rare occasions. Red wine is recommended for this diet.
In 2013, a PREDIMED study showed that people who were at a high risk of cardiovascular diseases reduced their risk of stroke by 39 percent by following a Mediterranean diet while people with hypertension and obesity responded well to the diet.
DASH Diet
The DASH diet, which has been in the top diets list of U.S. News for the past eight consecutive years, promotes a balanced and healthy eating pattern to lower a person's weight and high blood pressure.
The key is to this diet is to limit the consumption of foods that are high in saturated fat, such as fatty meats, full-fat dairy, sugary beverages and sweets. Cutting back of salt is also recommended in DASH diet.
This diet has been proven to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels in the body that are associated with reduced risks of developing various cancer types and diabetes, heart disease, kidney stones and kidney diseases.
In terms of keeping the weight off long-term, the DASH diet scored higher at 3.3 than with that of the Mediterranean diet's metric of 3.1.
The Keto Diet ranked only number 15 in the list.
