THE BEST DIETS (2019)

There are quite different perceptions of the meaning of the word “diet.”  To most people it means going on a specific eating regime for a specific purpose, such as weight loss, or to better manage diabetes.  To others diet has a general meaning, as defined in the Cambridge dictionary:  “The food and drink usually taken by a person or a group.”

It is not always easy to find the right diet to suit your purposes. Fortunately the ultimate assessment of diets and how applicable they are to various dietary needs have recently been published as Best Diets 2019, in the U.S. News and World Report.   Editors and reporters researched different well known diets and created in-depth profiles for 41 of these diets.  These profiles were submitted to a panel of nationally (in the USA) recognized experts in the fields of “diet, nutrition, obesity, food psychology, diabetes and heart disease.”  These experts reviewed the profiles and added their own fact-finding information in order to be able to properly rate the diets in seven categories, which then also led to the best diets overall:

 

• • The best diets overall (combines panelist ratings in all categories.)

 

• • Effective long term weight loss (the likelihood to maintain weight loss for two years or more).
  • The ability to produce short term weight loss (likelihood to lose weight during the first 12 months)
  • The potential for preventing and managing diabetes. (Based on the perceived effectiveness for preventing diabetes or as a maintenance diet for diabetics)
  • The potential for preventing and managing heart disease.(Based on the effectiveness to prevent cardiovascular disease or to reduce the risk of current heart patients.)
  • How easy it is to follow. (The diets taste appeal, ease of initial adjustment to the diet, would it keep the dieters from feeling hungry, and ease of special requirements.)
  • The safety of the diet on health. (Including items such as malnourishment, overly rapid weight loss, and specific nutrient concerns.)
  • The nutritional completeness of the diet.(Based on nutritional guidelines by the U S government.) 

 

The ratings of the panelists over all seven categories were combined, but not all categories were equally weighted. For example long term weight loss carried more “weight” than short term weight loss; and safety was double-counted, as the panel was of the opinion that no diet should be dangerous.  While the panel of experts rated the top ten diets for each of the categories of diets, but for brevity sake Health Insight provided overviews of only the top three diets per category.

 

Best diets overall:

• Mediterranean Diet: Rated as the best diet overall and the top diet in most of the other categories, the Mediterranean Diet is more of a lifestyle based eating pattern than a structured diet. It is common knowledge that people living in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea live longer and are healthier than most other regions in the world. Their traditionally active lifestyle includes a diet that is low in red meat, sugar and saturated fat, while being high in fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, whole grains, olive oil, fish and seafood. Eggs, cheese, yogurt and poultry are used in moderation, while red meat and sweet treats are for special occasions. The Mediterranean Diet has been linked to health benefits such as heart health, weight loss and control, brain health, diabetes prevention and control, cancer prevention and generally avoiding chronic diseases. The best part of this diet is that it includes a glass of wine with your main meal! (Please see the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid – at the end of this Blog – as an easy guide to this diet.)

• DASH Diet: While the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet is aimed at stopping or preventing high blood pressure, it is also well balanced and can be followed long term. The guidelines provide a diet that is high in the ingredients that are known to assist with lowering high blood pressure, such as potassium, calcium, protein and fiber. It includes food such as low-fat dairy products, lean protein, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Salt intake is reduced to about 1 500 milligrams per day. Foods to be avoided include full-fat dairy products, fatty meat, as well as sugar sweetened beverages and sweets. As this is a well-balanced diet, it can be followed long term.

• Flexitarian Diet: Combining flexible with vegetarian, this is not a true vegetarian diet, as it allows the occasional helping of meat while reaping the health benefits associated with a vegetarian diet. Eating more plant material and less meat not only assists with weight loss and overall health, but can also reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

 

 

Best long term weight loss diets:

1. Weight Watchers Diet: The Weight Watchers (WW) diet is widely used to lose weight while focusing on living a healthier lifestyle and have the added benefit of support systems for the individuals partaking in the diet. In the latest programs you count points instead of calories to lose weight. Foods and beverages are awarded points – called the “SmartPoint” value- that are based on the nutritional value of four components: calories, protein, sugar and saturated fat content. (Protein will lower points, while sugar and saturated fat will increase points.) Upon joining WW, factors such as age, height and weight are taken into consideration to award you a daily “points-budget”. Healthy foods cost fewer points, while unhealthy foods cost more. Most fruits, starch-free vegetables, beans and fish have very low points, encouraging participants to eat more of these. Exercising earns you “FitPoints”, which converts to additional SmartPoints. Support offered by WW include online facilities such as an app to track food and SmartPoints, as well as online recipes and encouragement from the WW online community. Participant can also opt to attend regular meetings to assist with motivation and personal support. The option of personal coaching is also offered.
2. Volumetrics diet: This diet focusses more on an approach to eating than to a structured diet. Guidelines teach you to decipher the energy density of foods in order to reduce the energy density of meals and to choose foods that would fight hunger. Food is divided into four categories. Very low-density foods include starch-free fruits and vegetables, fat-free milk and broth-based soup. Low-density foods include starchy fruit and vegetables, grains, low-fat meat, legumes and low-fat dishes. Medium-density foods include meat, cheese, bread, pizza, french fries, salad dressing, and also ice cream and cake. High-density foods include chips, crackers, cookies, nuts, butter and oil. The idea is to concentrate on very low-density and low-density foods in your diet, while watching portion sizes on medium-density foods and keeping high-density foods to a minimum.
3. Flexitarian Diet: Combining flexible with vegetarian, this is not a true vegetarian diet, as it allows the occasional helping of meat while reaping the health benefits associated with a vegetarian diet. Eating more plant material and less meat not only assists with weight loss and overall health, but can also reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

 

Best fast weight loss diets:

1. HMR Programme: The Health Management Resources Programme is a weight loss system based on healthy lifestyle strategies, aimed at reducing calories via meal replacement items, fruit and vegetables, as well as a daily exercise routine. Meals and snacks are replaced by low calorie meal replacements, such as low calorie meals, shakes, nutrition bars and multigrain hot cereal, as well as fruits and vegetables that are naturally low in calories. The programme states that exercise, even walking for 10 – 15 minutes per day, is essential for successful long term weight management.
2. The Atkins Diet: Based on the health benefits of low-carb diets, the diet created by cardiologist Dr. Robert Atkins involves four phases. It starts off with very few carbs allowed and then over time eating progressively more carbs until you reach your desired weight, but still limiting the carbs you take in at any one time. A carb-heavy meal floods the body with glucose and the excess that the body cannot use or store, eventually ends up as fat in the body. By limiting carbs as fuel for the body, the body turns to an alternative fuel in the form of stored fat, which leads to weight loss. Instead of foods high in sugar and simple starches, the focus shifts to protein and fat, such as in chicken, meat and eggs.
3. The Keto Diet: This diet has extreme carb restrictions and high fat intake, resulting in weight loss through the burning of fat in the body as source of fuel, instead of carbs and sugar.   The name of this diet is derived from the processes taking place when very low carbs in the diet and a high intake of fat result in the body breaking down both dietary and stored body fat into substances called ketones, which is used as fuel for the body instead of sugar derived fuel.

Please note that the scoring of the Atkins Diet and the Keto Diet resulted in a tie, with both in second place. These two diets were then listed in alphabetical order.

 

Best diabetes diets:

1. Mediterranean Diet: Rated as the best diet overall and the top diet in most of the other categories, the Mediterranean Diet is more of a lifestyle based eating pattern than a structured diet. It is common knowledge that people living in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea live longer and are healthier than most other regions in the world. Their traditionally active lifestyle includes a diet that is low in red meat, sugar and saturated fat, while being high in fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, whole grains, olive oil, fish and seafood. Eggs, cheese, yogurt and poultry are used in moderation, while red meat and sweet treats are for special occasions. The Mediterranean Diet has been linked to health benefits such as heart health, weight loss and control, brain health, diabetes prevention and control, cancer prevention and generally avoiding chronic diseases. The best part of this diet is that it includes a glass of wine with your main meal! (Please see the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid – at the end of this Blog – as an easy guide to this diet.)
2. DASH Diet: While the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet is aimed at stopping or preventing high blood pressure, it is also well balanced and can be followed long term. The guidelines provide a diet that is high in the ingredients that are known to assist with lowering high blood pressure, such as potassium, calcium, protein and fiber. It includes food such as low-fat dairy products, lean protein, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Salt intake is reduced to about 1 500 milligrams per day. Foods to be avoided include full-fat dairy products, fatty meat, as well as sugar sweetened beverages and sweets. As this is a well-balanced diet, it can be followed long term.
3. Flexitarian Diet: Combining flexible with vegetarian, this is not a true vegetarian diet, as it allows the occasional helping of meat while reaping the health benefits associated with a vegetarian diet. Eating more plant material and less meat not only assists with weight loss and overall health, but can also reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

 

Best Heart-Healthy Diets:

1. Mediterranean Diet: Rated as the best diet overall and the top diet in most of the other categories, the Mediterranean Diet is more of a lifestyle based eating pattern than a structured diet. It is common knowledge that people living in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea live longer and are healthier than most other regions in the world. Their traditionally active lifestyle includes a diet that is low in red meat, sugar and saturated fat, while being high in fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, whole grains, olive oil, fish and seafood. Eggs, cheese, yogurt and poultry are used in moderation, while red meat and sweet treats are for special occasions. The Mediterranean Diet has been linked to health benefits such as heart health, weight loss and control, brain health, diabetes prevention and control, cancer prevention and generally avoiding chronic diseases. The best part of this diet is that it includes a glass of wine with your main meal! (Please see the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid – at the end of this Blog – as an easy guide to this diet.)
2. Ornish Diet: This diet is named after Dr Dean Ornish (professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito) for his scientifically proven research results into modifying diet and lifestyle to reverse heart disease. In essence, the Ornish programme addresses diet as part of an intensive lifestyle change programme and consists of four components: what we eat, how we respond to stress, how much we exercise, and the quality of our relationships (eat well, stress less. move more, and love more). The eat-well component of the programme limits the daily intake of calories from fat to 10% – preferably plant based fats such as nuts or grains for example – and much less saturated fat. Plant-based proteins are recommended. Foods to be avoided include refined carbohydrates, oils, nearly all animal products, excessive caffeine and foods high in cholesterol. Dairy products are limited to one cup of fat-free milk or yogurt. Foods high in fiber and with complex carbohydrates are emphasized. Moderate use of salt is recommended. The stress-less component centers on awareness of the devastating effect of chronic stress on the body and guidelines on stress management techniques. The move more component advocates the health benefits of regular, moderate exercise. The recommended exercise routine includes aerobic exercise of at least 30 minutes per day (e.g. walking), while resistance or strength training is also crucial to good health. The love more component of the Ornish lifestyle programme highlights the negative impact of loneliness and isolation on our quality of life, illness and eve premature death. Giving and receiving love and support from others is at the root of what brings us happiness and good health.
3. DASH Diet:   While the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet is aimed at stopping or preventing high blood pressure, it is also well balanced and can be followed long term. The guidelines provide a diet that is high in the ingredients that are known to assist with lowering high blood pressure, such as potassium, calcium, protein and fiber. It includes food such as low-fat dairy products, lean protein, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Salt intake is reduced to about 1 500 milligrams per day. Foods to be avoided include full-fat dairy products, fatty meat, as well as sugar sweetened beverages and sweets. As this is a well-balanced diet, it can be followed long term.

 

Easiest diets to follow:

1. 1. Mediterranean Diet: Rated as the best diet overall and the top diet in most of the other categories, the Mediterranean Diet is more of a lifestyle based eating pattern than a structured diet. It is common knowledge that people living in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea live longer and are healthier than most other regions in the world. Their traditionally active lifestyle includes a diet that is low in red meat, sugar and saturated fat, while being high in fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, whole grains, olive oil, fish and seafood. Eggs, cheese, yogurt and poultry are used in moderation, while red meat and sweet treats are for special occasions. The Mediterranean Diet has been linked to health benefits such as heart health, weight loss and control, brain health, diabetes prevention and control, cancer prevention and generally avoiding chronic diseases. The best part of this diet is that it includes a glass of wine with your main meal! (Please see the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid – at the end of this Blog – as an easy guide to this diet.)
   2. Flexitarian Diet: Combining flexible with vegetarian, this is not a true vegetarian diet, as it allows the occasional helping of meat while reaping the health benefits associated with a vegetarian diet. Eating more plant material and less meat not only assists with weight loss and overall health, but can also reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. 
   3. Weight Watchers Diet: The Weight Watchers (WW) diet is widely used to lose weight while focusing on living a healthier lifestyle and have the added benefit of support systems for the individuals partaking in the diet. In the latest programs you count points instead of calories to lose weight. Foods and beverages are awarded points – called the “SmartPoint” value- that are based on the nutritional value of four components: calories, protein, sugar and saturated fat content. (Protein will lower points, while sugar and saturated fat will increase points.) Upon joining WW, factors such as age, height and weight are taken into consideration to award you a daily “points-budget”. Healthy foods cost fewer points, while unhealthy foods cost more. Most fruits, starch-free vegetables, beans and fish have very low points, encouraging participants to eat more of these. Exercising earns you “FitPoints”, which converts to additional SmartPoints. Support offered by WW include online facilities such as an app to track food and SmartPoints, as well as online recipes and encouragement from the WW online community. Participant can also opt to attend regular meetings to assist with motivation and personal support. The option of personal coaching is also offered.

 

 

Best diets for healthy eating (nutritional completeness and health risks):

1. 1. Mediterranean Diet: Rated as the best diet overall and the top diet in most of the other categories, the Mediterranean Diet is more of a lifestyle based eating pattern than a structured diet. It is common knowledge that people living in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea live longer and are healthier than most other regions in the world. Their traditionally active lifestyle includes a diet that is low in red meat, sugar and saturated fat, while being high in fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, whole grains, olive oil, fish and seafood. Eggs, cheese, yogurt and poultry are used in moderation, while red meat and sweet treats are for special occasions. The Mediterranean Diet has been linked to health benefits such as heart health, weight loss and control, brain health, diabetes prevention and control, cancer prevention and generally avoiding chronic diseases. The best part of this diet is that it includes a glass of wine with your main meal! (Please see the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid – at the end of this Blog – as an easy guide to this diet.) 
   2. DASH diet: While the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet is aimed at stopping or preventing high blood pressure, it is also well balanced and can be followed long term. The guidelines provide a diet that is high in the ingredients that are known to assist with lowering high blood pressure, such as potassium, calcium, protein and fiber. It includes food such as low-fat dairy products, lean protein, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Salt intake is reduced to about 1 500 milligrams per day. Foods to be avoided include full-fat dairy products, fatty meat, as well as sugar sweetened beverages and sweets. As this is a well-balanced diet, it can be followed long term.
   3. Flexitarian Diet: Combining flexible with vegetarian, this is not a true vegetarian diet, as it allows the occasional helping of meat while reaping the health benefits associated with a vegetarian diet. Eating more plant material and less meat not only assists with weight loss and overall health, but can also reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

 

 

 

Common foods of the Mediterranean Diet:

 

 

Sources:

 

2019. S. News best diet rankings 2019. Published online, February 2019. U.S. News and World Report.  (Amulti-media publisher of news and information.  (www.usnews.com)

Top 2019 diets to shed excess. Published 2 February 2019.  P.7 of Weekend Post.  (www.heraldlive.co.za)

How will you Freestyle? Published online. Weight Watchers.  (www.weightwatchers.com)

Weight Watchers points system explained/how WW points work.  Published online.  MightyDiets.Com  (www.mightydiets.com)

 

 

HEALTH INSIGHT