U.S. government-designed diet ranked best

NEW YORK, June 7 (UPI) -- U.S. News & World Report, with expert input, evaluated 20 diets and ranked the government-designed Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet as the best.

The DASH diet was developed by the National Institutes of Health to lower high-blood pressure. The magazine reports it gave the diet high marks for nutritional completeness, safety, ability to prevent or control diabetes and helpful for heart health.

Based on several large studies, the diet rich is rich in fruit, vegetables and low-fat dairy foods. It has reduced amounts of red meat, fat and sweets.

In addition, at the Web site http://www.dashforhealth.com/?gclid=CO6v26rIpKkCFZQbKgod8VB6uA individuals can get information on food, eating out and losing weight, and track progress in weight loss, blood pressure and exercise.

Ranked second best, the Mediterranean Diet features fruit and vegetables, olive oil, fish and nuts. The Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes, another diet created by the NIH, promotes cardiovascular health. Weight Watchers was considered the best commercial diet because it is easy it is to follow, nutritionally sound, safe and provides occasional treats.

The rest of the top diets include: Mayo Clinic's diet, which ranked high for nutrition and safety; the Volumetrics Diet, found to be effective and outperforming others in many categories; and Jenny Craig's, which drew praise for being easy and offering emotional support.

Ranked eighth was the Dean Ornish's book "The Spectrum," considered nutritionally sound, safe and heart-healthy, but difficult to adhere to because of the lack of fat.

Vegetarianism was considered healthy but not good at rapid weight loss. Slim-Fast scored well for weight loss and diabetes, but not heart health.