You Won’t Believe Which Diets Top the List of Worst Diets

Just in time for our annual flirtation with New Year’s resolutions to eat healthier, U.S. News & World Report gathered together a group of diet and nutrition experts to rank the best (and worst) diets. They looked at 38 diets in all. Of those, we’ll highlight the top 5* “Best Overall Diets” — and also reveal the diets that ranked among the worst.

Fish with Grilled Vegetables | Photo by Meredith

The experts judged each of the 38 diets against the same criteria: Is the diet easy to follow and nutritious? Is it safe and an effective way to lose weight? Does it protect against heart disease and diabetes? A key component for the top diets was that they can be maintained over the long haul. In that sense, they’re lifestyle choices rather than mere weight-loss schemes. Here’s more on how U.S. News ranked the diets. For now, let’s count down the top picks:

4. Mayo Clinic Diet — TLC Diet — Weight Watchers Diet — Flexitarian Diet

Okay, the top 5* is actually the Top 7 because of a four-way tie at #4. Here are the four for number four:

The Mayo Clinic Diet uses “The Mayo Clinic Diet” book as a guide to help you, first, lose weight and, next, enjoy a long-term healthy-eating lifestyle. The book includes its own food pyramid, which emphasizes fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats like olive oil. It’s unique in banning eating in front of the TV, while encouraging daily physical exercise. The Mayo Clinic Diet tied with the Weight Watchers Diet for #1 in Best Commercial Diet Plans. Learn more from U.S. News about the Mayo Clinic Diet.

The TLC Diet is primarily about lowering bad cholesterol to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. It was designed by the National Institutes of Health’s National Cholesterol Education Program. Perhaps more than any other diet among the top-ranking diets, the TLC diet goes primarily after a single culprit: saturated fat (which includes red meat, butter, processed meats, fried foods, and whole-milk cheeses and other dairy). The diet promotes eating loads of fresh produce, whole grains, and fish. Chicken and turkey are okay with the provision that the skin is removed. Incidentally, TLC maybe doesn’t stand for what you think it does. Unless you’re thinking “Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes.” Here’s more on the TLC Diet from U.S. News.

The Weight Watchers Diet is about making healthy choices. As U.S. News explains, the Weight Watchers Beyond the Scale Program was “designed to help people eat better, move more and shift their mindset.” The diet is based on a points program. Foods with higher nutritional value have lower corresponding point values — you add up points to help you make better decisions on what to eat. The Weight Watchers Diet ranked #1 in Best Weight-Loss Diets and also tied with the Mayo Clinic Diet for #1 in Best Commercial Diet Plans and, again, tied for #1 with the Mediterranean Diet and MIND Diet for Easiest Diets to Follow. Here’s more from U.S. News on the Weight Watchers Diet.

The Flexitarian Diet is a mash-up of the words “flexible” and “vegetarian.” The emphasis, as you suspect, is on limiting but not entirely avoiding meat. On this diet, you’re eating mostly a vegetarian diet but enjoying a little meat occasionally. So this diet goes all in for fruits and vegetables, whole grains, mostly plant proteins (including tofu and soy milk, beans, and nuts) with the occasional side-step to make room for a burger or roast chicken. It gets high marks for being flexible and easy to follow since there are no rigid rules to worry about. Check out our collection of Healthy Vegetarian Recipes. Here’s more from U.S. News on the Flexitarian Diet.

Tofu Vegetable Soup | Photo by Meredith

3. MIND Diet

The MIND Diet aims for better brain health, primarily. It’s essentially a mash-up diet, highlighting aspects of the Mediterranean and DASH diets that help reduce the risk of mental decline, including Alzheimer’s disease. The name MIND stands for “Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay.” Like the Mediterranean Diet, it allows red wine in moderation. The MIND Diet also goes all in for fruits and vegetables, including lots of green leafy vegetables, plus nuts, beans, poultry, fish (at least once a week) and olive oil instead of butter. The diet tied with the Mediterranean Diet and the Weight Watchers Diet for being best in the category of Easiest Diets to Follow. Here’s more from U.S. News on the MIND Diet.

Fish with Grilled Vegetables | Photo by Meredith

2. The Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean Diet has been gaining popularity since research began showing that people who live along the Mediterranean Sea tend to suffer less from heart disease and have longer lives. What’s their secret? Possibly an active lifestyle coupled with a diet rich in vegetables and fruits, whole grains, lean proteins (fish and seafood, nuts, beans, and legumes), flavored with herbs and heart-healthy olive oil, and enhanced by a little red wine. The Mediterranean Diet is also notably low in red meats (saturated fats), processed foods, and sugars. Check out, Recipes That Have America Loving the Mediterranean Diet. The Mediterranean Diet ranked #1 in Easiest Diets to Follow (tied with the MIND Diet and the Weight Watchers Diet) and “Best Plant-Based Diets.” Here’s more from U.S. News on the Mediterranean Diet.

Photo by Meredith

1. The DASH Diet

The DASH diet was designed to prevent high blood pressure. DASH, in fact, stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. What you eat on this diet will sound very familiar by now: lots of fruits and veggies, lean proteins (poultry and fish, plus nuts, seeds, and legumes), whole grains, and low-fat dairy — essentially the same recommendations as the Mediterranean Diet. Where the DASH Diet differs slightly is that it specifically recommends cutting back on salt, along with the usual suspects, sugars and saturated fats. Besides ranking #1 overall, the DASH Diet was tops in Best Diabetes Diets, Best Diets for Healthy Eating, and Best Heart-Healthy Diets. Here’s more info on how to follow the DASH Diet.

Salmon with Strawberry Salad and Barley | Photo by Meredith

So those are the top diets. What diets did the panel of experts consider the low performers?

The Lowest-Ranked Diets

Actually, some fairly popular diets ranked at the very bottom. The Raw Food Diet, the Atkins Diet, and the Paleo Diet were down in the basement. But the worst-ranked diet? That was the Whole30 Diet, which came in at #38. The Whole30 Diet was too restrictive, too unforgiving to meet the criteria. According to the panel, “experts worry that restrictive diets with no room for error can set followers up for failure and prompt them to put the pounds back on — and then some — once the diet is over.”

Ultimately, the top-ranked diets seem to have much in common: They call for whole (not processed) foods, mostly plants, plus lean proteins, whole grains, and a reduction of saturated fats and sugars. Many put subtle variations on this common theme (the Mediterranian Diet includes red wine, for example; the DASH Diet cautions against salt), but the basic points are mostly uniform among the top-ranking diets.

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