It seems as though every month there is another dieting fad, that promises to melt away the pounds over night and keep you trim. The fashions come and go, rotating from the unknown, into flavor of the month, and often over to controversy and even disgrace. In the early 2000s the Atkins of high protein became such a fad that fast food restaurants began offering “carb free” burgers. Controversy soon followed, and now we are offered the “Caveman Diet” that claims to replicate how our ancestors would have eaten.

An interesting article in the health section of US News.com offers a frank analysis of the top 25 diets being suggested today. The newspaper took a panel of 22 nationally recognized experts in areas ranging ftom diet, nutrition, obesity to food psychology, diabetes, and heart disease. They rated each diet in seven categories:

  How easy it is to follow
  Its ability to produce short-term
  Its ability to produce long-term weight loss
  Its nutritional completeness
  Its safety
  Its potential for preventing and managing diabetes
  Its potential for preventing and managing heart disease.

The experts were also asked about aspects of each diet they particularly liked or disliked and give advice to anyone considering a particular approach. Each plan was looked at by at least 19 members of the panel and the plans were rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 the best score and 1 the worst. The consultants were also asked to identify any bias they might have including any companies they were working with that might cause a conflict of interest.

The diets reviewed are as follows and the details of the findings available on the US News.com website :

  Abs Diet
  Atkins Diet
  Biggest Loser Diet
  Cookie Diet
  Dash Diet
  Dukan Diet
  Eco Atkins Diet
  Flat Belly Diet
  Glycemic Index Diet
  Jenny Craig
  Macrobiotic Diet
  Mayo Clinic Diet
  Medifast Diet
  Mediteranean Diet
  Nutrisystem Diet
  Ornish Diet
  Paleo Diet
  Raw Food Diet
  Slim Fast Diet
  South Beach Diet
  TLC Diet
  Vegan Diet
  Vegetarian Diet
  Volumetrics Diet
  Weight Watchers Diet
  Zone Diet

Scores could be not assigned to the cost of the plan, nor to taking exercise. Even the commercial diets require some shopping and allow for the dieters own preferences, and obviously dining out will rapidly increase the cost of any diet. Exercise is obviously a part of weight loss programs and while some of those mentioned above feature exercise heavily and others only brush over the issue, the focus of the survey and ranking is nutrition and food.

Of course not all diets will suit every person, some with allergies or specific health issues maybe better off following customized plans and consulting with their doctor or nutritionist.

Rupert Shepherd
Copyright: Medical News Today