12 Best Diets of 2017 as Compiled by Nutrition Experts
The best diets are the ones which are easy to follow, safe, nutritious and effective for weight loss and offer preventive measures for heart disease and diabetes. So, here’s a list of the 12 best diets of 2017 as per the nutrition experts:
Vegetarian Diet
The vegetarian diet has made its spot in the top 10 list of best diets of 2017 from being number 13 in 2016. This diet is as simple as it can get.
Ornish Diet
This diet plan is developed by Dr. Dean Ornish. This diet sees food on a “spectrum” with certain food items being healthier than the others. The less processed, the better as far as eating healthy is concerned. The diet emphasizes on consuming fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and fat as well only if it contains omega 3 fatty acids. It is also among the top ranking diets for heart disease.
Jenny Craig Diet
This diet plan is promoted by the likes of Mariah Carey and Kirstie Alley. Jenny Craig uses weight-control counseling, and the prepared meal can be picked up from a Jenny Craig location or delivered to your address.
Volumetrics Diet
Volumetrics diet is developed by Barbara Rolls, a nutrition professor at the Penn State University. This diet plan categorizes food items based on their density. Foods which are less dense like soups, vegetables with high water content, etc. are preferred over cookies, butter, and pizza.
Fertility Diet
As the name suggests, this diet is meant for those women who are having a problem conceiving. This diet is developed by Dr. Walter Willet and Dr. Jorge Chavarro of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. It includes 10 steps backed by science to boost fertility in women. Fertility diet emphasizes on drinking whole milk, vegetable oils and proteins. One must also take multivitamin pills or supplements containing folic acid.
Weight Watchers Diet
This diet is ranked the best weight loss diet. The company has switched to its “Beyond the Scale” program which helped the diet plan get its due position on the list of best diets of 2017. “The way we think about it is that we used to have a very narrow focus on weight, and now the weight is one of the things we focus on, but it’s not the only thing,” Gary Foster, the chief scientific officer at Weight Watchers told Time Magazine way back in 2015. He added, “The consumer sentiment is, ‘I still want to lose weight, but I’m thinking about in a more holistic way.” Weight Watchers continues to use its signature point systems.
TLC Diet
The TLC diet stands for Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes. This diet is created by the National Institutes of Health’s National Cholesterol Education Program and is approved by the American Heart Association. They believe it is a heart-healthy regimen that can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Its main focus is on lowering the cholesterol level above anything else. This diet wants the people to cut back sharply on fat, especially saturated fat. Whole-milk dairy, thick fatty meat, etc. containing saturated fat increases bad cholesterol thereby increasing the risk of stroke and heart attack. The TLC diet claims that by limiting daily dietary cholesterol intake and eating more fiber, people can control their cholesterol level without any medication. You will be able to lower your LDL cholesterol by 8% to 10% with a mere six weeks.
Mayo Clinic Diet
This diet is developed by a research group based in Rochester, Minnesota. It is all about setting up good habits by breaking bad habits. The first part of the diet plan lasts two weeks in which you would lose around 6-10 pounds since you would be setting up new habits. The diet comes with a food pyramid that places vegetables and fruits at the bottom.
Flexitarian Diet
Registered dietitian, Dawn Jackson Blatner, is the creator of the Flexitarian diet. This is meant for all those people who are willing to go vegetarian yet do not want to give up meat completely. The dieters are asked to add “new meat” like protein-packed beans, tofu, eggs, nuts and lentils to their meals. However, if anybody craves real meat once in a while, that is not a big factor either.
MIND Diet
The MIND diet focuses on food items that help your brain functioning. This diet is meant to prevent neurological disease like Alzheimer’s. The staples of the diet include nuts, olive oil, berries and dark leafy greens.
Mediterranean Diet
The diet is based on the food eaten by the people living in countries around the Mediterranean Sea. The diet includes eating vegetables, fruits, fish and whole grains like brown rice and whole wheat.
DASH Diet
DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. It is named the best for the seventh year a row. It works towards keeping the blood pressure to a normal range which it does by limiting the sodium intake to less than 2300 mg a day. The diet allows people to eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. This diet is best for diabetics and heart patients as well.