DASH Diet Tops List as a Healthy and Safe Diet

A new diet rankings was released by US News and World Report, in which the DASH Diet (which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) tops as 2011’s healthiest diet on the market.

The magazine prefaces the rankings by saying “Being on a diet doesn't always mean good things for your health. You want to make sure your new diet will provide enough calories and doesn't skimp on important nutrients or entire food groups.”

However, experts decided the DASH Diet was best, based on nutrition and safety. And Department of Health and Human Services approved it.

The whole point of this ranking is to help dieters lose weight in a healthful way. The ones toward the bottoms of the list are less nutritionally complete, Andrea Giancoli, a panel member said.

The DASH Diet doesn't only help people to shed as many pounds as quickly as possible, but also focus on health and safety without unsafe pills, supplements, too low of a caloric intake, an unbalanced diet or expensive food items sold by a company looking for profit rather than promoting healthy lifestyles.

A panel of health experts developed DASH Diet originally to help patients to prevent high blood pressure, rather than shed weight.

The Diet bases on a certain number of daily servings from various food groups, such as fruits, vegetables, low fat and non-dairy sources of protein, along with whole grains, offering a consumption intake that is high in fiber, moderate in fat and rich in important minerals such as potassium, calcium and magnesium.

The Dash diet, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, wasn't originally intended for weight loss, but actually as a low sodium diet that physicians could recommend to patients struggling with high blood pressure. The healthy eating plan is based on rich fruits and vegetables combined with low fat and non-dairy sources of protein combined with whole grains.

The results should lead to a consumption intake that is high in fiber, moderate in fat and rich in important minerals such as potassium, calcium and magnesium.

The DASH diet guidelines help people determine how many calories they should eat for their age and activity level, tells them where those calories should come from, and reminds them to choose and prepare foods with less salt, provide a sample menu for everyday calorie needs and tables to mark intakes.

The rest of the Top 5 Healthiest diets are below:

No. 2 TLC Diet (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes)
This diet are beneficial to people with heart health problems and high cholesterol.

No. 3 Mediterranean Diet
This diet supplies whole-grain pita and hummus, salads, fresh fruits and veggies, salmon, and beneficial fats like olive oil. Otherwise, a low amount of red wine is encouraged.

No. 4 Mayo Clinic Diet
This diet promotes eating food with low energy density like fruits and veggies in both safety and nutrition categories.

No. 5 Volumetrics Diet
The volumetrics menu items of this diet are large in volume but low in calories, due to rich fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nonfat dairy, and lean meat.