News Flash: Most Diets May Not Work

Moral of the story? Eat more plants.

Is U.S. News and World Report even a news site anymore? Or do they just put out lists of things that use criteria no one understands so that snarky bloggers (or college admissions officers) can object to them? Their latest salvo is a ranking of diets - some fad, some medically-developed and some commercial. They brought in experts, statistics and all sorts of information to rank the top 20 diets. Only problem? The diets pretty much don't work.

Marion Nestle (nutrition expert, author and professor at NYU) wrote a brief piece in the Atlantic yesterday that made us spend a bit of time looking at the U.S. News numbers. The first (and most obvious) problem? A poll that is being conducted on the site. Under each of the diets, readers are asked "Did this diet work for you?" Only one of the officially ranked "top 5" comes anywhere close to a positive response.

The number one diet (according to the official rankings) is the "DASH" diet, developed to fight high blood pressure. The unscientific poll numbers? 253 yes, 843 no, more than 3 to 1 against. Worse is the TLC Diet (ranked #3) created by the National Institute of Health - almost 10 to 1 against. Even worse are the South Beach and Zone diets (which didn't make the top 10) - 19 to 1 against and 39 to 1 against respectively.

Guess which diets worked? Unsurprisingly (at least to Michael Pollan fans) Vegetarian and Vegan diets have gotten overwhelmingly positive responses from readers - 17 to 1 and 15 to 1 in favor. Moral of the story? Healthy eating and lots of veggies probably works better than fads. Weight Watchers also did pretty good - it made the top 5 AND got a positive response from readers, the only diet to do both.

Ok, so these are crowdsourced responses. If we look at the expert numbers, we see a couple of things. At least U.S. News firmly places most of the "fad diets" in the bottom 10. We also can see why they put Vegetarian and Vegan down pretty far - their low "easy to follow" score kills them. However, when the best diet on the list (DASH) only gets a 3/5 from the experts for "long-term weight loss," we can be pretty sure that "dieting" as a category isn't really doing all that well.

As always, we prefer the Pollan mantra - Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants. Oh, and exercise occasionally.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@chicagoist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Anthony Todd in Food on November 2, 2011 10:20 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Danyelle Hamilton

Going vegetarian is one of the best actions we can take to improve our health. According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarians are reported to have lower body mass indices than non-vegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer. For more information on improving your health and reducing unnecessary suffering and cruelty, please visit ChooseVeg.com.

Marla Heller, MS, RD

The reason the DASH diet didn't get higher marks for long-term weight loss is that there has not been a specific study on long-term weight loss. However, the DASH diet is the only one of the plans that actually has been researched in controlled settings, and can document health benefits. Is it great for long-term healthy weight loss? Of course! A plan with sufficient protein at every meal and snack, supported by bulky/filling low calorie fruits and veggies makes it easy for anyone to lose weight, without feeling like they are on a diet. "The DASH Diet Action Plan" provides the meal plans, recipes, and other strategies to promote life-long lifestyle change leading to improved health, and, oh yes, healthy weight loss.

Marla Heller, MS, RD
Author of the user-friendly guide, The DASH Diet Action Plan
http://dashdiet.org

Anthony Todd

Maria,

Thanks for the information - it's interesting (from a statistical standpoint) that USNews conflated no data with a negative without a note!

As I mentioned in the post, I'm quite glad, overall, that the diets that have been tested in a rigorous way are being endorsed, even if USNews' unscientific poll does give us some strange results.

ChicagoD

Whatever, dude. Just buy the damned book.

remyngtin

fat bastards unite

radio_waves

Michael Pollan fans ≠ vegetarians & vegans.

Greg

I quit eating grains so I could eat more bacon. It worked!

Pope Lando

I especially liked the Answer #5 diet.

Dead Himmler

I heard that the cocaine diet works great. You might lose your job, family, and health but you will shed those extra pounds!!!

ChicagoD

I thought my family *was* the extra pounds. I've been doing this all wrong.

monkeyrotica

I disagree with this post. Properly used, many celebrity fad diets help you keep off weight. The Automobile Crash Diet can help you lose hundreds of pounds in seconds. Worked for James Dean.

Modestproposal1

And don't even get me started on the Persimmons, Jerky, and Meth Diet. Sure, I killed a homeless guy and ate most of his leg (cheating is inevitable) and I'm legally prohibited from talking about what happened at that day care center, but I lost 52 pounds the first week!

TheRealCannibal

what is this? Yahoo news?

imadick

there's not enough 'kill muslims' comments here to come close to yahoo news.

TheRealCannibal

touche

BlueFairlane

I guess it's not real news unless it involve Regis Philbin or a Kardashian.

monkeyrotica

Talk about someone who could use a diet. Her ass has it's own climate.

ChicagoD

Get off Kim's ass.

It's my turn now.

Na. I'm just joking. I don't even play professional sports.

BlueFairlane

We should consider her ass for carbon sequestration to combat global warming. Who cares if sea levels rise there? A thawing of glaciers may negate the need for divorce.

TheRealCannibal

yeah? I guess its not real news unless it involves that culinary abortion you people call 'pizza'

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BlueFairlane

yeah? Who said anything about pizza? We haven't filled your ist with pizza or F-list D-cup psuedocelebrities. (To clarify, that refers to Regis, not the Kardashian.) We just gave you broccoli.