So Many Diets, One Healthy Heart

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Oct 1, 2007 4:15PM

The Sun-Times reports today on the results of a recent study in this month's Journal of the American Dietetic Association. The study put ten popular weight-loss plans through their paces to determine which ones were the most heart-healthy.

Using the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) to measure and compare factors in peoples' diets that are strongly linked to reducing risk for cardiovascular disease, researchers at the University of Massachusetts compared the dietary quality of the diet plans and determined that the Ornish Plan, a plan designed to reverse the heart disease, scored the best. The Ornish plan places strict limitations on foods with more than slight amounts of cholesterol and saturated fat. Meat, fish and nuts aren't allowed, although small amounts of egg whites and non-fat dairy products are, which might not be good enough for our buddy Dave Warwak.

The worst-scoring diet was the Atkins 45-gram carbohydrate diet. Of course, dig around and you can find reports that support Atkins as a heart-healthy diet. We just wonder what ever happened to eating right and exercising?

Image via Baylor University.