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The best diet of 2012 is the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, according to new rankings released by U.S. News & World Report.
This is the second year in a row the DASH diet, which aims to prevent and lower high blood pressure, has won the category of "best diet overall."
"While it may have started as a [blood pressure] lowering diet, it really has incredible nutritional value," said Deborah Enos, a certified nutritionist in Seattle and a MyHealthNewsDaily contributor.
Second place was won by the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diet, which aims to lower cholesterol, and third place went to the Mayo Clinic diet, which focuses on weight loss.
"TLC is another example of a wonderful 'medical' type of diet that has gone mainstream," Enos said. But while it's low sodium requirement means it boosts heart health, it may be difficult for some to follow.
The U.S. News & World Report description of the diet's strengths and weaknesses noted that "The TLC diet takes work and a certain aptitude for reading nutrition labels."
"The easy-to-follow aspect is almost more important than the weight lost on a program," Enos said. Her clients, she said, have a difficult time sticking with diets that are hard to follow. "Now, for my clients who need to lower their cholesterol levels, this is an amazing and necessary diet for them to consider."
The rankings were decided by a panel of 22 experts in diet, nutrition, obesity, food psychology, diabetes and heart disease, according to the magazine's website. The experts rated the 25 diets in seven categories: how easy the diets are to follow, their ability to produce short-term and long-term weight loss, nutritional completeness, safety and potential for preventing and managing diabetes and heart disease. The full rankings were published online today (Jan. 4).
Best diets for weight loss
The top three diets for weight loss are the Weight Watchers diet, the Biggest Loser diet and the Jenny Craig diet, according to the rankings.
"The data show that dieters had the best luck with Weight Watchers for both short and long term weight loss," and the diet ranked highly in terms of how easy it was to follow, Enos said. "The Weight Watchers plan is also the diet that people most often return to — it appears in the article, and in my own experience, to be the diet that people really refer back to over their lifetime."
The experts rated the Weight Watchers diet as a 3.7 out of 5 in the category of easy to follow, whereas the Biggest Loser diet scored a 2.9 in this category, according to the rankings. The Jenny Craig diet scored a 3.6, but fared less well than Weight Watchers in terms of its ability to produce weight loss.
"Let’s face the facts of our busy lives, if a program isn’t easy to follow, we probably won’t," Enos said.
Weight Watchers won the category of best commercial diet plan, edging out the Jenny Craig diet, which relied too heavily on packaged meals and came with a high cost, according to the rankings.
However, when Consumer Reports released its ratings of commercial diet plans in May, Jenny Craig ranked as the winner. Those raters acknowledged criticisms that the diet is hard to follow, but cited a two-year study of 332 people showing that 92 percent of participants stuck with the diet. That study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2010.
Best diets for healthy eating
The DASH and TLC diets topped the category of best diets for healthy eating, which emphasized nutrional completeness and safety. The Mediterranean diet ranked third.
The data show that the DASH diet offers the best overall nutrition, Enos said. "It has one of the highest levels of B-12 and potassium," she noted, whereas the Weight Watchers plan is low in those nutrients, and recommends that its followers take a multivitamin.
The DASH diet prescribes the number of servings of grains, vegetables, dairy and other food types that a person should eat daily, based on their calorie needs. It suggests high amounts of fiber, potassium and magnesium, and keeps sweets to a minimum.
The diet caps salt intake to the recommended daily values —1,500 milligrams for people who are age 51 or older, African-American, or have hypertension, diabetes or chronic kidney disease; 2,300 milligrams for everyone else.
The DASH diet also won in the category of best diabetes diets, while the Ornish diet, which focuses on low fat intake and emphasizes exercise and stress management, won for best heart-healthy diet.
Pass it on: One panel has decided the best diet of 2012 is the DASH diet, which emphasizes consuming lean protein, fruits and vegetables.
Source : http://www.livescience.com
Joanne McCorkle-Smith: I lost 85 ¾ pounds inWeightWatchers in 1976. I cannot wear a size 22 ½ any time again in my lifetime. The clothes just ain’t that cute. I’m impressed with my full figured girl-friends, but for me, I got to keep on with my program.
Patch: How has the WeightWatchers program changed over time?
McCorkle-Smith: The plan now is not the plan that I lost weight on. Be very glad. It was a diet then. We had our liver meal once a week and we had to put mustard in our tuna fish! I’ve seen maybe 14 evolutions in the years I’ve been a member and, believe me, this one is the best.
One of the strategies that has been in place since the beginning is tracking. We used to call it a food journal. Now people can do it online, but it’s still the same principle: keep track of everything we eat, every day.
At the end of the day, nothing surpasses the meetings. We bring people together from all walks of life to encourage each other on this weight loss journey.
Patch: How long has this center been in Catonsville?
McCorkle-Smith: Wow, I would venture to say that there has been a Catonsville location for WeightWatchers for over 25 years.
Patch: Why did you become a WeightWatchers leader?
McCorkle-Smith: This is a plan that works! The only way that I was sure I was going to keep my weight off was to help someone else. I needed to take the focus off of me. When you’re a leader, you have to walk the walk. This is a job that physically your body has to look like what you are.
Patch: What do you do as a WeightWatchers leader?
McCorkle-Smith: Most of my meetings are in Pikesville in Pomona Square. I come over to Catonsville on Friday mornings. In addition to leading meetings, I also am an ambassador, which means that I am tapped for public information: TV, radio and newspapers.
Patch: Obviously, from your turn-out today, this is a busy time of year.
McCorkle-Smith: Oh yeah. This is the time of year when people say: I’m not going to eat sweets, I’m not going to snack, I’m not going to drink liquor. But that is such a set-up. The word diet has always equaled to me deprivation and that’s why diets don’t work. The whole concept is so self-condemning. I am going to incarcerate myself in a room full of lettuce leaves!
But when people come to WeightWatchers, they see that they can live a healthy lifestyle and eat foods like a normal person if they change their behaviors towards food and activity.
Patch: What are some other misconceptions people have about weight loss?
McCorkle-Smith: I see people join WeightWatchers in January, and if they haven’t lost 50 pounds by February, it’s all over. They lose one or two pounds a week and they get impatient. They might even gain in a given week and they say, “I ain’t going to go over to Catonsville and pay those people to be gaining!” and they stop coming. Or they weigh themselves all the time and then they come in and our scales say something different and they say “Something’s wrong with that scale.” What they don’t know is that these scales are calibrated by the Department of Agriculture every month. I say, “You think something’s wrong, yes, something’s wrong, you’re getting on too many scales!”
So, basically, what people need to understand is that this program is a lifestyle and it lasts a lifetime.
Patch: What’s one of the hardest things about your work?
McCorkle-Smith: The hardest things for me are the heart-wrenching reasons that many people are weight challenged that have nothing to do with food. It’s difficult not to hurt for some of the people who walk in our doors.
Patch: What are you most proud of?
McCorkle-Smith: As time goes on, I watch people begin to think differently as it comes to food. That’s my reward, when they get it.
Patch: Tell our readers about one of your favorite stories.
McCorkle-Smith: In the summer of 2005, I was in Rome, Italy, with my husband when a gentleman came up to me and asked, “Are you the WeightWatchers lady?” I didn’t recognize him, but I said yes and he called out to his wife, who had sent him over, “It’s her, Blanche, come on over!” So, there I was, hundreds of miles from home, having a little WeightWatchers meeting because Blanche said she’d been having a bad day what with pasta and red wine and all! That was one of the funniest things that ever happened.
Patch: What’s your favorite thing about your work?
McCorkle-Smith: WeightWatchers is partnering with the Baltimore City Health Department to provide meetings to hundreds of low income families in Baltimore City. To see people begin to learn about food and to start making healthier choices about food and activity is one of the most gratifying things I’ve done in my job.
Patch: What are you looking forward to?
McCorkle-Smith: More blessings. Because I’ve lived my life so that I could serve as an example of someone who has tried to do the right thing, my faith teaches me that I am in store for more blessings, not for me, but so that I may bless someone else.
How often do you hear about people giving up on their New Year's resolutions to quit smoking?
About 20 percent of Americans smoke — or close to 48 million people. Of them, 70 percent would like to quit, according to the American Cancer Society. Every year, millions resolve to stop smoking for the new year. Last year, aCenters for Disease Control and Prevention study showed that 69 percent of adult smokers wanted to quit and 52 percent tried to quit in the past year.
Unfortunately, only one in 10 will stick with it long enough to successfully quit. When we call it a resolution, that's what it means — those who are truly resolved are 10 times more likely to become tobacco-free as those who think they'll give it a try.
Can you say just how hard it is, compared to otheraddictions?
Nicotine is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, addiction to break. It is as addictive, or more so, than heroin or cocaine. Long-term use of any addictive drug, including tobacco, changes the way the brain functions. Consequently, people become physically and mentally dependent on tobacco.
Cigarettes are often the first step for teens who go on to experiment with alcohol and other drugs. Many recovering alcoholics and recovering drug addicts struggle for years to stop smoking — without success — even though they've kicked their other dependencies. And because smoking is legal and can be done out in the open, this makes quitting smoking even harder.
What support works best — group or individual counseling, phone support or products like gum or drugs?
If there was a best way to stop smoking, everyone would do it and no one would be smoking! So while there is no best way to stop smoking, there are better ways. Studies have shown that with each additional support component added to a person's quit plan, it is more likely that they will succeed. Combination therapies are increasingly becoming standard of care (nicotine patch and lozenge or gum, other medications and nicotine replacement products) along with supportive coaching — individual, in a group, online or phone quit-line. Every quit plan may have common elements, but it really needs to be suited to the individual. With Freshstart, we work with each person to create his or her own quit plan featuring the elements best suited for them.
Chantix was linked to an increased risk of heart attacks, so do you still recommend it for some people?
There are pros and cons to every tobacco cessation medication. The best recommendation is to talk to your doctor or pharmacist about Chantix or any other prescription you are considering.
Everyone knows smoking causes cancer, but can you give more details on the dangers of smoking?
Smoking affects every single organ in the body. In addition to lung cancer, there are 12 other kinds of cancer associated with smoking, including the throat, oral cavity, pancreas, stomach and bladder. Smoking narrows the blood vessels, causing reduced circulation and contributing to peripheral vascular disease. Smoking and secondhand smoke can cause heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke and cataracts. It can cause lung diseases such as emphysema, bronchitis and asthma by damaging the airways and small air sacs in the lungs. Smoking also adversely affects fertility and childbirth, including low birth weight and still-born babies. Smokers have a greater chance of having a baby die of SIDS. Women who have gone through menopause and smoke have a risk of lower bone density and more hip fractures.
What the most important message in St. Joseph's free Freshstart smoking cessation program?
Don't give up on yourself! No one ever regrets stopping smoking, only failing to stop. Start with behavior modification. Eliminate smoking in places you normally would (like the house, back deck or car) before you stop smoking, and it will be easier for you to quit. Ask for help and believe you can do it because you can.
Source : http://www.latimes.com