This Diet Was Ranked the Best for 2019—And No, It's Not Keto

Brierley Horton
Updated
This Diet Was Ranked the Best for 2019—And No, It's Not Keto

Every January, U.S. News & World Report releases their list of the best diets—which are divided into categories such as best overall, best for weight loss, best for ease, best for diabetes and heart health, and more. It’s a much-anticipated moment (or at least it should be, if you ask us) because the recommendations come from a panel of nationally recognized experts who rated each diet. But the rankings also give you a chance to review which diet works best for you and your health goals—because one diet doesn’t fit all.

The reviewers have expertise in diet, nutrition, obesity, food psychology, diabetes, and heart health, and they rated the diets across seven categories: how easy it is to follow, its ability to produce short-term and long-term weight loss, its nutritional completeness, its safety and its potential for preventing and managing diabetes and heart disease.

This year, U.S. News & World Report ranked 41 diets—from the well-known Weight Watchers, now referred to as WW, to the Ketogenic Diet and Whole 30, and to lesser-known diets like the Nordic Diet and Volumetrics.

So, who came out on top?

This Is the Top Diet of 2019, According to Experts

The Mediterranean Diet! It ranks as the Best Diet Overall—for the second year in a row. Last year—you might recall—it tied with The DASH Diet and this year DASH got bumped down to the number two spot. Research shows this way of eating—brimming with plant-based foods, healthy fats, whole grains, and even the occasional glass of red wine, may help you live longer and ward off various chronic diseases, so it’s not all too surprising that it took the best overall diet spot. But it also swept in other categories—winning Easiest Diet to Follow, Best Diet for Healthy Eating, and Best Diet for Diabetes.

What about the other categories? Here’s a complete roundup of the categories and winners.

  • Best Diet Overall: Mediterranean Diet. To rank in this category, the diet has to be relatively easy to follow, nutritious, safe, effective for weight loss, and protect against diabetes and heart disease.

  • Best Commercial Diet: WW (Weight Watchers)

  • Best Weight-Loss Diet: WW (Weight Watchers)

  • Best Fast Weight-Loss Diet: HMR. The HMR Program is so successful (it also won in this category last year) because it takes a lot of the guesswork out of dieting: you get low-calorie shakes, meals, nutrition bars and multigrain hot cereal shipped to you to eat. Experts say that compared to traditional diets, you can lose up to three times as much weight and keep it off using meal replacements. Interestingly, the popular keto diet (that incredibly low-carb, high-fat regimen) jumped up to number two in this category this year, from number 13 last year. (Take note, though, that it still ranks poorly at number 38 in Best Diets Overall.)

  • Best Diet for Healthy Eating: Mediterranean Diet

  • Easiest Diet to Follow: Mediterranean Diet

  • Best Diet for Diabetes: Mediterranean Diet

  • Best Heart-Healthy Diet: it’s a tie between the Mediterranean Diet and Ornish Diet (an eating plan developed by Dr. Dean Ornish that’s low in fat, refined carbs, and animal protein).

  • Best Plant-Based Diet: Mediterranean Diet

Now that we’ve talked about which diets you should follow this year, which ones should you skip? These diets consistently ranked poorly across all of the U.S. News & World Report categories: Dukan Diet, Acid Alkaline Diet, Whole30 Diet, and Body Reset Diet.