Best Diets of 2023: Review of US News & World Report

Everyone wants to know the best diet for health or weight loss, and more than half of all Americans followed some diet at some point in the past year, spending $33 billion dollars on diets. Instead of you spending hours reviewing diets to figure out the pros and cons, U.S. News and World Report do the work for you.

How do you choose which is best for you with hundreds of diets available?

Each year U.S. News and World Report puts together a panel of nationally recognized registered dietitians, nutritional epidemiologists, weight-loss researchers, and physicians who are experts in nutrition, weight management, food psychology, and chronic disease to rate selected diets. The panelists also develop an in-depth profile for each diet they review, explaining how the diet works, determining whether its marketing claims are realistic, scrutinizing it for possible health risks – and revealing what it’s like to live on the diet, not just read about it.

The diet review is based on questions you might be curious about yourself, including:

  • Are all food groups included in the diet?
  • Are nutrient-rich foods emphasized?
  • Does the diet require vitamins, nutrient supplements, fiber drinks or hard-to-find specialized products?
  • Does the diet encourage a healthy and realistic timeline for weight loss?
  • Is a plan for maintaining weight loss included?
  • Are the foods called for widely available and easy to procure?
  • Can the diet be modified to meet cultural, religious, or other personal preferences?
  • How time-consuming is the planning, shopping, and preparing meals and snacks?
  • Can the diet be easily adapted for the whole family?
  • Are age, body type, and activity level considered when recommendations are prescribed?
  • The expert panel also calculated the nutritional adequacy of each diet and considered how it might prevent or manage health conditions, including cardiovascular health, diabetes, inflammation, and bone and joint health.

Diets reviewed

This year 38 popular diets were reviewed and ranked based on a 5-star scoring system for overall health, weight loss, fast weight loss, and ease of following. The diets are ranked into 11 different categories:

  1. Best diets overall – #1 is Mediterranean Diet
  2. The best plant-based diet #1 is the Mediterranean Diet
  3. Best weight loss diets – #1 is WW (WeightWatchers)
  4. Best fast weight loss diets – #1 is Keto
  5. Best diet programs – #1 is WW
  6. Best diets for bone and joint health (a new category this year) – a tie for #1 with the DASH and Mediterranean diets
  7. Best family-friendly diets – a 3-way tie for #1 between Mediterranean, Flexitarian, and TLD diets
  8. Best heart-healthy diets – #1 is the DASH diet
  9. The best diet for diabetes – #1 is the DASH diet
  10. Best diets for healthy eating – #1 is the Mediterranean Diet
  11. Easiest diets to follow – a tie for #1 between Flexitarian and TLC diets

2023 Best Diets

Plant-based diets came out again this year, with the Mediterranean diet earning the best overall diet for the 6th year. The DASH and flexitarian diets tied for second place. It’s clear that choosing whole, less processed foods and filling your plate with more plants – fruit, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds – is a key strategy for good health.

The Mediterranean diet ranked in the top five in all categories except for fast weight loss which is why it came out on top.

The Mediterranean diet can easily be adapted to fit foods from other places in the world: for example, the Nordic diet swaps root vegetables instead of tomatoes and eggplant, and the Asian diet relies on rice, lentils, and sweet potatoes instead of grains.

The pros of the Mediterranean diet include the following:

  • A wide variety of foods to choose from, with no foods that are forbidden or off-limits
  • No counting carbs, points, calories, or macros – focus on fresh, whole foods
  • Proven health benefits from numerous research studies

The expert panel identified two negatives to the Mediterranean diet:

  • Requires meal planning and preparation (no relying on convenience foods)
  • No in-depth nutrition guidance – although many research studies have shown that when you focus on filling your plate with less processed and plenty of plant foods, you’re naturally getting the nutrients your body needs.

Where are the low-carb diets ranked?

Even though low-carb diets such as keto and Atkins are extremely popular, they aren’t top-ranked because they are restrictive, eliminate food groups known to provide health benefits, and are hard to follow. Even though the keto diet is ranked #1 and Atkins #2 for quick weight loss, most people find it impossible to stick with this plan long-term. They ended up ranked #20 and #21 overall.

What is the worst diet?

The Raw Food Diet ranked 1.7 out of 5, coming in last out of the 24 diets reviewed. The Raw Food Diet promotes consuming food that hasn’t been cooked, processed, microwaved, irradiated, genetically engineered, or exposed to pesticides or herbicides. Most of the foods are vegan, but some animal foods, such as raw unpasteurized milk and sashimi, can be included.

The positives to the Raw Food diet are:

  • No counting carbs, points, calories, or macros.
  • It’s high in fiber, so very filling.
  • However, there are more negatives than positives:
  • Eating out can be very limited.
  • Consuming all the nutrients your body needs for good health is challenging.
  • There is little research to back up the claims that cooking destroys most of the vitamins in food and nearly all of the immune-boosting plant nutrients.

Our take on the 2023 diet rankings

There aren’t any surprises here because a solid body of research shows that eating more plant-based foods and choosing less processed foods promotes good health. Plus, this way of eating can be easily adapted to include favorite cultural and regional foods and offers a lot of flexibility in meal planning. The U.S. News and World Report is a fantastic resource with in-depth explanations of each diet, health benefits, potential health risks, cost, how to adapt the diet to your budget, sample menus, and shopping lists.

References

Author:  Lynn Grieger, RDN, CDCES, CPT, CHWC

Nutrition Basic Pre and Post Test for Classes

Basic nutrition pre/post-test

  1. A healthy, balanced diet includes these three major nutrients (macronutrients):
    a. calories, fat, carbohydrate
    b. carbohydrate, protein, fat
    c. protein, fiber, fat
    d. calories, water, fiber
    e. I don’t know
  2. Which foods provide more of the essential nutrients that we’re often lacking?
    a. fruit, vegetables, and protein shakes
    b. seafood, whole grains, and gluten-free foods
    c. fruit, vegetables, whole grains and seafood
    d. I don’t know
  3. Bread, cereal, fruit and vegetables are the best source of which important nutrient?
    a. protein
    b. fat
    c. carbohydrate
    d. water
    e. I don’t know
  4. Chicken, legumes (dried beans and peas), fish, soy foods and eggs are a good source of which nutrient?
    a. protein
    b. fat
    c. carbohydrate
    d. water
    e. I don’t know
  5. Which foods are part of the dairy group?
    a. milk, eggs and cheese
    b. milk, cheese and yogurt
    c. soy milk, eggs and cheese
    d. I don’t know
  6. Use these plate proportions for healthy meal planning:
    a. ½ protein, ½ vegetables
    b. 1/3 protein, 1/3 vegetables, 1/3 fruit
    c. ½ vegetables and fruit, ¼ protein, ¼ whole grains
    d. I don’t know
  7. Which nutrient has the most calories per gram of weight?
    a. carbohydrate
    b. protein
    c. fiber
    d. fat
    e. I don’t know
  8. Which type of fat helps promote a healthy heart and cardiovascular system?
    a. saturated
    b. trans
    c. mono-unsaturated
    d. partially hydrogenated
    e. I don’t know
  9. Healthier types of fat are typically:
    a. liquid at room temperature
    b. solid at room temperature
    c. I don’t know
  10. Which food components provide little nutritional value and can be harmful when we eat too much?
    a. salt, sugar, saturated fat
    b. sugar, cholesterol, whole grains
    c. salt, cholesterol, fiber
    d. I don’t know
  11. Which of the following are sugar-sweetened beverages that provide little to no nutritional value?
    a. 100% fruit juice
    b. 100% vegetable juice
    c. fruit juice drinks
    d. I don’t know
  12. Which type of grain is the healthiest and contains the most natural nutrients?
    a. enriched grains
    b. refined grains
    c. multi-grains
    d. whole grains
    e. I don’t know
  13. What percentage of our grain intake (bread, cereal, rice, pasta, crackers) should be whole grains to support overall good health?
    a. 25%
    b. 50%
    c. 75%
    d. 100%
    e. I don’t know

Resources:

Dietary Guidelines for Americans. http://www.health.gov/

Choose My Plate. USDA. http://www.choosemyplate.gov

Top 12 Hot Nutrition Education Topics

Are you looking for a hot topic for your next class, workshop, or client consultation? Or for Nutrition Month (R)?

As much as consumers want a magic bullet for their health, teachers want a magic topic that will engage, educate, and motivate their audience.

Here we have assembled all of the best and hottest topic predictions for 2023. With nutrition there is always plenty of lessons to help people learn anything from the basics, to skipping fads, to shopping and preparing meals with ease, or to making better choices when dining out!  

The hottest topics listed here are chosen from our expert writers’ recommendations, research in the news, views from our blog posts, many telephone and email inquiries with customers and readers, Amazon bestseller book lists, and over 100 food, health, and nutrition professional blogs that we follow. 

Here are the hot topics and trends that you can use to plan your own presentations and classes.

  1. Dietary Guidelines: The Dietary Guidelines are here! Check out all of our resources that support the 2020-2025 messages. Many practitioners are focusing on nutrient density and the avoidance of ultra-processed foods. The Dietary Guidelines focus on getting the nutrients needed in the calories allotted based on age and activity levels. New this year are recommendations for children in specific age groups.
  2. New Food Label: The new Nutrition Facts Label is ready to empower shoppers to lower their intake of added sugars. Check out the newest food label resources.
  3. MyPlate On A Budget is very timely since most folks are pinching pennies with the current inflation bringing food costs up by about 7%  – see the new app at MyPlate.
  4. Plant-Based Diets: Plant-based food sales are a hot topic, and sales are steadily growing, according to Statista. Focus on a plant slant! How to Plan Meals, New Foods, Benefits. 
  5. Sugar: How to Find It, How to Consume Less now that added sugars are featured on the new food label and still mentioned in the latest edition of the Dietary Guidelines, particularly for the younger set and adults. Our clients are always looking to teach people to drink fewer sugar calories. 
  6. Fiber is a great lesson for consumers to understand gut health, plus all of the new research about the microbiome.
  7. Kitchen How-ToAmericans are still cooking at home after the pandemic, so they are open to learning about new foods and cooking methods to save time. There is no better time for cooking demos, social media tips, and more!
  8. Weight LossOver 65% of all adults are overweight or obese, according to CDC. A CDC survey found that half of all adults over the age of 20 have tried to lose weight over the past year, but two-thirds of all adults in the US are still overweight or obese. Check out our 12 Lessons Program! The pandemic showed us the importance of avoiding chronic diseases like obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes, all of which can cause severe illness and death in COVID patients. 
  9. Sleep – for better habits and weight loss success – a new study shows how and there are numerous studies on sleep and weight control. Sleep is an important part of any healthy eating plan. 
  10. Diet is more important than exercise – Diet is more important than ever to help people keep BMI, blood pressure,  and cholesterol low. Check out our new poster; You Can’t Outrun Your Fork!
  11. High blood pressure is a concern. We get more searches on low-sodium shopping lists than any other topic. Furthermore, diet is an excellent strategy, with research showing the low-sodium DASH diet as the most effective approach. This can bring many great teaching opportunities for health professionals. 
  12. Prediabetes is an important educational topic. According to the CDC, diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate, with over 10% of the population diagnosed with this disease. This makes an excellent screening topic for health fairs. 

All of these and more are in the new theme finder!

Check out the new products:

 

 

Free Food and Nutrition Education Clipart

This page features our best family meal clipart. Click on an image to view and download or link directly to an image here. Click the “back button” to get to this page after downloading an image. If you post to your website you can link to these images or supply a link to our site. You are allowed to use them as you wish but please indicate “copyright nutritioneducationstore.com, used with permission.” Click contact us if you have requests or questions. More will follow!

 

 

MyPlate Turns 8 – Happy Birthday MyPlate!

MyPlate turns 8 years old on June 2nd. It is hard to believe that 8 years have gone by already but we love making a healthy plate for every meal. It is just so easy!

Check out our MyPlate education resources! Use the code MyPlate for 10% off!

 

The Hot Summer Deals Are Here: Summer Catalog 2019

It is here! The 2019 Hot Summer Deals Catalog by Nutrition Education Store is being mailed to all of our current customers.

Here is what is great about it!

Our new Rainbow Kabob Recipe Handout is just as delicious as it is gorgeous and it’s ready for summer veggie grilling for your clients, patients, students, employees, and yourself! Take a look at all of the delicious veggies and flavors in this photo from our kitchen photo studio! What a way to teach the “eat from the rainbow” theme!

Plus it has over 30 new products and many products are reset to introductory prices!

The whole NES design team has been working hard to bring you the best messages and teaching lessons with beautiful graphics from topics like MyPlate Start Simple and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. PLUS many products and themes are based on reader requests (like our menu planning items), the latest research that we are always publishing on our sister site (like the fiber and microbiome), FoodAndHealth.com, and our drive to make you look your very best right now!

The prizes are more useful than ever and many are on sale:

More tearpads are here!

And you can choose from many new and popular health fair display themes!

PLUS you get 10% off (code 2019HSD or use this link and the discount is applied in your cart automatically) and free shipping to the 48 states for the summer months. Our new online shopping cart software always shows when your items will arrive via any of our shipping services. We use FEDEX and the post office for very accurate deliveries and our software always emails you the tracking updates! PLUS you can always use Pay Offline if you are sending a purchase order or just want a quote.

Get the PDF catalog download here and watch for it in your mailbox!

OR send us your name and address and we will mail you one!

Got a custom request? Ask! Not a week goes by where we do not make a custom order with logos like sintra poster signs with logos, tearpads without glue, special banners, and more!

Class Certificates – Nutrition – Kids – Weight Loss – Wellness

We often get requests and searches for certificates of completion for various nutrition classes and programs. Here is a selection of free nutrition class certificates in 2 formats: Word and Clipart. Your use of these images means you agree with our license statement at the bottom of the site. Thank you!

Word Files:

Wellness class certificate

Kids’ class certificate

Weight control class graduation certificate

Nutrition class program certificate

Clipart – insert into Word or PowerPoint file and add text box over the top with participant information. You can use the Word Mail Merge feature with an excel file for large classes, too:

Certificates-nutrition Certificates-weight Certificates-kids Certificates-wellnessCert_Cooking_Final Cert_Diabetes_Final Cert_Diet_Final Cert_Health_Final Cert_Heart_Final Cert_Kids_Final Cert_KidsHealth_Final Cert_Nutrition_Final Cert_WeightLoss_Final Cert_Wellness_Final

2019 Catalog and Handout Is Here

The 2019 Nutrition Education Catalog is here!

It features over 50 new products along with a great winter salad recipe and handout. All of our current customers who have purchased items from us will receive one and you can download one here.

Some of our new products include:

 

Plant Slant Category Is New

“Plant Slant,” a new category in our store, provides tools to help you educate your clients about a plant-based eating style. Plant Slant is a hot topic these days, because eating more plant foods (and less animal products) is good for your health and good for the environment. It doesn’t take a vegetarian or vegan diet to reap the benefits, making a Plant Slant an easy goal for everyone! MyPlate is based on 3/4 plants or more and a plant based eating pattern is recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and it is the base of the Mediterranean Diet and the DASH diet. By teaching the idea of a “plant slant” you open a whole new world to your clients as well as a different way of seeing and appreciating healthful foods.

Our colorful Plant Slant poster shows these fun lessons that you can use with this poster or to plan any class on your own:

  1. Foods that make up a plant-based eating pattern include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds as well as foods made from these like vegetarian milk or vegetarian meat substitutes.
  2. How eating more plant foods benefits your whole body, from the brain to bones, and helps prevent diseases like cancer and diabetes. A plant based diet that is high in fiber and low in added solid fat, sugar, and sodium is healthier for your heart and helps you control your weight because you feel full on fewer calories.
  3. The environmental impact of eating more plant foods and less animal products is one of the most important changes anyone can make to have a smaller carbon footprint.
  4. How eating more plant foods is for everyone who wants to be healthier, not just vegetarians or vegans.
  5. How do you go about implementing a more plant based diet into your own routine right now?
  6. What are easy switches? Meal ideas?
  7. What are whole foods? (Whole foods are foods in their near natural state and do not include highly processed foods like white flour, sugar, or processed meats to mention just a few)
  8. What is plant based? (Plant based means foods that are made from plants versus items from animals like meat)
  9. MyPlate is 3/4 plants!
  10. While vegan excludes all animals, plant based is mostly plants and a little more flexible. It is healthy and easy!

Our eye-catching Freedom From Chronic Disease banners feature a veggie-filled Statue of Liberty raising her “torch” of fruits and vegetables. What better way to show the benefits of eating with a Plant Slant?

Use a plant slant theme for any class, wellness fair, classroom, cafeteria, or event!

Comfort Zone Poster for Motivation and Success

The dictionary defines a comfort zone as a place or situation where one feels safe or at ease and without stress. From the context of a healthy diet and lifestyle, the comfort zone is like being in neutral. You are not really learning or doing anything new or going anywhere. You are staying the same. For most individuals, according to CDC statistics, that can be trouble. 

Health educators always indicate in surveys that the greatest challenge is getting someone to implement new strategies for better health. Maybe it is learning to shop or cook. Or to make better choices when eating out. Or to get some sort of exercise routine.

So we made this fun and colorful poster that is positive and motivational. It helps people make smart goals and to realize that their current state is beautiful and comfortable. But nothing is happening!

Here are some fun activity ideas:

Ask everyone to share their best comfort zone. Could it be popcorn and the movies, skipping workouts, eating out, eating a certain food that is hard to control portions yet high in calories, not getting enough sleep, or working too much?

The best part is that the group will connect by sharing the things that make them happy but keep them from accomplishing their goals.

Work on the SMART method of goal planning. Ask everyone to work either individually or in groups and to come up with SMART goals. It is always really motivating to hear what others want to do and how they will do it. Can they even work in a group after class?

Have them make a motivation note. What are the reasons to want to do more and get more healthy? Is it a job you want to be your best for? A spouse, family, or kids? Or just a dream you want to accomplish.