The US News and World Report released the Best Diets for Healthy Eating for 2011. For the diets to make the list, they must be “relatively easy to follow, nutritious, safe, and effective for weight loss and against diabetes and heart disease”.  An expert panel rated The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet number one. The DASH diet, recommended by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, is chock-full of produce and limits both saturated fat and salt.

Diets also making the top five were the TLC Diet, the Mediterranean Diet, the Mayo Clinic and, Volumetrics.  It is important to note that while these top ranking diets may be best for your health, not all of them are necessarily the best for weight loss. The diets that ranked high for weight loss were Weight Watchers, number six on the healthy diet list, a vegetarian diet (#9), and Eco-Atkins (#15).

Carla Snuggs is a freelance writer from Southern California.