Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Wellness Wednesday

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Since it's January and so many of us make resolutions pertaining to our health and diet, I thought I'd share with you what U.S. News and World Report has to say about some of the most popular diets.  Read their rankings and details here.  The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) Diet was selected as the best overall diet as it is not just about weight loss but about healthy living.  The diet was originally developed to reduce hypertension, as it says it in their name, but weight loss can be a side benefit.  The Mayo Clinic endorses this diet and has details on how it works here.    The Oregon Dairy Council has links to some DASH resources here.  

I was happy to see that both the Mediterranean Diet and the Flexitarian Diet, both of which emphasize mainly plant-based foods, came in at numbers three and six in the top ten overall best diets.  The Vegetarian Diet was ranked number eleven, with "might miss the meat" and "can be lots of work" listed as the "cons" for the diet.  However, it seems to me that steaming a bag of frozen vegetables is a lot less work than grilling a steak, but being a vegetarian, maybe I'm a little biased.

1 comment:

shoreacres said...

This is really interesting and, shall we say, timely. ;)

I need to get some pounds off, and to be frank, the DASH diet is pretty close to what I do when it comes to meal time. I don't bring home processed foods, I'm good with fruits and veggies, and while I'm not a vegetarian I prefer grilled chicken breast, salmon or very lean grilled beef. I often buy a single beef tenderloin filet, but then slice it into three pieces - enough for one meal.

So this would be a fine diet for me. Now, if I just can manage to keep the half-gallons of ice cream, the packages of biscotti and the Lindt chocolate out of the house, things should be good. Oh - and I need to stop eating at the computer. ;)