NYU’s Institute of Public Knowledge is hosting the launch of Practicing Food Studies, edited by Amy Bentley, Fabio Parasecoli, and Krishnendu Ray. I wrote the Foreword. We will all provide brief perspectives on our quarter century of teaching food studies. For information and registration, click here. For 30% off on the book, click here.
Latest US News rankings: healthy diets!
U.S. News has just released its rankings of 20 popular diet plans—the “Best Diets for Healthy Eating.”
The top five:
- DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension)
- TLC (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes)
- Mediterranean
- Mayo Clinic
- Volumetrics
These may be healthy, but from the standpoint of survey respondents, they don’t work very well. To the question “Did this diet work for you?” the “no’s” hugely outnumber the “yes’s” for a whopping 16 of the 20 diets.
The four exceptions:
- Weight Watchers (#6)
- Vegetarian Diet (#9)
- Eco-Atkins (#15)
- Vegan (#16)
Diets are about maintaining or losing weight. This means balancing food energy against the amount of energy used in metabolism and activity. To lose weight, you have to eat less or move more or do both. It also helps to eat better and make healthier food choices.
All of the diets on the US News list are based on healthy food choices. But these are the only four diets on the list that seem to help a majority of people to eat better and eat less.