Can a ranking of the best diets tell me which one is healthiest?

Nina TeicholzPhD · investigative science journalist and author

No. That ranking measured how closely each diet resembled the ranker's own diet.

What it rests onThe 2023 AHA scientific statement's stated aim was to examine how closely ten popular dietary patterns aligned with the AHA's own dietary guidance, and the top-ranked pattern was DASH, which is the AHA's own. In her words: "The authors asked, essentially: Are you like us?" No analysis of any diet's health outcomes was within the paper's scope, so the ranking is only as good as the evidence for the AHA's own plan, and in the AHA's most recent systematic review she counts a single clinical trial cited in support of its nutrition recommendations. She also notes the statement's keto-flu objection ignores published methods for avoiding it.

Christopher D. GardnerPhD · nutrition scientist, Stanford Prevention Research Center

It can tell you something real: that ten popular patterns already agree on four things, and that alignment with cardiovascular guidance is a legitimate thing to measure.

What it rests onHe chaired the writing group for the statement, which scored ten popular dietary patterns against AHA guidance. His standing argument is that the patterns from low-fat vegan to ketogenic already agree on more vegetables, more whole foods, less added sugar and less refined grain, and that the macronutrient axis is not where the effect lives. His own trials include the two head-to-head comparisons the low-carbohydrate side cites.