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BATON ROUGE – As millions around the world aim to have a healthier new year, U.S. News & World Report released its annual Best Diets rankings to assist people in making informed decisions about how to achieve those health goals. The DASH Diet, developed in part by LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center dietitians, has once again been ranked as a top diet in multiple categories, including:

• Best Diets Overall (No. 2)
• Best Heart-Healthy Diets (No. 1)
• Best Diabetes Diets (No. 1)
• Best Diets for Healthy Eating (No. 2)
• Best Weight-Loss Diets (No. 2)
• Easiest Diets to Follow (No. 3)

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. George Bray, Dr. Donna Ryan and Dr. Catherine Champagne were among the lead developers of the diet. They were joined in the DASH Diet Collaborative Research Group by scientists from Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Duke Hypertension Center and the Sarah W. Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center; and Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions to develop the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, or DASH, Diet.

The successful study results were published in this 1997 New England Journal of Medicine publication, which has been cited by other researchers about 6,000 times since original publication.

“At this time of the year, people are more health conscious and are looking for diets to help them get on the right track,” Dr. Champagne said. “U.S. News’ rankings year after year show that the DASH Diet is a great choice because it is proven to help those with a history of heart disease or people with diabetes, but it is really a diet plan for everyone because it is easy to follow, and it can work for anyone in the family.”

Besides reducing sugar sweetened beverages and sodium, the DASH Diet is instead focused on increasing fruits, vegetables, whole grains and dietary fiber.

For 2023, an updated methodology was developed under the guidance of more than 30 nutritionists, doctors and epidemiologists to examine 24 diets to help every person find a diet to meet their goals.

For further details on how the U.S. News rankings were calculated, see the methodology here.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, funded the research for the DASH Diet.

About the Pennington Biomedical Research Center

The Pennington Biomedical Research Center is at the forefront of medical discovery as it relates to understanding the triggers of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia. The Center architected the national “Obecity, USA” awareness and advocacy campaign to help solve the obesity epidemic by 2040. The Center conducts basic, clinical, and population research, and is affiliated with LSU.

The research enterprise at Pennington Biomedical includes over 480 employees within a network of 40 clinics and research laboratories, and 13 highly specialized core service facilities. Its scientists and physician/scientists are supported by research trainees, lab technicians, nurses, dietitians, and other support personnel. Pennington Biomedical a state-of-the-art research facility on a 222-acre campus in Baton Rouge.

For more information, see www.pbrc.edu.