Study Rates Heart Health of Popular Diet Plans

Ornish beat Atkins, but any weight loss is good for the heart, researchers say.

By Madeline Vann
HealthDay Reporter
Friday, October 5, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

FRIDAY, Oct. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Not all diet plans are equally heart-healthy, according to a study ranking eight popular weight-loss programs.

Diets that emphasize a variety of fruits and vegetables scored better than those with a heavy protein focus.

The Ornish diet plan came out on top with the most potential to prevent heart disease risk factors. The Atkins diet came in last, lagging behind the Zone and Weight Watchers.

"It was not surprising to me that the Ornish diet came out on top given that the index used is designed to measure dietary components related to risk of heart disease," said dietician Lona Sandon, a national spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

Sandon said the take-home message for consumers is "if heart disease is your concern, you need to focus more on fruits, vegetables and make all your grains whole grains, as well as limit intake of animal foods and fats."

The findings are published in the October issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School ranked daily meal plans and food recommendations in the Ornish Plan, the Zone Diet, Atkins, two Weight Watchers plans, the South Beach Diet, the New Glucose Revolution and the 2005 MyPyramid plan.

The rankings were based on the Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), which uses the daily dietary intake of fruits, vegetables, fats, fiber, nuts, soy and white meats instead of red meat to determine how much benefit a diet has for heart health.

The highest possible score is 70. While none of the diets had a perfect score, they varied across a 20-point spread:

• Ornish, 64.6.
• Weight Watchers high-carbohydrate, 57.4.
• New Glucose Revolution, 57.2.
• South Beach Phase 2, 50.7.
• Zone, 49.8.
• MyPyramid, 48.7.
• Weight Watchers high protein, 47.3.
• Atkins 100-g carbohydrate, 46.
• South Beach Phase 3, 45.6.
• Atkins 45-g carbohydrate, 42.3.

Study author and clinical psychologist Sherry Pagoto said there's no cut-off point in the AHEI scale below which a diet could be definitively considered heart unhealthy. But other studies have ranked low-quality diets in populations at risk for heart disease around the 30-point mark.