U.S. News & World Report released its 2025 "Best Diets" ratings on Jan. 3, evaluating 38 diets across 21 categories.
This year's edition of "Best Diets" marks a shift from ranking diets to rating them, according to the media company.
U.S. News also introduced 12 new "Best Diets" health and lifestyle categories along with 13 new diets for evaluation.
The ratings, the product of a partnership between U.S. News and The Harris Poll, are based on evaluations from 69 expert panelists — including physicians, registered dietitians, nutritional epidemiologists, chefs and weight loss researchers.
For the best overall diets, panelists considered nutritional completeness, health risks and benefits, long-term sustainability, and evidence-based effectiveness. Each expert considered all 38 diets and rated them on a 1-5 Likert scale.
Panelists also considered 20 other categories, including best heart-healthy diets, and picked their recommendations for each one. The percentage of recommendations for each diet were converted to a scale between 0 and 5. More information about the methodology is available here.
The best overall diets alongside their ratings:
Mediterranean diet (4.8 rating)
DASH diet (4.6 rating)
Flexitarian diet (4.5 rating)
MIND diet (4.4 rating)
The best heart-healthy diets alongside their ratings:
DASH diet (4.9 rating)
Mediterranean diet (4.8 rating)
Flexitarian diet (4.3 rating)
MIND diet (4.3 rating)
Vegan diet (4.3 rating)
TLC diet (4.2 rating)
Cleveland Clinic diet (4.1 rating)