NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Trying to shed excess weight, lower high blood pressure or combat diabetes? The best personal diet depends on the goals trying to be achieved, according to a new ranking. 
 
 For dropping those extra pounds Weight Watchers ranked No. 1 in the ratings by U.S. News & World Report, followed closely by Jenny Craig and the Raw Food Diet, while the DASH diet was deemed best overall diet, with the Mediterranean Diet coming in second. 
 
 "Our analysis put hard numbers on the common-sense belief that no diet is ideal for everybody," the magazine said on its website. 
 
 "The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet beat out 19 others, among them Atkins, Jenny Craig and Slim-Fast, to win the 'Best Diets Overall,'" it added. 
 
 Researchers looked and compiled profiles on 20 diets, which were reviewed by a panel of 22 experts in diet and nutrition, diabetes and heart disease. 
 
 The rankings were based on scores in seven categories -- short-term weight loss, long-term weight loss, easiness to follow, nutritional completeness, ability to prevent or manage diabetes and to manage heart disease. 
 
 Each diet was also judged in five categories including best overall diet, best commercial diet plan, best weight-loss, best diabetes diet and best heart-healthy diet. 
 
 DASH also came out first for the best diabetes diet, followed by the Mayo Clinic diet, while the Ornish Diet captured the top spot for heart-healthy diets with TLC (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes) diet coming in second. 
 
 "Exercise gets serious attention in some diets and lip service in others, but the primary focus of a diet, after all, is food. Whether to exercise, how, and how much is a lifestyle decision beyond the scope of a mere diet," the magazine added. 
 
 About 34 percent of U.S. adults aged 20 and over are overweight and an equal number are obese, according to 2007-2008 figures from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. ||||| A Mediterranean diet rich in vegetables, fish and olive oil may reduce the risk of breast cancer returning, a small study suggests. 
 
 Research on more than 300 women with early-stage breast cancer reinforces earlier work which suggests diet may play an important role in cutting cancer risk. 
 
 Presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco) conference in Chicago, the study involved 199 women eating their normal diet and 108 who ate a Mediterranean diet. 
 
 The best diets: according to the experts 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 + show all The best diets: according to the experts 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1/10 Flexitarian Diet The combination of flexible and vegetarian. This diet is all about adding things to your diet, not taking them away. By adding more tofu, beans, fruits, veggies, eggs, whole grains and seeds to your diet you should feel full on fewer calories. Flickr / Brian 
 
 2/10 DASH Diet Ranked at number one, the DASH diet was developed to prevent and lower high blood pressure by reducing salt intake. Flickr / Dubravko Sorić 
 
 3/10 TLC Diet Created to cut high cholesterol and endorsed by the American Heart Association. 
 
 4/10 Mayo Clinic diet Focuses on everything you were told to eat as a child: whole grains, fruit and vegetables. Flickr / Rochelle 
 
 5/10 Mediterranean Diet Eat as the Mediterranean people do: A diet low in red meat, sugar and saturated fats but high in produce and nuts. And lots of olives. Flickr / Meal Makeover Moms 
 
 6/10 Weight Watchers Works with a points system where healthy foods have fewer points. Group meetings offer emotional support and encouragement, meaning it has been a successful program since 1963. Flickr / Mike Mozart 
 
 7/10 Volumetrics Diet Works on the idea that people eat roughly the same amount every day, regardless of the calories. So this diet is all about the approach to eating rather than a structured diet. It divides food into four groups depending on their energy density. For example, more veggies on top of pasta instead of cheese. Flickr / Jennifer 
 
 8/10 Jenny Craig For encouragement, on this diet you get a meal plan and a counselling session every week with a consultant. You get three meals a day, including French toast, but unfortunately you can’t really go out for meals. Flickr / Dennis Wilkinson 
 
 9/10 Biggest Loser Diet Eat regular meals with whole grains, fruit, vegetables and lean protein, get more exercise and keep a food journal. Fairly simple. Flickr / Pete Thomas 
 
 10/10 Ornish Diet Developed by Dean Ornish in his 2007 book “The Spectrum”. He categorizes food in to five groups from most (1) to least (5) healthy. He pinpoints emotional support as a powerful tool for weight loss. Flickr / kris krüg 
 
 A Mediterranean diet includes vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, fish, olive oil and whole grains, while being low in red and processed meat, and with alcohol kept to a minimum. 
 
 People who are considered to get maximum benefit from the diet have less than one drink a day for women, or one to two for men, and fewer than three servings of red meat per day. 
 
 They also eat several servings of fruit and vegetables per day, one serving of wholegrains and up to four servings of fish per week. 
 
 In the latest study, carried out at Piacenza Hospital in Italy, women who were in remission from breast cancer were tracked for three years. 
 
 The results showed that during that time, 11 patients suffered cancer again who were following their normal diet, while no women in the Mediterranean diet group experienced a relapse. 
 
 Research published last year in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine also found that eating a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil was associated with a lower risk of breast cancer. 
 
 The study, led by the University of Navarra in Pamplona and the Spanish Biomedical Research Centre in Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition in Madrid, Spain, compared women whose families consumed one litre a week of olive oil, compared with women on a low fat diet. 
 
 Of more than 4,000 women, researchers found that those on the Mediterranean diet with extra olive oil appeared to have a 68% reduced risk of breast cancer. 
 
 Responding to the latest Italian study, Samia al Qadhi, chief executive of Breast Cancer Care, said: "For many women with breast cancer, fear of the disease returning is one of the biggest issues they face after treatment. 
 
 "So anything that helps us understand how to lower risk of recurrence in women who follow a Mediterranean diet rich in fish and olive oil is a welcome addition to our toolbox. 
 
 "However, this is a small study which only followed women for three years. We look forward to seeing results of longer term studies. 
 
 "Lifestyle choices like eating a well-balanced diet, taking regular exercise and maintaining a healthy weight can all help reduce the risk of cancer coming back, but they can't prevent it completely." 
 
 Professor Arnie Purushotham, Cancer Research UK's senior clinical adviser, said: "The preliminary results of this small study suggest that a Mediterranean diet could lower the risk of breast cancer returning, but we'd need much longer follow-up than three years to confirm the diet's impact. 
 
 "Further studies with more women are needed to understand more about the impact that diet can have on breast cancer survival and the biological reasons behind this." 
 
 Dr Erica Mayer, Asco's breast cancer expert, said: "The whole topic of lifestyle interventions for breast cancer survivors is a very important one. 
 
 "There is substantial research going on into what we should be recommending to breast cancer survivors." 
 
 But she said studies to date have been conflicting and the latest study had some problems with its methodology. 
 
 "It is not clear whether there is a specific diet or foods to eat or not to eat to prevent recurrence," she said. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
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 Americans are killing themselves with very bad food choices, a panel of experts said Thursday. 
 
 New dietary guidelines for Americans should aim to get people to eat more vegetables, less fat and salt and to exercise more, the panel says. And they said people shouldn’t worry about cholesterol itself, which means an occasional egg should be all right. 
 
 The U.S. government issues new dietary guidelines every five years and enlists an independent panel of experts to advise on what they should be. The public gets 45 days to weigh in and then Health and Human Services Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture use the report as the basis for new guidelines to be issued by the end of the year. 
 
 For the most part, the new recommendations “reaffirm” the 2010 guidelines, the committee says in its 570-plus page report. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture of the U.S. diet. Some key differences are easing up the restrictions on cholesterol-rich foods and, for the first time, advising children and adolescents to avoid consumption of high-caffeine energy drinks. 
 
 The panel also urges the federal government to do more to get Americans to actually follow the recommendations. 
 
 “On average, the U.S. diet is low in vegetables, fruit and whole grains and too high in calories, saturated fat, sodium, refined grains and added sugars." 
 
 “On average, the U.S. diet is low in vegetables, fruit and whole grains and too high in calories, saturated fat, sodium, refined grains and added sugars,” the report reads. 
 
 Americans eat too little vitamin D, calcium, potassium and fiber and eat way too much fat and salt. 
 
 And these bad eating habits are making us sick. 
 
 “About half of all Americans—117 million individuals — have one or more preventable chronic diseases that relate to poor dietary patterns and physical inactivity, including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and diet-related cancers,” the report says. 
 
 “More than two-thirds of adults and nearly one-third of children and youth are overweight or obese.” 
 
 None of this should come as news, but despite sustained and dedicated education campaigns, Americans still eat too much white flour and sugar, drink too many sugary soft drinks and eat too much animal fat. 
 
 “These devastating health problems have persisted for decades, strained U.S. health care costs, and focused the attention of our health care system on disease treatment rather than prevention. They call for bold action and sound, innovative solutions,” the report reads. 
 
 The panel doesn't say what those solutions should be. It'll take some research to figure out how to get through to Americans, says Dr. Alice Lichtenstein of Tufts University, one of the panel members. In past years it's clear people misread the messages, she told NBC News. 
 
 "We somehow got the word across better about what you should be eating more of instead of what you should be eating less of," Lichtenstein said. So many Americans ate less fat but stoked up on processed carbohydrates instead. 
 
 "We need to understand more about why people make food choices so we can move people more towards these guidelines that are evidence based," she said. 
 
 The report does suggest cutting back red and processed meat, something welcomed by the American Institute for Cancer Research. "There is convincing evidence that if Americans moderate their intake of red meat, processed meat and added sugar today, it will lead to fewer cancers tomorrow," said AICR's Susan Higginbotham. 
 
 The most widely leaked part of the report concerns cholesterol. As a specific nutrient, past guidelines have mistakenly focused too closely on cholesterol, the experts suggest. 
 
 “Previously, the dietary guidelines for Americans recommended that cholesterol intake be limited to no more than 300 mg a day,” the report says. The new report is dropping that recommendation. “Available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol,” it says. 
 
 And most Americans eat less than that already, Lichtenstein said. 
 
 But this is a tricky issue. Cholesterol itself is not found in very many foods -- mostly egg yolks, liver, and crustaceans such as shrimp and crab. 
 
 And it doesn't mean you can eat all the bacon and eggs you want. "No," said Lichtenstein. "Especially not the bacon." 
 
 “Water is the preferred beverage choice.” 
 
 Many foods can and do raise cholesterol and they should be limited. They include saturated fat, including the fat found in meat and dairy products as well as palm oil. 
 
 “Partially hydrogenated oils containing trans fat should be avoided,” the report says. And people should not replace fats with processed carbs. 
 
 Other recommendations: 
 
 The dangers of mercury and other heavy metals do not outweigh the benefits of eating fish 
 
 A little alcohol is OK but no one should start drinking alcohol if they don’t already 
 
 Up to 400 mg of caffeine —3 to 5 cups of coffee—are all right. Moderate coffee consumption may offer some protection against type 2 diabetes and Parkinson's, the panel suggests 
 
 Kids should avoid energy drinks 
 
 Eat less salt. Americans get an average of 3,478 milligrams a day, far above recommendations 
 
 “Water is the preferred beverage choice.” 
 
 Kids should exercise an hour a day and adults should exercise at least an hour and a half a week 
 
 The panel looked closely at caffeine, particularly with recent concerns about energy drinks and questions about coffee. “There doesn’t seem to be anything with coffee that causes concern," Lichtenstein said. "For decades we have been looking for something that is bad about it, but we haven’t really found that,” she says. 
 
 Unlike energy drinks, coffee contains phytochemicals -- natural plant products that have been increasingly shown to benefit health. 
 
 The report also talks about sustainable diets that make sure there is plenty of food for everyone now and in the future. 
 
 “A diet higher in plant-based foods, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds and lower in calories and animal-based foods is more health-promoting and is associated with less environmental impact than is the current U.S. diet,” the report says.
– The best overall diet is the DASH diet, US News & World Report says in new rankings—but if weight loss is your specific goal, go with Weight Watchers. So what's DASH? It stands for Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension and it's generally meant for adults looking to curb high blood pressure. It's big on "whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low-fat and nonfat dairy foods, lean proteins, nuts and limited amounts of fats and sweets," explains the Los Angeles Times, which writes about it for a different reason: A new study suggests it slows weight gain in teen girls. Back on the US News & World rankings: The Mediterranean diet came in second for overall diet, while Jenny Craig and the Raw Food diet were close runners-up for weight loss, Reuters reports. “Our analysis put hard numbers on the common-sense belief that no diet is ideal for everybody,” says the magazine. It all depends on your aim. Click for details on the specific diets and complete rankings.