Einstein Researcher Helps Rank U.S. News & World Report Best Diets 2012

January 4, 2012 - (BRONX, NY) – U.S. News & World Report today released its Best Diets 2012 ranking, an evaluation of 25 popular diets by 22 experts. Among those who weighed in on the ranking is Yasmin Mossavar-Rahmani, Ph.D., R.D. of Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.  Dr. Mossavar-Rahmani, associate professor of clinical epidemiology & population health at Einstein, specializes in nutrition assessment and intervention.

Yasmin Mossavar-Rahmani, Ph.D., R.D.For its rankings, U.S. News profiled each of the 25 diets using information culled from scientific journals, government reports, and other resources. Profiles describe how a given diet works, how it breaks down nutritionally, how safe it is, and more. The panel of experts reviewed each profile, conducted independent fact-finding, and rated the diets on seven criteria, such as their ability to produce short-term and long-term weight loss. U.S. News converted their ratings to scores and constructed the rankings.

This year's rankings includes Easiest Diets to Follow (#1 Weight Watchers), Best Diets Overall (#1 DASH Diet), Best Commercial Diet Plans (#1 Weight Watchers), Best Weight-Loss Diets (#1 Weight Watchers), Best Diets for Healthy Eating (#1 DASH Diet), Best Diabetes Diets (#1 DASH Diet, #1 Biggest Loser Diet), and Best Heart-Healthy Diets (#1 Ornish Diet).

Dr. Mossavar-Rahmani, who also participated in last year's Best Diets rankings, says motivation is a key factor that separates those who keep weight off long-term from those who lose weight and put it back on. "The best motivation is an interest in promoting better health," says Dr. Mossavar-Rahmani. "Deciding to lose a set number of pounds with no long-term motivation plan often leads to weight creep once the target weight is reached."

Dr. Mossavar-Rahmani teaches an elective course on nutrition and health for first-year medical students at Einstein and has been conducting research on nutrition for over two decades. She is currently the nationwide principal investigator for Study of Latinos: Nutrition & Physical Activity Assessment Study (SOLNAS), an ancillary study to the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL), which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is the largest ever study of Hispanic health in the U.S. In SOLNAS, she investigates measurement errors in participants' self-reported diet and physical activity. She is also the principal investigator at Einstein for the SOL Sueño/Sleep Study, which is investigating the association of sleep habits with obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension among Latinos in the U.S.

As an interventionist, Dr. Mossavar-Rahmani served as a co-investigator/lead nutritionist of the NIH-funded Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Dietary Modification Trial and participated in numerous nationwide committees. She co-chaired the WHI Self-Monitoring working group, for which she received the WHI Achievement Award, and served as nationwide chair of WHI Lead Nutritionists.