U.S. News & World Report has picked the DASH diet as its best overall diet for the fifth consecutive year, the New York Daily News reported.

The diet is heavy on vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy and was originally developed to lower blood pressure without medication; its acronym stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

DASH relegated the TLC (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes) diet, designed to lower cholesterol levels, to the second place. The Mediterranean, Weight Watchers and Mayo Clinic diets, meanwhile, tied for third.

"This is the fifth year we are evaluating and ranking diets," said Angela Haupt, senior health and wellness editor at U.S. News & World Report. "Our experts, who rate these diets for us, say (DASH) will end up being very good for your waistline, in addition to your high blood pressure, because it is such a common-sense, balanced diet."

In its fifth annual report, the news magazine ranked 35 popular diets in seven different categories, such as "Best for Weight Loss," "Ease of Use" and "Healthiest Overall," ABC News reports.

"All of our profiles are based on the research," Haupt explained. "Our two dozen experts spend months analyzing, and we only include the research that is robust."

The biggest newcomer was the HMR (Health Management Resource), which came in second for weight loss; the very low-calorie meal replacement plan is medically supervised at more than 200 hospitals and weight-loss clinics around the country, Haupt said.

"Our experts were impressed with HMR because it seems to help people maintain a significant amount of weight loss," the editor explained.

U.S. News & World Report was not impressed by the Paleo and Dukan diets, however, which ranked at the bottom of the field, the New York Post reports. Because it is a restrictive eating plan, Paleo "never does well in our rankings," Haupt explained.

Meanwhile, the Weight Watchers diet ranked high across many categories, and the magazine praised the diet as the easiest to follow, adding that DASH and Biggest Loser were the best for diabetes patients. The Ornish, TLC and DASH were highlighted for those suffering from heart disease.

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