Newswise — June 7, 2011 – BRONX, NY – Yasmin Mossavar-Rahmani, Ph.D., R.D. of Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University played an important role in the development of the “Best Diets” rankings, which U.S. News released today. Dr. Mossavar-Rahmani, who specializes in nutrition assessment and intervention, is assistant professor of epidemiology & population health at Einstein.
Dr. Mossavar-Rahmani was a member of an invited panel of 22 health experts, who were carefully selected and relied on by U.S. News to develop its rankings. The experts reviewed information about 20 well-known diets, from Atkins to the Zone, and rated each diet on specific measures such as heart health and nutritional completeness.
Using the experts’ feedback and ratings, U.S. News developed five rankings to address a broad range of consumers’ dieting goals and needs. They included Best Weight-Loss Diets (Weight Watchers ranked #1); Best Diets Overall (the DASH Diet ranked #1 overall); and Best Heart-Healthy Diets (the Ornish Diet ranked #1). Key factors in selecting the top diets included not only nutritional value and weight loss but also the palatability of a given diet over time. (Visit usnews.com for the complete rankings and methodology.)
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 to the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (SOL), the largest ever study of Hispanic health in the U.S., which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 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.
About Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva UniversityAlbert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University is one of the nation’s premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2010-2011 academic year, Einstein is home to 724 M.D. students, 256 Ph.D. students, 122 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 375 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has 2,770 fulltime faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2009, Einstein received more than $135 million in support from the NIH. This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in diabetes, cancer, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Through its extensive affiliation network involving five medical centers in the Bronx, Manhattan and Long Island – which includes Montefiore Medical Center, The University Hospital and Academic Medical Center for Einstein – the College of Medicine runs one of the largest post-graduate medical training programs in the United States, offering approximately 150 residency programs to more than 2,500 physicians in training. For more information, please visit www.einstein.yu.edu.
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