The DASH Diet - What It Is and What You Should Know About the DASH Diet Before Starting It

The DASH diet has been receiving quite a bit of attention from the media as a top diet to follow. And with it just grabbing the top spot as the best overall diet in U.S. News & World Report's Best Diets 2012, the interest in it is bound to increase quite a bit. So to separate fact from hype and media misinformation, this hub article will discuss what the DASH diet is and what you really should know about it before attempting to follow it.

The "DASH" in the DASH diet stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. It's a lifestyle eating plan designed to reduce your sodium intake by eating more foods that are rich in calcium, magnesium and potassium (which help promote lower blood pressure levels) while eating less of foods that are high in saturated fat and cholesterol. So your diet would be rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy, legumes and nuts. On the flipside, you would cut back on red meat and sweets.

Even though there's emphasis on eating fruit, vegetables, beans, low fat dairy, whole grain foods and nuts, you can eat lean cuts of meat, fish and poultry on the DASH diet plan.

Depending on your doctor's recommendation on the daily amount of sodium that's right for you, you might follow the standard DASH diet plan, which allows you to have up to 2300 mg. of salt daily, or the DASH-Sodium diet plan, where you can have up to 1500 mg. of salt.

By following a DASH diet for high blood pressure, you may be able to lower your blood pressure by a few points in as little as 2 weeks (based on studies where patients following the diet reduced their blood pressure levels within 2 weeks).

Additional benefits of the DASH diet include lowering your cholesterol levels and reducing your risk for certain cancers, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

According to a WebMD article on the DASH diet and high blood pressure, the recommended daily servings for the desired food groups are as follows:

• Grains: 7 - 8 daily servings
• Vegetables: 4 - 5 daily servings
• Fruits: 4 - 5 daily servings
• Low-fat/Fat-free dairy: 2 - 3 daily servings
• Meat, poultry & fish: 2 or fewer daily servings
• Fats & oils: 2 - 3 daily servings

But the recommendations for the following food groups call for less than daily servings:

• Nuts, seeds & legumes: 4 - 5 servings per week
• Sweets: limited to less than 5 servings per week

If you like to drink alcoholic beverages, you're going to need to put a limit on them, because drinking (too much) alcohol can increase blood pressure. Men need to limit it to 2 drinks a day or less and women need to keep it to 1 drink a day or less.

1. Pay close attention to food labels;
2. Have a serving of fresh or dried fruit with your regular meals or as snacks;
3. Add more vegetables to your daily diet with a serving at lunch and dinner;
4. Have some vegetables only meals;
5. Limit your intake of meats to 6 oz. a day; and
6. Eliminate junk food, especially those salty & sugary snacks. Replace those unhealthy snacks with unsalted raw nuts, fruit, raw veggies and low-fat or fat-free yogurt.

Your greatest asset is going to be your ability to read and analyze food labels for nutritional data to make sure you are choosing foods that are low-salt, low in saturated fat/total fat and low in cholesterol. Don't pay any attention to attention grabbers on the food packaging .. go straight to the food label.

From what you've read so far, you should have a good understanding of the DASH diet, what it's for and the foods you should be eating to lower your blood pressure. I've included links to two additional free resources that can help you further.