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The concept or rather the DASH diet plan was developed and promoted
by the United States Government Organization NIH (National Heart,
Lung and Blood Institute) in order to stop/control hypertension.
While there are medicines to control blood pressure, they have their
own side effects. It is in this context, the DASH diet comes as a
savior; claims to tame your blood pressure and helps reduce the
associated health risks by incorporating the diet into your
lifestyle.
DASH Diet Plan
There are 2 types of DASH diet plan; the regular DASH diet and the
DASH sodium diet. Both these aim at giving total nutrition to the
body while controlling blood pressure, but the latter is strictly
for those who will require to reduce sodium in their diet (low salt
or low sodium diet). Research shown that reductions in sodium
intake correlated with decreases in blood pressure.
Basically, this hypertension-taming DASH diet consists of fruits,
veggies, dairy food with low fat, cholesterol, sodium, saturated and
total fat. The DASH diet meal is rich in fibre, potassium, magnesium
& calcium. The DASH diet which stands for Dietary approaches to stop
hypertension is a healthy diet recommended for the entire family and
is proven to be effective in lowering the blood pressure in the
matter of just 14 days.
DASH Diet Guidelines
The DASH diet meal plan endorses low fat dairy food, fruits and
veggies at the same time restricting the consumption of calories in
day. The main feature of the DASH diet is that with a combination of
milk products along with fruits and vegetables the blood pressure is
reduced rapidly. Despite the low fat dairy product being the main
ingredient of the DASH diet menu, 1oz of high fat cheese in three
servings per day is a part of the diet.
A few guidelines of the DASH diet menu:
-
the diet includes a minimum of 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables
a day
-
three servings of low-fat dairy product
-
7-8 servings of grains
-
2 servings of non-vegetarian food
-
fat/oils should be around 2-3 servings
-
on a weekly basis one needs to consume 4-5 serves of nuts, seeds and
legumes
-
the sweet consumption should not exceed 5 serves a week (foods with
little or no sugar as best, although sugar from fruits is considered
natural and benefiting)
-
avoid or at least use moderation on alcohol consumption.
The other important considerations of the DASH diet plan is that
sodium consumption should not go beyond 2,300 mg, the consumption of
saturated fat should not cross 6% and intake of carbohydrates should
be around 55% per day.
Note :
It should be learnt that a third of United States' adult population
is victim of the high blood pressure, if hypertension is not treated
it could jeopardize your longevity by increasing risk of stroke and
other serious heart-related conditions. |
