Dash Diet

Anyone try this diet?...Dash stands for "Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension"....suppose to be excellent for lowering blood pressure with the bonus of cutting back a few pounds!

Jaylynn

I haven't but it's very interesting. Have you seen this article in Calorie Count's Director of Nutritions Mary Hartley's article library?

• All About Dash

Thanks for the link to the article...very interesting I think!...I eat very little meat as it is so thought this might be a way to incoporate healthy eating while "not" depriving oneself AND hopefull lose a few lbs.

I've been using the DASH diet for a little over a month now. I inherited a lot of good things from my mother, but one thing she also passed down to me is hypertension. I've been trying to get my BP back down to normal as best I can, because I don't want to be on hypertension meds at 23!

I really like the diet. It has some really good recipes, like the vegetarian pasta sauce. Also, its not just good for people with hypertension. Diets that are aimed toward helping other things such as diabetes are almost exactly the same. In general, its a good diet to be on even in perfect health.

ooo, I'd like to know more about it. I have hypertension and high blood pressure!

You can read about it HERE. 

I am using the DASH diet too. I have hypertension. My main weight loss goal is to get off of medication. My blood pressure yesterday was 100/68 the lowest it has ever been... on medication. I just got my dosage reduced. The DASH diet is really easy... I found that I was already making many of the choices on it already. However, I do struggle with keeping my sodium intake lower. I work two jobs... and therefore often use prepacked things to help make up my lunch and dinner. My dietician has helped me make better choices in the prepackaged department. Health Choice... is really low in sodium. There cafe steamers are to die for. I was really suprised at how good they taste.

 I saw other links here, but you can also try Kaiser Permanente's Health Encyclopedia... at www.kp.org. I do not think you have to be a member to access the health information.

Hope this helps...

Original Post by vicki8seekers:

ooo, I'd like to know more about it. I have hypertension and high blood pressure!

Hypertension is just a fancier way of saying high blood pressure :-0

I am borderline hypertensive.  I found with exercise I am able to keep it under control and when I watch my sodium its excellent so I try to watch my sodium levels and never add salt to food and purchase low sodium or no salt added foods.

Well this diet certainly deserves a bookmark!

A couple of things I notice -

1.  While it emphasizes low sodium, it is also a low sugar-added diet.  Only 5 servings per WEEK of things like coffee or cereal sugar, jam on toast, Jello, sweetened yogurt.  And forget about cookies, pie, sweetened cereal, ice cream, etc. They don't even make the list. 

2.  There's a lot of tabular counting required to make this work.  You can do this if you're committed to it over the long haul.  It requires ledger-keeping.  Perfect for the obsessive dieter.  Not for the casual.

It might be better to call this the Spartan diet.  It works if you persevere.

I started the DASH diet on March 24, 2008.  I follow the 1600 cal plan posted on the American Heart Association website and keep the sodium between 1500-2000mg per day.  On April 10, when I had my blood pressure checked at the Dr. it had dropped from 156/100 down to 120/78.  As an added bonus, I've lost 16 lbs! I love this plan, and it fits in with my overall goal of a healthy lifestyle change. However, I have kept in mind that I also take medication for the high BP, so I can't totally attribute the drop to the diet.  But, I was also taking the same medication in the same mg when the BP was 156/100.  The combination of the DASH plan with the weight loss really seems to work. My cardiologist was thrilled with both results and says I can lower the medication dosage if I continue to follow the plan and lose another 15-20 lbs.   I don't feel like I'm "dieting", I'm not starving and sometimes I feel like I don't do anything but eat to get all the servings in! I'd reccommend this plan to anyone wanting to lower BP!   

DAAAAAASSSSSHHHHH!!!  Gotta try it!