What Is A Dash Diet? (Everything You Need To Know To Lower Your Blood Pressure)

What is the DASH Diet?

The Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension diet is a nutrition regime designed for people to prevent or treat high blood pressure while significantly reducing their risk of heart disease. The diet involves monitoring signs of high blood pressure and removing high salt, fat, sugary foods, and drinks. The DASH diet list of foods instead focuses on nutrient-dense foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats.

After noticing that high blood pressure was less common in people who follow a plant-based diet, researchers at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) created the DASH diet. One of the main reasons scientists believe this diet can help prevent high blood pressure without medication is because it significantly reduces salt intake. The regular DASH diet recommends no more than 2,300 mg (1 teaspoon) of sodium per day.

Because the DASH diet follows a healthy eating style, it offers additional benefits outside of just lowering blood pressure. According to research done by The Mayo Clinic, this diet is in line with dietary recommendations for people who have osteoporosis, cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Signs of high blood pressure

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, they may be signs that you have high blood pressure and it may be helpful to seek treatment and make some dietary changes.

Some signs of high blood pressure include:

• Headaches that may be accompanied with dizziness
• Bloody nose
• Extreme fatigue or lack of energy
• Trouble with your vision
• Shortness of breath
• Blood in your urine
• Chest pain

* Before starting any new diet program, be sure to check with your doctor to see if it's right for you.

What Should You Eat on DASH?

The DASH diet program supports healthy eating by emphasizing fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and fat-free/low-fat dairy products in their list of foods. The advantage of DASH is that it doesn’t exactly require any special foods but instead provides daily and weekly food group goals. 

Here’s what researchers at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) recommend for a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet.

Daily Servings:

• Grains: 6–8 servings
• Meats, poultry, and fish: 6 or fewer servings
• Vegetables: 4–5 servings
• Fruit: 4–5 servings
• Low-fat or fat-free dairy products: 2–3 servings
• Fats and oils: 2–3 servings
• Sodium: 2,300 mg or 1,500 mg (standard or low-salt version)

Weekly Servings:

• Nuts, seeds, beans, and peas: 4–5 servings
• Sweets: 5 or fewer servings
  
  

What Can’t You Eat on DASH?

When following this diet, it is essential to choose foods low in saturated and trans fats, rich in nutrients, and low in sodium. As such, here is a general list of foods to avoid with the DASH diet.

• Highly fat-saturated foods: fatty meats, full-fat dairy products, tropical oils (coconut, palm kernel, palm oils)
  
• Added sugar: sugar-sweetened beverages and drinks
  
• Salt: The standard DASH diet recommends no more than 2,300 mg of salt per day. To lower blood pressure even further, the NHLBI recommends reducing sodium intake to 1,500 mg per day.
  
  

Challenges of the DASH Diet

There are a few general concerns to be aware of when following this diet:

• Hard to maintain: Those who follow a typical American diet may have a hard time adjusting.
  
• No Convenience Eating: DASH is self-supported, meaning all your meals you’ll have to cook yourself.
  
• Food Tracking: The diet requires you to track your daily/weekly servings of different food groups along with your daily sodium intake.
  
  

What are the Benefits of the DASH Diet?

The DASH diet is designed specifically to lower high blood pressure, which is the main benefit of the diet program. That said, it does promote a healthy way of eating and may come with a few added benefits:

• Lowers blood pressure: The DASH diet has been shown to reduce blood pressure in both healthy people and those with high blood pressure.
  
• Can help with weight loss: Several studies concluded that people could lose weight by following the DASH diet. Given that it calls for removing sugary, high-fat foods, weight loss isn’t out of the question.
  
• Reduce your risk of heart disease 
  
• Decreases cancer and diabetes risk
  
  

Can you do the DASH Diet as a Vegetarian?

Yes, this diet is primarily made up of fruits, vegetables, and whole-grains. A vegetarian could easily follow the DASH diet by replacing meat, poultry, and fish with plant-based protein sources such as beans and legumes. In fact, researchers found that vegans and vegetarians had significantly lower blood pressure when compared to non-vegetarians. This means that vegetarians can easily follow the DASH diet and reap the benefits by reducing blood pressure. 

Concerns About the DASH Diet

This diet is typically healthy for most people to follow. That said, a study published in 2012 noted that people with chronic kidney disease, liver disease, and those prescribed with renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system antagonist should exercise caution before starting the diet. 

Resources for the DASH Diet

The DASH diet is well-researched and recommended for most people looking to improve their blood pressure. As a result, there are plenty of resources to get you up to speed, answer any questions you may have, and even provide a sample meal plan.

Here are some great resources:

• DASH Eating Plan (NHLBI)
• Beginner’s Guide to the DASH Diet
• The Mayo Clinic’s Guide to DASH Diet
• Guide to Lowering Blood Pressure with DASH
  
  

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