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DASH NOT the Best Diet for High Blood Pressure
The Best Diet to Lower BP is…
The Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes Diet for high blood pressure and cholesterol lowering is the best known general dietary intervention for improvement of blood pressure control. The Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes Diet has been traditionally used to lower cholesterol, but showed BP reductions two-fold greater than in a DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet. The TLC diet should be reviewed in detail here. This 85 page guide outlines the most simplified, widely accepted, and most effective evidence-based diet available for simultaneous dietary treatment of both high cholesterol and high BP. After you review this research, you will see that DASH is not the best diet for high blood pressure.
Alternatively, we recommend the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) for dietary treatment of high blood pressure. The DASH diet is a lifelong approach to healthy eating that’s designed to help treat or prevent blood pressure with reductions reported within 2 weeks of starting the diet. The DASH diet is consistent with the American Heart Association’s (AHA) 2006 Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations. Of note, research has shown that the combined effect of a lower sodium intake with the DASH diet for high blood pressure reduces blood pressure more than just the DASH diet or low salt diet alone.
The DASH Diet For High Blood Pressure Summarized for You:
The following summarizes the food groups and suggested serving amounts for the DASH diet for high blood pressure:
Grains: 7-8 daily servings (such as sliced bread,1 oz dry cereal, 1/2 cup cooked rice, pasta, or cereal)
Vegetables: 4-5 daily servings (1 cup raw leafy vegetable, 1/2 cup cut-up raw or cooked vegetable, 1/2 cup vegetable juice)
Fruits: 4-5 daily servings (1 medium fruit, 1/4 cup dried fruit, 1/2 cup fresh, frozen, or canned fruit, 1/2 cup fruit juice)
Low-fat or fat-free dairy products: 2-3 daily servings (1 cup milk or yogurt, 11/2 oz cheese)
Meat, poultry, and fish: 6 or less servings daily (1 oz cooked meats, poultry, or fish, 1 egg)
Nuts, seeds, and dry beans: 4-5 servings per week (1/3 cup or 11/2 oz nuts, 2 Tbsp peanut butter, 2 Tbsp or 1/2 oz seeds, 1/2 cup cooked legumes (dry beans and peas)
Sweets: try to limit to less than 5 servings per week (1 Tbsp sugar, 1 Tbsp jelly or jam, 1/2 cup sorbet, gelatin, 1 cup lemonade).
Eliminate added salt.educe sodium intake to 2000 mg (2 grams) per day. There is enough salt present in foods naturally. Compared to higher sodium intakes, an even greater BP lowering effect was seen with a decreasing the sodium intake to 1,500 mg daily. Sodium content is required to be listed on labels which should be followed until familiar with sodium content in various foods.
Welty FK., Stuart E., O’Meara M., Huddleston J., Effect of addition of exercise to therapeutic lifestyle changes diet in enabling women and men with coronary heart disease to reach Adult Treatment Panel III low-density lipoprotein cholesterol goal without lowering high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The American Journal of Cardiology. May 2002; 89(10): 1201–1204. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002914902023056
