Don’t lose your mind, keep clam and eat wise
DASH that stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, is a diet that aims to reduce high blood pressure. It is a diet created by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help people manage their blood pressure. A person in this diet will mainly consume fruits, vegetables, whole grain, low-fat dairy foods, poultry, fish, nuts, and beans, but they will limit their intake of red meat, fat, sugar, and salt.
However, in totality, the overall health benefit is that it helps people lose weight, lower cholesterol, and manage or prevent diabetes.
The important aspects Since it is a monitored diet, there are certain aspects that one has to keep in mind while following the dash diet. Right from managing the portion size, consuming a wide variety of healthful foods to obtaining the proper balance of nutrients has to be kept in mind all the time.
Whole point of following a dash diet is to encourage people to eat less sodium, which is the defining factor in salt, increase one’s intake of magnesium, calcium, and potassium.
Strategies that can be useful starting a dash diet Remember, this diet primarily is not a vegetarian diet, however, one has to add more fruits, vegetables, low or nonfat dairy products, beans, nuts, and other nutritious items. And the inclusion of junk food or aptly called non-healthy food is a big no to this diet.
So to begin with a dash diet, go slow on rationalizing your food plate. Begin with limiting your intake of sodium, which is present in our salt, to about only two-three teaspoons per day. Once the body gets accustomed to the sodium limit, cut back to one teaspoon per day.
Dash diet tips Since it requires only a certain number of servings daily, it has to be from various food groups not concentrating on one. Also, the number of servings your body needs will vary, depending on how many calories one needs per day.
For lunch and dinner, start by adding a serving of vegetables. During your snack time, add servings of fruit to your meal. However, canned and dried fruits can be permissible but have to be checked and to be consumed of the added sugar content.
Start consuming use low-fat or fat-free condiments for your salads or dressings. You can also use only half the typical serving of butter, margarine, or salad dressing. Likewise, drink only low-fat or skim dairy products instead of the full-fat or cream.
Cut back on your meat intake and replace them with vegetable meals, including more dry beans to the diet. And instead of snacking on chips eat unsalted nuts, raisins, low-fat and fat-free yogurt, or raw vegetables.
