Sarah Samaan - DASH Diet For Dummies

Don’t think of DASH as “going on a diet.” That implies a temporary situation. What you’re after here is making a lifestyle change that you can live with — one that doesn’t make you feel deprived or drained, but rather, one that you can celebrate! Our recipes and tips throughout this book will help you accomplish this, and you’ll find lots of tips in Chapters 4, 11, and 16.

By following the DASH diet, you’ll be able to create a plan that will support your health and empower you with more energy. Consequently, exercise will seem less daunting, and you’ll find it easier to change other habits that have been keeping you back.

Track your successes and forgive your slip-ups. Reach out for support from professionals or a friend when you need encouragement or focus. Making healthy changes may seem difficult at first, but by taking it one step at a time, you’ll find that you can accomplish a great deal.

Although DASH is a fabulous plan that promotes better health and well-being for most people, it’s not for everyone.

One advantage of DASH is the fact that it’s high in potassium. For most people, that helps their kidneys regulate blood pressure more efficiently. However, people with advanced kidney disease may need to limit the potassium in their diet.

If you have a chronic medical condition or take prescription potassium, it’s important to discuss any major changes in the foods you choose with your doctor. In some cases, you may need more careful monitoring of blood work, and in other situations, it may be possible to cut back on the potassium pills when you switch to DASH.

Of course, if you have high blood pressure, DASH may lower it enough that your medications will need to be adjusted. That’s a really good side effect, but not one that you want to overlook. When you commit to DASH, it’s important to monitor your blood pressure closely, especially in the first one to two months and whenever you find yourself losing weight. Let your doctor know of any changes. Doctors love it when patients can ditch a pill or two.

It goes without saying that if you’re gluten intolerant, you need to modify a bit, but there are plenty of tantalizing, gluten-free, healthy grains, including buckwheat, quinoa, millet, and wild rice.

If you’re lactose intolerant, yogurt and other dairy products may not be right for you (although kefir, a cultured milk product low in lactose and high in healthy probiotics, may be an option). Consider calcium-fortified soy milk, almond milk, and other such products.

If you have a disease or disorder that requires medical nutrition therapy (MNT), you need to consult with a registered dietitian/nutritionist (RDN) for individual nutrition counseling prior to starting the DASH diet. Talk to your doctor about a referral or find an RDN near you by checking out “Find a Registered Dietitian” at www.eatright.org .

Finally, despite the fact that some people eat way too much salt, others need more salt, and not everyone needs to cut back. Competitive athletes and people working outdoors in the heat are the obvious examples. A small minority of people suffer from low blood pressure, and in those cases, extra salt is often the treatment of choice.

The great thing about DASH is that it can be easily adapted for a wide variety of tastes and conditions. Because everybody is different, check with your doctor before jumping in with both feet, and let her be a partner in your path to wellness.

Chapter 2

IN THIS CHAPTER

Tracing the origins of DASH to its original study

Examining the relationship between DASH and sodium intake

Looking at other diets similar to DASH

Seeing some of the positive potential effects of DASH

Despite its catchy name, the DASH diet is based on hard science. It was created to help fight and reverse high blood pressure. It also has some remarkable benefits for the body as a whole. Incorporating decades of medical and nutritional research, the DASH diet is a delicious way to boost your health and keep your taste buds happy all at the same time. By choosing to eat the DASH way, you’re making a commitment to a healthier, happier, and more vibrant you. In this chapter, we fill you in on the science behind the DASH diet to help you better understand why it was created and how it works.

You may want to skip ahead so you can get started on the DASH diet and dig in to all the great recipes right away, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But knowing the hows and whys can help keep that motivation going.

Hypertension (or high blood pressure) is more common than the common cold — and a lot more deadly. All told, in the U.S., hypertension affects upwards of 1 out of every 13 people in the under-40 set and more than 30 percent of folks in their 40s and 50s. By age 60, nearly two-thirds of individuals have full-on hypertension. And if you make it to 90, you’re nearly guaranteed full membership in the hypertension club. That adds up to more than 100 million Americans and over one billion people worldwide potentially popping a lot of pills every single day, and though that may make the drug companies happy, it’s not so good for everyone else.

More than just a number, high blood pressure affects the health of your heart, brain, and kidneys. Most research suggests that an ideal natural blood pressure is around 115/75. Those numbers may vary depending on your age and other health conditions, a topic we delve into in Part 2of the book. For a typical adult age 40 through 70, it’s been estimated that for every 20-point elevation in systolic blood pressure (the top number) or 10-point rise in diastolic pressure (the bottom number) above these ideal numbers, your risk for heart attack or stroke doubles.

Although the link between diet and blood pressure had long been suspected, for years, no one had scientifically put a healthier diet to the test in average Americans with borderline to high blood pressure. In the 1990s, a group of physicians, nutritionists, nurses, and other medical researchers from five medical centers across the United States, along with scientists from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, set out on a mission to find out whether straightforward changes in diet could have an important impact in blood pressure. They wanted to create a plan that was easy to follow, accessible, and would work well for a variety of individual tastes. Auspiciously, the researchers called themselves the DASH group, for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Who says scientists don’t know how to have fun?