Beginner introduction to DASH diet
DASH diet is one of the diets that listed in 2015-2020 US Dietary Guidelines as one of three recommended healthy diets along with Mediterranean diet. DASH is an acronym that stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. As the name suggest, DASH diet is a lifelong method towards healthy eating which is intended to help prevent or treat high blood pressure (hypertension). This diet plan is designed to help lower blood pressure without the need of medication. Dash diet is developed in research sponsored by National institute of health.
DASH diet encourages its practitioner to decrease their sodium intake and eat variety of foods what rich in nutrients that could help lower their blood pressure including potassium, magnesium and calcium. The practitioner of DASH diet may be able to decrease their blood pressure by a few points in only two weeks. In the long term, the top number of blood pressure of systolic blood pressure could drop by 8 to 14 points. This number is good enough to make significant difference in your health risk.
In general, DASH diet is a healthy method of eating. Therefore it’s not only lower blood pressure but also offers other health benefits. This diet is also conforming to dietary recommendations that prevent osteoporosis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
The practice of DASH diet advocate the consumption of vegetables, fruits, low-fat dairy foods and also moderate consumption of whole grains, fish, nuts and poultry.
There are two form of DASH diet. In addition to the standard version, DASH diet also have lower sodium version. Practitioner of DASH diet can choose which version that suitable with their health needs.
In the standard version of DASH diet, your sodium consumption is restricted to up to 2.300 milligrams per day. In the other version, lower sodium DASH diet. You have lower sodium restrictions which only up to 1.500 milligrams per day. Both of these versions are intended to decrease the amount of sodium in your diet. These number also lower than common American diet which can have up to 3.400 milligram of sodium per day or even more.
Both standard and lower sodium version of DASH diet have satisfy the recommendation from the Dietary Guideline for Americans which suggest to keep sodium intake to less than 2.300 milligrams per day. However The American Heart Association recommends only up to 1.500 milligrams of sodium per day for adults. This recommendation is only satisfied by lower sodium version of DASH. If you want to implement DASH diet into your life but you aren't sure what sodium level you should take, it is recommended to consult with doctor.
0 Komentar