Lowering high blood pressure with food
High blood pressure – hypertension – increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. To reduce the risk of diseases, a healthy lifestyle is essential. The DASH diet can play an important role in this.
High blood pressure: more than 15 percent of the Dutch suffer from it. Of course there are medicines that keep blood pressure under control, but you can also do a lot yourself. The DASH diet helps you with that.
DASH diet and less salt
The DASH diet was developed in America and the abbreviation DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Several large studies have already shown that this diet lowers high or slightly elevated blood pressure. Based on American research, the Dutch Heart Foundation to combine the DASH diet with a lower salt intake, because salt has a negative effect on blood pressure. The American study showed that people with high blood pressure achieved the same results by following the DASH diet in combination with less salt than with blood pressure lowering drugs.
DASH Diet: What Do I Eat?
The DASH diet emphasizes fruits and vegetables. Dairy products should be lean and you also eat a lot of whole grains, whole grains, fish, poultry, nuts and seeds. Red meat, added sugars and sugary drinks are limited as much as possible. The same goes for salt and saturated fats. As with most other diets, DASH also sees you eating small portions throughout the day.
The DASH diet has many similarities with the guidelines of the Nutrition Center and the guidelines good nutrition 2015 of the Health Council.
Lose weight with DASH?
Although weight loss is definitely not the goal of the DASH diet, in practice many people lose weight. This is probably due to the fact that high blood pressure often goes hand in hand with being overweight: the moment someone who is overweight starts to eat healthier, the scale will also show that. If you also start exercising more at the same time as the DASH diet, the effects in terms of weight loss will of course be greater.
Recipes
On the – incidentally rather garish – official website of the DASH diet you will find a lot of information. To get access to all the ins and outs, a personal nutrition plan and an e-book with 162 recipes, you have to pay: €67, or – with a discount – €47. There is a ‘100 percent not satisfied, money back’ guarantee for 60 days.