You’re welcome to head straight to Chapter 1 for an overview of what you’ll find in this book, but you certainly aren’t required to. If you want to get cooking, start browsing the recipes in Part 4. Wondering what the blood pressure numbers are all about and how your heart works? Head to Chapter 6. Want some help convincing a family member of all the ways eating the DASH way can benefit your health and blood pressure? Head to the chapters in Part 2. You get the idea. Where you go next — both in this book and in your heart-health journey — is up to you!
Part 1
Getting Started with the DASH Diet
IN THIS PART …
Get your feet wet with an overview of the DASH diet — including its basic dietary guidelines and the lifestyle changes that help promote normal blood pressure and support a healthy heart — before diving into DASH completely to improve your chances of making DASH a way of life.
Discover the core science behind the diet. That’s right: DASH isn’t one of the numerous fad diets out there; it’s a well-researched approach to eating that has been benefiting people with high blood pressure for more than 20 years.
Recognize all the ways DASH can have a positive effect on your health, from the obvious (lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of stroke and heart attack) to the not-so-obvious (fighting diabetes and decreasing cancer risk).
Understand that adopting DASH is a lifestyle change and figure out how to ease into the DASH way of eating. Trust us, setting realistic goals really helps!
Know which foods you can eat on the DASH diet — there are loads of them, particularly fruits and vegetables, nuts, whole grains, lean protein, and low-fat dairy served up in delicious ways.
Chapter 1
What Is DASH?
IN THIS CHAPTER
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, affects one in three of the world’s adult citizens, including nearly half of all U.S. adults, and contributes to millions of deaths from heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure every year. Although medication is usually very effective, in many cases hypertension can be prevented or lessened simply by choosing a diet and lifestyle that promote good health. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet was developed as a holistic, yet medically sound, method to lower blood pressure safely while also promoting wellness and vitality of the whole body. In short: The DASH diet uses food as part of the medical treatment.
This chapter shines a spotlight on what makes DASH so powerful for heart health — and good health in general — and what makes it different from all the other diets out there. It also explains how to find true success with DASH: by making a commitment to changing your current lifestyle for a healthier one that incorporates DASH dietary guidelines and increased activity. Change may seem intimidating, but DASH makes it easy and accessible, incorporating foods you already know and love to help you achieve your goals and live your life to the fullest. There’s no time like the present to throw on some sneakers, grab a healthy snack, and jump right in!
Understanding the DASH Difference
Twenty-five years ago, if you were diagnosed with hypertension, your doctor may have simply sent you on your way with a prescription and advice to cut back on salt. However, over the past two decades, the medical community’s understanding of the effects that diet, body weight, and lifestyle have on blood pressure has expanded tremendously. Studies by physicians, scientists, dietitians, and others have concluded that controlling blood pressure is about far more than just the salt. The following sections trace the history of DASH and explain why DASH is more than just another trendy diet.
Exploring the origins of DASH
The acronym DASH comes from a landmark 1997 clinical trial (a well-controlled human research study) that tested the effects of specific types of food on blood pressure. Instead of just telling people with hypertension what to avoid, the study sought to gauge the effects on blood pressure of a variety of readily available, inexpensive whole foods known to support good health.
Having confirmed that healthy and delicious food could lower blood pressure just as effectively as a pharmaceutical drug, the DASH researchers next turned their attention to salt. The study, known as DASH-Sodium, found that by cutting salt to about 1,500 milligrams daily, blood pressure improved even more than with DASH alone. In fact, even a little reduction in salt made an important difference in blood pressure. The effect was seen in people with borderline high blood pressure, as well as in those with true hypertension.
For a deeper dive into the science behind the DASH study, see Chapter 2. Less interested in the science than in finding advice on how to create a healthy diet plan that works for you? We help you out in Chapter 4.
CONVINCING REASONS TO TRY THE DASH DIET
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is an incredibly widespread problem, affecting people of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors, and nationalities. If you don’t have hypertension, chances are your parents, siblings, or friends do. And you may too one day because the prevalence of hypertension increases with age. If you live long enough, you have a 90 percent probability of hypertension.
Although some cases of hypertension are due purely to genetics (as we explain in Chapter 6), many times the problem can be prevented or lessened by simple lifestyle changes. That means you may have more control