Friday, February 6, 2009

Help High Blood Pressure With The Dash Diet

By Cathy Maree

You may not have heard of the DASH diet, produced by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to help control hypertension. DASH is an abbreviation for Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension. In general the Dash diet meal plans limit sodium intake and encourages people to eat nuts, whole grains, fish, poultry, as well as the inclusion of fruits and vegetables. It discourages eating red meat, sweets, and sugar. Read on for more facts about the DASH diet.

The DASH diet resulted from a series of studies that researched dietary plans and their outcomes. The diet not only describes healthy foods, it lists tasty alternatives for junk foods. Coming up with decent junk food alternatives helps people bond to the diet for many months. The diet also discourages eating processed foods.

Your Guide to Lowering Your Blood Pressure with DASH is the official guide book for the DASH diet. This guide shows the nutrition facts of scores of foods and shows their healthy alternatives. It also explains in details the meal plans of the DASH diet along with dietary information for those plans. The complete guide also details resources such as organizations that can help individuals start and maintain the diet.

Yahoo a major search engine maintains a complete page devoted to the DASH program. The information page links to a lot of information including videos, testimonials, and comprehensive explanations.

One reason the DASH diet does not promote the consumption of processed foods is that they contain 75% of the sodium in our daily diet. Because sodium causes hypertension, removing it from the diet will diminish the risks.

Many folks think the DASH diet is a fad diet, but it isn't. It was created after painstaking research, and many health experts believe in it totally. Not only is it a great diet for people who have high blood pressure, but it's a great diet for any person who wants to eat healthy. If you start off on the DASH diet meal plans in the future you will likely never have to deal with hypertension or high blood pressure issues. - 15438

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