The DASH diet

It’s the diet that’s taking the States by storm. Forget 5:2, Atkins or Dukan, the number one diet across the pond right now is the DASH diet.

As the name suggests, the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet has been developed by doctors to treat hypertension – or to lower high blood pressure. However, just like the GI diet, which was created to help diabetics, what started out as a treatment for a medical condition, has gone on to have much wider application as a weight loss tool.

At the core of the DASH diet is lowering sodium, aka salt, which is known to raise blood pressure.  The simplest way to do that and one which the DASH diet stresses is to avoid processed foods – many of which are high in added salt – and cook from scratch. Simple, whole foods not only lower blood pressure but they also help you lose weight (another way to lower blood pressure, by the way).

So what’s all the fuss about?

The secret of DASH’s success is its simplicity. There are 1600, 2000 and 2600 calorie plans, but once you’ve chosen one you don’t have to calorie or carb count, nor are there any fast days or weird food tricks. It features ‘normal’ healthy foods such as low-fat milk, wholegrain bread and fresh fruits and vegetables. In essence, it’s a version of both the low GI and Mediterranean diets.

If there is a gimmick, it’s the one teaspoon max of salt a day rule.  One teaspoon may sound a lot, but if you eat a lot of fast food or packaged food, you’ll probably go way over that regularly. So, a central part of the diet is to learn to read food labels and calculate the salt/sodium content.  Once you start doing that of course, you may be shocked by how much salt you actually consume on a daily basis, and this if nothing else this will get you eating more fresh food which is healthier and helps you lose weight.

Pros

The DASH diet has been throughly tested scienticially, through large scale trials on real heart patients in five separate locations across the U.S.  It’s been shown to be not only low in blood pressure-boosting sodium, but high in other healthy nutrients such as magnesium, fibre and protein.

Cons

As an American diet, most guides available in book form or on the web use cup measurements which you need to convert. But this is easily fixed if you get yourself a cup measure with US markings on. Also, you’ll need to spend some time preparing food from scratch.

Want to give it a try?

If you want to use the DASH diet to lose weight, your rate of weight loss will depend on which calorie plan you choose – 1600 (a bit low in my opinion), 2000 (the best for women) or 2600 (suitable for men). This affects your serving sizes. If you want to use the DASH diet as just a way to eat healthily, serving size is less important.

Here are the 2000 calorie daily servings on the DASH diet.

Fruit

2-2 ½ cups.

½ cup is 16 grapes or 1/2 small apple/pear, 1 satsuma. You need to half this again for dried fruits, so 1 – ¼ cups dried raisins/apricots.

Vegetables

2-2 ½ cups

This means non-starchy vegetables e.g. lettuce, broccoli, peas etc.

Low-fat or fat-free dairy

2-3 cups

1 cup is 175ml milk or yoghurt or 30g reduced fat hard cheese.

Meat and fish

150g

50g is one egg.

Wholegrains

150-175g

50g is 2 small slices wholegrain bread or 1 cup cooked brown rice or pasta.

Oils

As little as possible.

Added sugar

As little as possible.

Sodium

2,300 mg or 1 teaspoon.

Alcohol

Women: 1 drink per day max.

Men: 2 drinks per day max.

1 drink is 300ml lager, 125ml wine, 1 shot of spirits.

Lowri Turner is a nutritionist. Her new book The Hunger Types Diet is available now. For more information, click here.