DASH Diet

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DASH Diet

There are some diets that target a specific health issue and the DASH diet is one of those diets. The acronym means Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. When the diet is followed according to the guidelines, if you have high blood pressure, then being on the diet will bring those numbers down.

If you’re someone who’s at risk of developing hypertension, then using this eating plan can help keep you from getting it. The other benefit to this diet is that it will help you shed any unwanted pounds.

One of the reasons for the success of the diet is because it’s customizable. You can set the diet up according to your preferences. The diet isn’t an overall, everyone just eat the same way kind of plan.

Instead, it works by breaking up dieters according to whether or not they’re male or female and their age groups. The diet also uses how active someone is as a guideline to determine their eating plan.

Those who are more active will eat differently. It’s this personalized attention that’s made this diet so successful. To get started, the person wanting to do the diet would match his or her criteria to how many serving sizes and how many calories he’s supposed to consume each day.

Those who are more active will have more calories, but this calorie determination is different between the genders. What makes the diet so popular is that the list of food items that you’ll eat are normal, healthy foods that you can easily find at the grocery store.

All the foods that you’re eat are those like fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, low-fat dairy, healthy fats, and lean meats as well as things like chicken and fish. The diet focuses on making sure the foods that you eat give you protein - which helps keep your energy levels up as well as keeps you feeling full so you’re less likely to reach for junk food.

The DASH diet recommends that users eat 4-5 servings of vegetables every day - the same for fruits. The guidelines for grains are between 7 and 8 servings while your meat calories should be two servings for the average dieter.

Your dairy and fats should be limited to between 2-3 servings a day, while things like nuts or beans can be eaten between 4 to 5 times throughout a week. Success with the diet is determined by the tools or preparation you use with it.

You should get a meal plan or book that can give you guidance about what to eat so that you have meal suggestions. It’s easy to start a diet when you have a plan to follow and it’s easier to stick with it that way as well.

Another key to success is to make diet changes in small increments.  It’s easier physically and mentally to ease into it rather than make sweeping changes. You’ll want to make sure you do prep work for the food ahead of time.

So it would be helpful to have single serving food storage containers as well as things like food processors to cut the food ahead of time. You may also want to look at appliances like roasters than can help you prepare your meals in a healthier way.