Healthy Food Choices for the DASH Diet

The DASH diet is a dietary approach to stop hypertension. Learn more about the DASH diet in this health and nutrition video.

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Emphasize fruits and vegetables
Get lots of calcium
Less than 25 percent of diet from fat
Limit sodium intake
Eat food high in potassium

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David Hill is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also works as the vice-president of Cape Fear Pediatrics, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. David attended Rice University and Texas Medical School of Houston. He writes a monthly column for the Wilmington Parent, as well as, grant regular interviews with television channel WWAY regarding health topics. Sharing his extensive knowledge in a way that is accessible, and maintains healthy lifestyles is what Dr. Hill strives to achieve.

DR. DAVID HILL: Today, we're going to talk about the DASH diet. DASH stands for "Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension." This is a diet that was developed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and tested by scientists around the country as one diet that we know can reduce blood pressure. How much can it reduce blood pressure? Well, combined with a low sodium diet, by as much 11 millimeters of mercury. For some patients with high blood pressure, that may be enough to reduce or even stop one of their medications. However, if you have high blood pressure, be sure and start the medications that your doctor gives you and then work on the diet to cut back from there. So what is the diet consists of? Well, it emphasizes lots of fruits and vegetables. You should have five servings--four to five servings of fruit and four to five servings of vegetables everyday with this diet. You should also have plenty of calcium which comes from two to three servings of low fat dairy products like milk, cottage cheese or yogurt. Additionally, you should have only 25% of your calories come from fat. That means most of your meats are going to be fish, turkey, chicken or other low fat meats and there's not going to be that much of it. Additionally, if you can cut back on your sodium intake, you can do even better than with the original DASH diet. You should start on the sodium of about 2300 milligrams a day. That's compares to 4300 milligrams that men often eat or 3200 milligrams that women may eat during a day. If you can get to that, then try cutting back a little more, to as low as 1500 milligrams a day. These changes will all help bring your blood pressure down. And remember, your goal is to get off of or stay off of blood pressure medications. In addition, you want foods that are high in potassium. While potassium supplements are potentially dangerous, fruits and vegetables with lots of potassium in them are an important part of the DASH diet and have been shown to reduce high blood pressure in patients who have it. So, in addition to that, try some exercise. If you can tack on 30 minutes of exercise three or four times a week, you're going to do even better. To review, the DASH diet was developed by the National Institutes of Health and has been shown to drive blood pressure by as much as 11 points in some patients. If you can add a low sodium diet to that and exercise, you can do even better. It emphasizes lots of fruits and vegetables, high in potassium, low in sodium, less than 25% of your calories from fat and not a whole lot of meat. That is the DASH diet.

Healthy Food Choices for the DASH Diet Video

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