Designed by cardiologists in the late 1980s, the DASH diet promotes lowering blood pressure, weight loss and reduces cardiovascular risks.
Behind the acronym DASH For “Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension” or “Nutritional approach to stop hypertension”, hides a heart-healthy diet. “This diet have been established in the United States towards the end of the 1980s by around fifty cardiologist doctors in order to lower blood pressure of their patients. These doctors, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an American agency affiliated with the American Department of Health. realized that the medical treatments were either insufficient to treat hypertension, or misfits to patients and that they could even alter their general health. They therefore drew up a list of dietary measures which consisted of reducing salt (sodium) intake and which were focused on weight losstells us Raphaël Gruman, dietitian-nutritionist. These measures were then adapted to the diet and French recommendations, modernized and partly coupled with the Mediterranean dietrecognized for its benefits on cardiovascular health.“
Definition: What is the DASH diet?
Based on a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables and low in salt, this dietary approach helps lower blood pressure and lose weight effectivelywithout yoyo effect, by limiting processed foods and favoring raw and plant-based products. Furthermore, a study entitled “Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH)” published in PubMed in 2015 found that following the DASH diet was significantly linked to increased lower prevalence of various cancers due to its high content of fiber, nutrients, vitamins, minerals and antioxidant capacity. The DASH diet recommends practicing moderate to intense sporting activity, 2h30 per week.
What are the principles of the DASH diet?
“It’s not a real diet strictly speaking because it does not impose restrictions on certain categories of food. It is rather a matter ofa way of eating over the long term. It’s all a question of proportion and common sense. This approach can even be applied to children or adolescents, of course adapting the portions. The advantage of the Dash diet is that it adjusts according to your energy expenditure. Indeed, whether you are sedentary, moderately active or very active, the portions change so that you do not feel hungry“, indicates Raphaël Gruman.
- Limit the consumption of processed productsrich in salts and added sugars,
- Favor raw products such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, oilseeds, cereals, vegetable fats, lean meats and fish.
- Restrict adding salt to dishes, cooking or seasoning.
No more than one teaspoon of salt per day.
DASH diet reduces high blood pressure
Too much salt consumption contributes to raising blood pressure. Conversely, reducing your sodium (salt) intake helps lower your blood pressure. The Hypertension Center recommends that people with hypertension should do not exceed 6 g of salt per day. The DASH diet recommends limiting salt intake to 2.3 g of salt per day (which corresponds to about a teaspoon of salt). A study published in 2010 in Jama Internal Medicine showed that patients who followed the DASH diet in addition to daily physical activity had reduces their systolic pressure by 16 points in 4 months. The DASH diet is compatible with treatment for hypertension: “There High Authority of Health recommends that hypertensive people, before prescribing any medical treatment, change their diet over 3 months to see how their tension evolves. Sometimes, a change in power supply is enough to reduce the blood pressure figures.. For other patients, a diversified and balanced diet as in the DASH diet (rich in fruits and vegetables and low in saturated fats and salt) can be considered in combination with drug treatment.“, he concludes.
The DASH diet helps you lose weight
By reducing the consumption of processed foods, rich in added sugars and salts, the DASH diet makes you lose weight quickly, but it helps maintain weight loss in the long term. And since it is based on the consumption of foods at low glycemic index and provides a sufficient quota of protein, it prevents cravings and snacking. The study published in Jama Internal Medicine showed that patients who followed the DASH diet lost on average 3.2 kg in 10 weeks.
The DASH diet reduces diabetes
“Another aspect of the DASH diet: it strongly limits the consumption of processed products with added sugars (sauces, cakes, biscuits, prepared meals, chips, etc.). The only sugars that we will find in this program are the sugars naturally present in foods (fruit sugars, legumes, cereals) which have a low glycemic index. And having a low glycemic index allows you to prevent the onset of diabetes or reduce existing diabetes“, explains our interlocutor. This diet therefore generally improves all cardiac parameters such as cholesterol levels, triglycerides and even inflammatory markers.
What foods are allowed on the DASH diet?
When we do the DASH diet, we favors vegetable fats over animal fats. Concretely :
- We eat more fatty fish “two to three times a week (small fish to avoid having your heavy metal levels too high)”.
- We eat more legumes for protein intake
- We favors the consumption of oilseeds (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, etc.), vegetable oils – preferably olive, rapeseed, walnut – and avocado “to rebalance the omega 3/omega 6 ratio and prevent inflammation”.
| Food | Servings per day or per week |
|---|---|
| Green vegetables | 3 to 5 per day (1 serving = a plate of salad, 1/2 plate of cooked vegetable) |
| Fruits | 4 to 5 per day (1 serving = 75 g of raw fruit) |
| Whole grains (bread, rice, pasta, quinoa, etc.) | 6 to 8 per day (including 3 slices of bread maximum) (1 serving = 3 tablespoons of cooked cereal) |
| Low-fat dairy products | 1 to 3 per day (favoring dairy products made from sheep’s, goat’s or vegetable milk) (1 serving = 20 cl of milk, 30 g of cheese or 1 yogurt) |
| Fish, eggs, lean meat, poultry | 2 to 4 per day (1 serving = 1 egg or 50 g of cooked meat or fish) |
| Oils | 2 tablespoons per day |
| Oilseeds (nuts, seeds, etc.) | 3 to 5 per week (1 serving = 45 g or two tablespoons) |
| Legumes | 2 per week (1 serving = 5 tablespoons cooked) |
| Added sugar (honey, agave syrup, maple, jam, refined sugar, etc.) | 5 per week |
| Salt | Less than 2.3 mg per day |
| Breakfast | 3 slices of wholemeal bread, 20g of butter, 1 tablespoon of jam, 1 banana, 1 tea and 1 natural yogurt |
| Lunch | 200 g of raw vegetables, 1 tablespoon of vinaigrette, 150 g of steamed salmon, 300 g of brown rice, 1 teaspoon of olive oil, 1 natural fromage blanc, 2 tablespoons of fruit coulis red |
| Dinner | 1 bowl of soup, 150 g of chicken breast, 200 g of whole grains, 1 natural yogurt, 150 g of compote without added sugar |
| Snack or snack | A hot sugar-free drink + 1 apple or 2 slices of wholemeal bread + 25 g of almonds |
Menu taken from the book DASH Health Program in 7 days by Editions Leduc, co-written by Raphaël Gruman.
What foods should you avoid if you’re on the DASH diet?
- All industrial or processed foods (crisps, store-bought pizzas, cakes, sauces, prepared meals, soups, etc.).
- Cooked meats.
- Smoked, breaded and surimi meats and fish.
- Canned and frozen pans.
- Commercial sauces (soy, mayonnaises, vinaigrettes, etc.).
- Sparkling waters with a sodium content greater than 50 mg/L.
- Saturated fats (butter, crème fraîche, etc.).
- The stock cubes.
- We slow down our consumption of saturated fats such as butter or crème fraîche.
- We curb our consumption of red meats
- We weight the consumption of dairy products with cow’s milk, especially cheeses which are quite rich in sodium.
“Remember to read labels carefully to find out the sodium content of foods“, recommends our expert.
How many calories per day on a DASH diet?
“The DASH diet actually provides a little more calories than the recommendations of the National Nutrition and Health Program (PNNS), but despite this slightly hypercaloric intake, it allows you to lose weight because it only involves consuming “good calories”. ” and above all it adapts to the person’s energy expenditure“, he insists The DASH diet for:
- A very sedentary person without physical activity is approximately 1,600 calories per day.
- An averagely active person is approximately 2,100 calories per day.
- A person with sustained daily physical activity (waiter, mover, very athletic person) is approximately 2,600 calories per day.
What are the contraindications of the DASH diet?
The DASH diet does not cause deficiency.
None because this diet does not cause any deficiency or deficiency. The DASH diet can suit everyone because it is a diversified, balanced diet, based on natural, simple and healthy foods. It is even recommended by American health authorities.For 2 years“, “when food diversification is complete“, assures Raphaël Gruman.
Thanks to Raphaël Gruman, dietician-nutritionist and author of the books “DASH Health Program in 7 days” and “The Best Diet in the World” from Editions Leduc.