Doctors say that to improve your overall condition, Dash Diet is the most effective path. Following the National Institute of Health recordings, it scored a whooping 4.5 out of 5 in ‘health usefulness’ and a 3.3 out of 5 in the ‘weight loss’ effectiveness category and. One of the 40 diets evaluated, it was chosen number 1.
What is this Dash Diet?
It is an easy to follow, safe to undertake and useful in the long run plan that can help you feel better and can get rid of excess weight gradually. No starving or dieting. It won’t shock your body with drastic change or stress it out. Dash stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. This diet reduces blood pressure in those with hypertension. Scientists later understood that this diet has tones of other health benefits. It reduces cholesterol, prevents stroke, heart failure and brings health down to a healthy level even for those with obesity. Plus, it is the considered the best diet to prevent diabetes. Adding to controlling of blood pressure, people following it manage to control insolent resistance.
What’s it all about?
The Dash diet balances all the necessary minerals and nutrients like calcium, potassium, protein and fibre which are responsible for brain and over all brain function. It improves the condition of your hair and skin as well. The convenient part of this diet is that you don’t have to monitor and calculate each nutrient. All you have to do is eat certain recommended foods and most importantly reduce your salt intake and. For instance, fruits, vegetables, grains, protein rich food and dairy products. Compared to trendy crash diets, Dash diet is different. This is a complete lifestyle change. It’s for people who need to change their eating habits. There is no cutting out or starving involved. You don’t have to cut out all sorts of tasty dishes. You just need to keep in mind a few general rules.
- It is not about the quantity of the food as much as it is about the quality
- Drink 67 ounces of fluid per day. Ideal would be water and green tea, 4 cups a day.
- Try to eat 5 times per day. One serving should be no more than 8.8 ounces. It is better to have smaller portions and eat more often.
- Limit your daily calorie intake around 2000-2500 a day
- If you have a sweet tooth, you do not have to kill your desires of having something sweet completely but just not more than 5 times a week.
- Try to eat more cereals seeds beans lean mates and vegetables.
- You should avoid drinking soda or alcohol this is because too much alcohol elevates your blood pressure. Also, it harms your liver, heart and brain.
- Limit your snacks to no more than 8 per day in between meals but have a bite if your are really hungry and not bored.
- Remember that tobacco use is prohibited.
- Reduce your salt intake to a maximum of 2-3 teaspoons a day.
- Your diet should include whole wheat bread
- Exclude smoked or fatty foods like canned fish, pastries and pickles.
What you can eat?
According to the Dash principle, you should come up with goals if you want a proper diet plan. Do you want to lose weight or become healthier? If you want to slim down, you should intake fewer calories, in other words, you need to reduce the size of your servings.
For anyone on the Dash diet, you can have the following:
- Cereals- No more than 7 servings per day.
One serving should be one slice of bread, half a cup of cooked pasta or half a cup of oat meal for example.
- Fruit- No more than 5 servings in a day- This could be one fruit, a quarter cup of dry fruit or haf a cup of juice.
- Vegetables- 5 servings in a day- Half a cup of steamed vegetables could be a serving.
- Non-Fat dairy products – 2-3 servings per day. For instance, 1.8 ounces of cheese or 5 ounces of milk would do just fine.
- Seeds, beans and nuts- 5 servings a week. One serving is 1.4 ounces.
- Animal and vegetable fats- 3 servings per day – This could be one teaspoon of olive oil
- Sweet dishes- No more than 5 times a week. A teaspoon of honey or jam is okay.
- Fluids- 67 ounces per day. Water is preferred but green tea and juices are fine to consume.
- Protein- 7 ounces of lean meat, fish or eggs a day is ideal
What to avoid?
Of course it is a diet and lifestyle change so you have to avoid all the typical and unhealthy products.
- Fast food and chips
- Alcohol
- Smoked and canned food, salami
- Fatty meat
- Candies, cookies and other sweets
- Soda
Because our bodies have a propensity to consume junk food, you can subtract harmful products from your diet, little by little. Don’t take extreme measures of cutting off junk food all at one go, you end up craving them more and get a result quite opposite to what you had thought. Take baby steps and over time, your cravings will disappear.
How to plan your diet?
You can create your own menu. Don’t have to do brainstorm and invent anything special to create your diet plan. Just include the necessary products and gradually eliminate the toxic ones. If your goal is to lose weight, the amount of recommended servings is to be cut down. You can also get hold of Dash approved dishes available on the internet- an abundance of recipes in appetizers, main dishes and even desserts can be found.
Weight Loss Benefits
The Dash diet wasn’t originally designed for weight loss in particular. Studies have proven the diet to be otherwise. In a study that was recorded in 2006, researchers divided 810 adults who presumably had border line mild hypertension, into 3 groups. The first group was given some general advice on how to change their lifestyle so that they could get their blood pressure under control. Second group was given instructions to keep their sodium intake under 2300 milligrams a day, exercise and limit their alcohol consumption. People in the 3rd group had to follow the same directions from the second group but also eat according to the Dash diet plans. After a year and a half, people belonging to the second group became 8 pound lighter while those from the Dash group lost an average of 9 and a half pounds. These results were significantly better than the results of the first group who managed to drop only 3 pounds on average.
