Maintaining healthy lifestyle habits is always the best option. This means taking care of your diet and exercising.
In the article at hand, we are going to talk to you about the DASH diet. What does it consist of? What can you eat?
Dash Diet: What Does It Consist of?
The first thing to know is that DASH stands for “dietary approaches to stop hypertension but the lyrics come from dietary approaches to stop hypertension. Therefore, its reason for being is to control blood pressure, especially for people who have high blood pressure.
But does the DASH diet help you lose weight? Yes: even if the main goal is to control blood pressure, the DASH diet allows you to lose weight and helps reduce the chances of heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. As you can see, it is a very beneficial way of eating for health.
The Dash Diet and Its Menu
Notably, the DASH diet is not about eating too little. Yes, you will indeed have to control the quantity of the portions so that they are not excessive, but the daily caloric intake will depend on personal factors. Among them are the age, weight, height, and physical activity that you have each day.
This diet, more than how much you eat, focuses on what you eat. In other words, it consists of reducing the consumption of sodium and saturated fat, among others. On the contrary, increase the doses of potassium, calcium, and magnesium.
What foods will you have to stop consuming regularly? Alcohol will be left only for a special occasion, just like candy and sugary drinks or foods high in saturated fat. On the contrary, the consumption of fruits and vegetables, poultry, fish, and nuts will be favored.
Some steps you can take to adapt to the DASH diet are to replace refined grains with whole grains and whole dairy for low-fat. Also, you will eat red meat only occasionally.
Two Versions of the Dash Diet
The standard DASH diet allows you to consume up to 2,300 mg of sodium daily. However, there is an even lower sodium version that only allows you to take 1500 mg each day. If you do not know which of the two to follow, you can always seek a specialist’s advice. After all, each person is different, so the first thing to do is analyze your current physical state.
Dash Diet: Weekly Menu
- We have already explained what the DASH diet consists of, and we have told you about its benefits. Now is the time to see a sample menu. This is the diet you could follow for a day: You can have a fresh cheese and tomato sandwich for breakfast. Of course, use whole wheat bread. To drink, have a glass of milk, to which you can add oatmeal or coffee.
- At mid-morning, eat some oatmeal and almond cookies as a snack.
- At noon, prepare a vegetable salad and have a piece of fruit for dessert.
- For a snack, you can prepare a natural smoothie with milk and fruits. One of the recipes to follow the DASH diet is to mix frozen yogurt, frozen strawberries, banana, and soy milk in a blender. If you want, you can then add some slices of natural fruit. In addition to decorating, they will make the taste even better.
- Finally, end the day with a salad for dinner accompanied by fish or poultry, such as chicken or turkey. Change and try to eat everything during the week. The good idea is to add avocado to your salad if you want to increase fat in a healthy way.
Dash Diet and Recipes
It is expected that if you are going to face a new diet, you want to know recipes that allow you to follow it pleasantly. The truth is that there are many, and the shake that we have proposed in the previous section is just one of them.
Hummus, for example, is a dish that meets the requirements of the DASH diet. To prepare it, you will have to make a puree with the chickpeas and mix it with lemon juice, olive oil, tahini, parsley, pepper, and paprika. To know how much liquid to add, remember that the final mixture must be thick.
Another recipe? Blend watermelon and filter the pulp. Then mix the resulting liquid with lime juice and cranberries. With this recipe, you will enjoy a pleasant flavor while consuming fruit, one of this diet’s star products.
You see that the DASH diet has many benefits for your health. It is simply about analyzing what you eat and replacing unhealthy foods with better ones. Also, if necessary, you can always go for the lowest sodium version.
Final Thought
Remember, finally, that the results of any diet are enhanced if it is accompanied by exercise. It’s not about doing excessively intense workouts. Just add sports practice to your routine, even if it’s moderate.