It is official. The U.S. News and World Report released its first-ever rankings of popular diet plans and the DASH Diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) came out on top, winning both Best Diet Overall and Best Diabetes Diet. This Examiner wrote about the Dash Diet previously – before Dr. Oz gave it a thumbs up. Also written a year ago was Year in review: U.S. News ranks the top 25 diets
Its initial intention was for people with high blood pressure. It is low in salt and fat and focuses on veggies and whole grains. The Dash Diet was developed to help patients lower their blood pressure. At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center a large study was done that showed women who followed the Dash Diet significantly reduced their risk of developing heart failure.
Those who back up The Dash Diet include:
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (one of the National Institutes of Health, of the US Department of Health and Human Services), The American Heart Association, The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, U.S. guidelines for treatment of high blood pressure. The Dash Diet doesn’t sound all that original.
Is there anything new about the Dash Diet? Hopefully you are eating veggies, but if not add one to each meal gradually. Use low-fat or fat free dressings.
Those of us eating red meat are probably already cutting back. Try cutting back to two servings a day, which sounds like a lot but this is what the Dash Diet says is fine. Many people have bacon, turkey and a burger daily so cutting out one of those is better than cutting out none.
Try to skip sweet desserts and go for fresh fruit. The Dash Diet is fine with dried fruit (in spite of all the calories) and canned fruit (watch the syrup).
Use half the amount of butter when cooking or baking. Perhaps you can skip the butter totally?
Increase your dairy intake to three servings per day. For example, instead of drinking soda, alcohol or sugary drinks, try low-fat one percent or fat-free milk. Ok now people, many of us should not be eating/dring that much dairy. Check with your doctor before going on this diet. It seems benign but there are a lot of hidden mistakes.
Who am I to argue with the experts but this Examiner questions just how healthy this diet really is? I will stick with Weight Watchers.
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