Need to Lower Blood Pressure? DASH Diet Might be for You

The DASH Diet is a low sodium diet that is intended to lower hypertension. This diet is also known as the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension clinical study. People with high blood pressure or pre-hypertension are the ones that are going on this diet. It is said now that it will help women lower their chance of heart disease by 24% and lower the stroke rate by 18%. This is a great thing and everyone should look at this if they are suffering from high blood pressure. The DASH diet allows you to still eat foods from every food group.

Now my health was really bad before I started this diet. Not only was I suffering from pre-hypertension, but also I was way overweight. This was not healthy in any way. I am not going to say that you can lose a lot of weight in one week, but you can lose weight gradually and if you work at it and am motivated and have a great workout program or some kind of exercise then you can lose more weight than normal. I will say that I was on the Sacred Heart diet and I did lose 7 pounds in one week, and felt more energized, but I thought I would change diets because with the other one I was always hungry. The only bad thing about that diet is that you eat mostly fruits and veggies and only get meat like two days out of the week. Now since being on the DASH diet I really do feel more motivated to keep pushing at it so that I can reach my goal weight by the deadline I set for myself.

Now I will let you know some of the meals you can eat and how much of them you can eat. Well I get a day-to-day plan, but my plan for today was very simple. First for breakfast I was to consume 1 cup of milk, low fat or 1%, 1 medium banana raw, 1 cup of bran flakes, and 6 fl oz of orange juice. If you cannot handle eating this little then you should not go on this diet. For a morning snack I was to eat 4 Tbs cranberries, dried, unsweetened.

Now when it came to lunch I was to eat two grilled chicken salads, 1 slice of Swiss cheese, low salt, and 1 medium apple, w/skin, raw. For an afternoon snack I am to eat 4 ounces of yogurt, fruit, nonfat and 10 medium carrots, baby, raw.

For dinner I am to eat steamed vegetables, baked salmon, .75-cup wild rice, cooked. For an evening snack I am to have 1 cup of gelatin dessert mix, orange, sugar free. So as you can see I can eat from every food group everyday.

If you think that you should lose some weight and lower you blood pressure then this just may be the right diet for you. If you think you will not be able to handle it then just find another diet that will help you lose weight. I applaud you all for trying to approve your health.