A must-read for those with high blood pressure! Don’t just rely on medication to lower your blood pressure, try the Deshu Diet!

When it comes to healthy eating patterns, many people think of the Japanese eating pattern and the Mediterranean eating pattern.

In 2016, in an annual dietary pattern selection held in the United States, the DASH (dietary approach to stop hypertension) diet won the championship among 35 dietary patterns and became the best dietary pattern of 2016.

The DASH diet, also known as the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, is a healthy eating approach that can prevent high blood pressure.

The DASH diet originated from a large-scale hypertension prevention and treatment program in the United States in 1997.

To this day, it has not only not been overwhelmed by other emerging dietary patterns, but has gradually stood out from various dietary methods. It is now so eye-catching that many studies surrounding it have produced some confident results.

The DASH diet has a significant effect on lowering both systolic blood pressure (high pressure) and diastolic blood pressure (low pressure).

If you stick to the DASH diet, you can feel its blood pressure lowering effect within 2 weeks. In addition to the blood pressure lowering effect, the DASH diet can also lower triglycerides, which is beneficial for maintaining cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health.

The DASH diet pattern is not only effective in lowering blood pressure, but also complies with dietary guidelines for preventing diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease, and cancer, and has a wide range of benefits.

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If you really want to try the DASH diet, what should you eat every day? Please refer to the table below for details.

Note: The table above is based on the recommendations for adults who need 2000 kcal of energy per day. People with different energy needs can increase or decrease the amount of energy in proportion.

Regarding sodium intake, since sodium intake is critical to blood pressure control, the DASH diet provides two versions of this issue:

The standard version provides 2300 mg of sodium per day (about 5.8 g of salt), and the low-sodium version provides 1500 mg of sodium per day (about 3.8 g of salt).

If you can't adapt to the taste of the low-sodium version right away, you can start with the standard version and gradually transition to the low-sodium version. People's tastes can change, and you will feel the effect after just a few weeks.

The DASH diet recommends that men limit their alcohol intake to no more than 2 cups per day, and women to less than 1 cup per day (1 cup is approximately 100 ml). Excessive drinking will lead to high blood pressure.

The DASH diet does not explicitly limit caffeine intake. So can the DASH diet help you lose weight?

In fact, the DASH diet was not originally designed for people who want to lose weight, but if you are willing to try it and stick to it for a period of time, there may be unexpected results.

It is not difficult to see that the DASH diet is suitable for all people who want to have a healthy eating habit, not just for people with high blood pressure.

Author: Cui Yihui, registered dietitian, master of medicine

Reviewer: Zhu Wenli, Professor and Master Supervisor, Peking University Health Science Center

Submitted by: Chinese Medical Association

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