A healthy life starts from a healthy diet. In fact, eating healthy food makes you fit and active, and resolves many problems by improving your digestion. Hypertension is one of the widespread problems around the world due to excessive stress, anxiety, and an unhealthy lifestyle. Basically, hypertension is a lifestyle disorder that takes place due to following an unhealthy lifestyle. However, the right food choice can lower blood pressure. Thus, your doctor or nutritionist may recommend you to follow a DASH diet. The full form of the DASH diet is (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). The DASH diet is specially designed by doctors and nutritionists to decrease blood pressure by reducing LDL levels or bad cholesterol.
The DASH diet refers to a balanced diet and is focused on portion control. It always encourages hypertension patients to include more fruits and vegetables, poultry, nuts, whole-grain foods, and low-fat milk into their regular diet. The DASH diet doesn’t encourage foods with high saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, carbonated drinks, sweets, deep-fried items, red meat, and salt or sodium.
Certain individuals have hypertension on account of family ancestry. For other people, a horrible eating routine, absence of activity, or another ailment might be at fault. Individuals who have hypertension frequently take medication. In any case, diet and exercise can assist lower with high blood pressure, regardless of whether it’s essential for your family ancestry.
One of the means your primary care physician might prescribe to bring down your hypertension is to begin utilizing the DASH diet.
DASH diet means Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension or high blood pressure. The diet is very simple and easy:
- Eat more vegetables, low-fat dairy products and milk, vegetables, fibres
- Include more wholegrain foods, nuts, poultry, and fish
- Eliminate foods from your diet which contain a high amounts of saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol
- Limit sodium, sugary or carbonated drinks, red meat, and excessive sugar.
The research study also proved that people who are on the DASH diet reduced their blood pressure within 15 days. Another diet DASH-Sodium is popular for eliminating sodium to 1,500 milligrams per day (about 2/3 teaspoon). This dieting approach also effectively reduces blood pressure as well.
How to improve your well-being
Following the DASH diet is straightforward. It requires no unique or pre-packaged dinners. It depends on numerous standard food varieties you as of now have in your home. While following the DASH diet, you eat around 2,000 calories every day. These calories will come from an assortment of food varieties.
The DASH diet proportion must have:
- Whole grains (6-8 servings /day)
- Fruits (4-5 servings/day)
- Vegetables (4-5 servings/day)
- Low-fat milk or toned milk and its associated dairy products ( 2-3 servings /day)
- Fish, poultry, lean meat (6 or fewer servings a day)
- Nuts, seeds, and beans ( 4-5 servings/week)
- Healthy fats and oils (2-3 servings/day)
- Avoid sweets, or eat low fat or fat-free sweets once a week
- Sodium not more than 2300 mg/day
- Avoid alcohol, or limit it to two drinks or less than that per day for men and 1 drink for women.
- To decrease your pulse much more, supplant some DASH diet carbs with low-fat protein and unsaturated fats.
- For weight reduction, decrease your everyday calories to 1,600 every day.
- Bring down your sodium to something like 1,500 mg each day assuming you are age 40 or more established, are African American, or then again on the off chance that you have been determined to have hypertension
- If you have very high blood pressure, replace DASH diet carbohydrates with low-fat protein and unsaturated fats.
- For effective weight loss decrease your regular calories to 1600 /day
- Decrease your sodium consumption by not more than 1500 mg per day if you cross the age of 40, and are diagnosed with high blood pressure.
Include The DASH diet to fulfil your health requirements. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables which will eventually protect your body against osteoporosis, diabetes, cancer, and stroke. You may notice the result within one month after following the DASH diet. Blood pressure may go down after just 15 days. However, do not stop dieting, also take your pre-existing doctor prescribed blood pressure medication and go for a regular check-up
Things to consider
Try not to be deterred on the off chance that following the DASH diet is troublesome right away. Begin with little, attainable objectives. The accompanying thoughts can assist you with making sound changes. It’s more straightforward to follow your food assuming you keep a diary of what you eat every day. Record the sodium content, whenever the situation allows. Don’t even be quiet if the DASH diet seems overwhelming at first, try to make little changes at a time until you can do it properly. Start reading labels before buying food items, check how much sodium you are consuming per serving. Eat slowly, don’t forget to do exercises. Doctors recommend isometric exercises for high blood pressure.
Image by Nadine Primeau from Unsplash.