The DASH Diet – At The Top Of The List

More than 75 percent of Americans are overweight and obese and most of them are on some kind of diet. Even the best New Year resolutions to lose weight and fit into your favorite pair of jeans will not work unless you have a really good plan. According to the U.S. News & World Report, the best diet to try in 2013 is the DASH diet.

Start with the pressure

U.S. News & World Report ranked 29 popular diets and found that the DASH diet is the best. Promoted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the main goal of the DASH diet is to lower the blood pressure (DASH means Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.) But, it does much more than that.

The theory behind the DASH diet is to include foods that lower blood pressure, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, lean protein, whole grains, low fat dairy, and avoid red meat, fatty and calorie-rich sweets and salt.

The DASH diet resembles other balanced diets such as Mediterranean and TLC diets. It is considered perfectly safe, excellent for people with diabetes and heart problems and easy to follow. Besides health benefits, it offers both short and long term weight loss.

An important part of the DASH diet is cutting down on sodium (salt) and increasing consumption of calcium, magnesium and potassium, elements important for maintaining good blood pressure.

The DASH diet also promotes smaller portions and a wide variety of foods. It is completely balanced and is recommended not only for people with high blood pressure but for perfectly healthy people as well, to prevent heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis and cancer.

The effectiveness

The DASH has impressive credentials. It has been studied by a number of researchers and in a large number of studies. It is one of the rare diets actually designed by the scientists for improving blood pressure, heart health and healthy weight. DASH was created through several clinical trials, in cooperation between the NIH and five reputable medical research institutions in the US: Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

If the DASH diet looks like something you would like to try, learn more about the DASH diet, get the recipes and advice in the document prepared by the National Institute of Health.

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HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

Written by HealthStatus Team
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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