The DASH diet explained in detail!

These days there's a huge range of different eating styles and diets to choose from. While some of them make sense, other diets can be very bad for your body. Especially those diets promising very fast success tend to be unhealthy, and the effects usually aren't that big either, thanks to the yo-yo effect.

But how are you even supposed to know whether a diet makes sense or not? That's exactly why I want to regularly cover new types of diets here on my blog and assess them. This time it's about the DASH diet. This diet doesn't prioritise weight loss, but lowering blood pressure long term. That already sounds pretty interesting. In this article I'll take a closer look at the DASH diet, how it works and which foods you're allowed to eat.

Quickly, a few words about me first: my name is Marco Laterza and I'm a personal trainer in Zurich. I specialise in supporting and educating people in nutrition, training and mindset. If you'd like to work with me, feel free to get in touch.

What is the DASH diet?

As already mentioned above, the DASH diet is about lowering blood pressure long term. Many people today live with high blood pressure and have to reckon with the consequences sooner or later. Strokes, cardiovascular disease, loss of eyesight — all these illnesses can result from high blood pressure.

And of course there are a whole range of factors that influence a person's blood pressure. These include age, sex, or your own genetics. While we can't influence these factors, we still have a not-to-be-underestimated influence on blood pressure — namely through our diet.

DASH stands for "Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension" — so it's about eating styles that help avoid high blood pressure. It's not about weight loss, which is of course quite refreshing when you look at the number of diets out there with that goal. Even so, weight loss is probably possible with this diet too, since being overweight is also a factor that contributes to high blood pressure. But let's take a closer look at the eating style behind the DASH diet.

What am I allowed to eat?

As you've probably already guessed, a healthy and balanced diet is at the centre of the DASH diet. This mainly includes fruit, vegetables and whole grain products. Legumes, nuts and seeds can also be eaten without concern. Fish and meat are also allowed, but only in small amounts. You should avoid fatty meat, dairy products and very salty foods.

The DASH diet essentially follows two different principles:

1. A plant-based diet, similar to that of vegans or vegetarians, produces healthy blood pressure in many cases. That's why you should eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit. Whole grain products can also be part of your daily plan. For protein sources you can use legumes and nuts, but lean meat and fish are fine too. This approach leans heavily towards the Mediterranean diet, which is itself very promising.
2. Salt intake should be kept low. So no more than one teaspoon of salt should be consumed daily. As I've already discussed in a blog post on LinkedIn: too much salt is of course not healthy. But too little salt isn't good either, especially if you consume none at all. The recommended amount is set low, but it's definitely enough. On top of that, low salt intake can help support healthy blood pressure.

Even though salt intake is significantly reduced here, you don't need to worry about bland food. On one hand, you can always fall back on herbs for more flavour. If you use herb salt, for example, the salt content is significantly reduced while the dishes still taste just as intense. On the other hand, it's also worth mentioning that our taste buds get used to the salt content over time. So after a while, dishes will taste intense again — without too much salt.

Who is this diet suitable for?

As the principle behind the diet suggests, this way of eating is especially suitable for people suffering from high blood pressure. It makes no difference whether the high blood pressure comes from genetics or from your own diet. If you stick to the principles of the DASH diet, you can definitely counteract high blood pressure.

If you don't have any issues with your blood pressure and, say, want to lose weight, you probably won't get the results with the DASH diet that you could achieve with a different diet. People with lower blood pressure should also probably avoid the DASH diet, or at least discuss it with a doctor first.

How can you put the DASH diet into practice?

No diet is easy to put into practice — that much is clear to everyone. Especially when a lot of changes are coming to your diet, it makes sense to integrate these changes into your everyday life in small steps. So here are a few tips from me that can help with implementing the DASH diet:

1. Not everyone finds it easy to get used to the low salt content. But you don't have to hit the recommended amount from one day to the next. You can slowly get used to the salt content and introduce small steps. For example, you could use herb salt instead of regular salt in a dish. After that, you could switch from herb salt to just dried herbs. The gentler the steps you take, the better you'll be able to implement the diet.
2. Also try to cook a varied range of meals. Changing your diet can be difficult, especially when you're supposed to avoid salty ready meals and don't have much time anyway because of your working day. Even so, you should always keep in mind that changing your diet comes with health benefits and gives you more energy in everyday life too. So take the time to cook healthy meals.
3. You can also take a slow approach to the recommendations around increasing meat consumption or switching to whole grain products. You'll already see results anyway if you implement the changes in small steps. So take your time, and the whole thing will work out much better.

My conclusion: would I recommend this diet?

The DASH diet is a varied concept that prioritises lowering blood pressure. So I can recommend this way of eating especially to people suffering from high blood pressure. However, I do need to say this: please make sure to discuss it with a doctor first, before implementing this diet!

The recommendations around foods and salt content have been chosen very rationally. With this diet you definitely eat healthily, and the DASH diet can make sense even for people without high blood pressure.

That said, it's worth noting that the goal here isn't weight loss. If that's your goal, you should turn to other diets. And competitive athletes in particular should avoid this diet, since they need more salt than what's recommended here.