The National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute have assisted in the creation of the DASH diet in an effort to help individuals focus on their health and not just their weight. The DASH diet has a focus on eating healthy in order to avoid the risks associated with high blood pressure.
The Main Target
High blood pressure is known to have negative effects on the heart. Heart attacks and strokes, according to research, can be prevented by choosing to eat heart-healthy diets that have a main focus of lowering your cholesterol. The DASH diet is all about lowering your cholesterol and also maintaining the diet throughout your lifetime. By doing the research, you will gain knowledge in how many calories to take in according to your age and lifestyle.
More specifically, however, is where to obtain those calories from while you are on the DASH diet. This is not a fad diet to make you lose tons of weight in a short period of time. This diet is focused on changing and maintaining your eating lifestyle with a focus on healthy cholesterol as its basis.
Food Intake
The basis of the DASH diet that may work well is the fact that it does not focus on or emphasize what you should not eat. The focus is on a common-sense approach to eat common-sense foods for a healthier body. Foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are highly stressed. Protein and low-fat or no-fat choices are also encouraged.
In addition, the removal of salt-laden foods is highly stressed.
Exercise
The DASH Diet does not specifically focus on extensive exercise. The main focus of the DASH Diet is to eat a heart-healthy diet so you can lower or maintain your bad cholesterol while enhancing your good cholesterol. Exercise would enhance your physical wellbeing and aid in weight loss, and is recommended in the DASH Diet as an additional health benefit overall.
Since the focus is on lowering cholesterol, however, the DASH Diet encourages a low intake of alcohol. Alcohol raises blood pressure and, therefore, it is recommended that it is consumed in moderation.
Although the DASH Diet seems to be based on common sense, it details the types of foods you need to eat, the ones to avoid, and focuses on keeping away from salt. Exercise is encouraged, but is not the main focus of the DASH Diet.
