Is Dash diet good for High cholesterol? If anyone from your family or you’re knowing one is suffering from high cholesterol, you must have listened about the Dash diet. Dash diet is basically a short form of ‘dietary approaches to stop hypertension, hence by listening the name only we can say that It can be proven to reduce high and other heart related diseases. Dash diet is not only effective for hypertension or high cholesterol, but also it can manage a lot of diseases such as weight loss, preventing and also measuring diabetes, lowering blood pressure, etc.
Introduction–
Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, or DASH, is a diet that is suggested for those who want to lower their risk of heart disease and prevent or treat hypertension, often known as high blood pressure. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats are the main components of the DASH diet. One of the key ways this diet may help persons with high blood pressure, according to scientists, is by lowering their salt intake.
Dash diet can not just be compared with any other diet rather it is a diet plan that lowers blood pressure and help in managing heart health. Many studies have shown that this diet have proven in lowering blood sugar level and LDL which is bad cholesterol, both the major reason for heart disease.
Following this diet is not a big deal because it mainly focuses on the diet which should include fruits and vegetables. Dash diet should be rich in nuts and seeds. This diet includes whole grain food and also fats that is good for heart. This may also include some low fat and non-fat dairy as well as lean meat products. Chicken and fish can be the best example for the above mentioned information. On the basis of the need of calories, different serving sizes or amounts are recommended for different different food items or products in this diet.
Some common serving ranges from this diet are-
- Include at least 4 to 5 varieties of fruit in your plate daily
- Include at least 4 to 5 varieties of vegetable in your plate daily.
- Include at least 2 to 3 non-fat or low fat dairy products in your plate daily.
- Include at least 7 to 8 varieties of whole grain in your plate daily.
- Include 2 types of lean meat in your diet such as lean cuts of meat, poultry without skin or skinless
poultry and Last but not the least fish. - You can include 2 to 3 types of oils in your plate daily.
- Talking of nuts ,you can include 4 to 5 types of them weekly.
- Sweets can be of 2 to 4 types weekly.
Dash diet and cholesterol-
Lots of studies have shown that blood pressure can be managed with the help of Dash diet. This diet can reduce blood pressure in less than 14 days which is proven by NIH (NATIONAL INSTITUTION OF HEALTH).
This diet is also helpful in improving blood pressure of people as it also deals with weight loss and lowering triglycerides and VLDL, stands for very low – density lipoprotein. Because of all these benefits it is also listed as one of the best diet plans.
Getting started
First step to get started with your dash diet is to consult with your dietitian before making any changes in your diet. He or she, who is your health provider should first check your cholesterol number and according to that he or she should evaluate that whether this diet will provide any difference to you or not.
With this you should also remember that doing small changes in your diet can also result in vast difference. See, if you are not comfortable or if you are not ready to change your diet fully, try to make small changes in it by replacing one or two item with dash diet products. For example: You can increase the amount of fruits and vegetables in your daily diet plate instead switching fully to a dash diet plate.
Bottom line–
Overall we could conclude that yes, Dash diet is useful in controlling high cholesterol with high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases. It is also helpful loss, managing and preventing diabetes etc. You don’t have to work very hard for this diet instead just by increasing amount of fruit and vegetable intake in your daily diet can also result in lowering high cholesterol.
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