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HOST: Hello and welcome to HealthiNation. I’m
Sharon Richter. As a registered dietitian, many of my clients
have high blood pressure or hypertension.. Through diet, we can control hypertension.
The DASH diet is an excellent approach to do this. I’m going to walk you through exactly
what the DASH diet consists of so you can control your blood pressure.
The DASH in the DASH Diet stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. It was developed
by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and has been proven to lower cholesterol,
lower blood pressure and also help with insulin sensitivity. The main part of the DASH diet
is watching portion sizes. So lets go through some food groups to help figure out what a
serving size is. Let’s begin with some grains.
One slice of bread is a portion. Or, you can have half a cup of rice, half a cup of pasta
and that’s going to be a serving of grains. Next we can think about two important nutrients,
magnesium and potassium. They’re going to be found in fruits and vegetables.
1 serving of a vegetable is a cup spinach ; one serving size of a fruit would be a medium
apple, orange or pear. Now, lets take a look at dairy products. What
you want to be concerned about is the fat content. A whole glass of milk is going to
have 8 grams of fat., 2 percent milk will have 5 grams of fat, and skim milk has less
than 1 gram of fat. Each serving of dairy is about a cup; a cup
of yogurt, a cup of cottage cheese or a cup of milk.. Chocolate milk counts too.
Now, lets take a look at some protein choices. They include, fish, chicken, eggs and meat.
What you want to be careful of about is the amount of salt added to them.
I’ll give you an example, when you go to the deli, try to get fresh turkey as opposed
to the processed, which has a lot more salt added to it. Now in terms of portion sizes,
I do a trick with my hand. The palm of your hand is good for red meat, up to the first
digit for chicken and your entire hand for fish. Now
Now in terms of eggs, one whole egg is going to be equivalent to a serving size of protein,
or for the low fat/low cholesterol version, use two egg whites. That’s going to be equivalent
to one serving of protein.
Now why don’t we start talking about some fats. Fat is actually necessary in your diet;
it helps control your body’s temperature, protects your organs and is excellent for
your hair and your skin. Lets look at some different sources.
Good sources are going to be nuts, seeds, peanut butter, olive oil, and avocados. They’re
all unsaturated types of fat.. The ones you want to stay away from are saturated sources
such as, butter and margarine. A serving size would be about 2 tablespoons
of peanut butter or 20 almonds. Again, when you’re choosing the good sources such as
peanut butter or nuts, try the unsalted version. Salt is going to be related to your blood
pressure.
This is just an introduction to the DASH Diet. You should consult with your physician or
dietician to find out exactly what’s going to be right for you. Keep in mind portion
sizes and try to avoid added salt when possible. Thank you for being a part of HealthiNation.