by Dean Traylor

Created on: July 31, 2010   Last Updated: August 01, 2010

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is not a condition anyone wants. It can cause major health concerns or conditions such as heart attacks or strokes. Doctors warn against them, so do nutritionists. They also make suggestions for treating it with a diet plan.

The diet known as Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) has a main goal: to lower one’s high blood pressure. It does this through a change in diet such as a reduction of trans-fats, sodium, alcohol, and a reduction of daily calorie intake.

Its target, hypertension, is a chronic medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is elevated. This rise in pressure is usually the result of blockages forming in the arteries. Several things can cause this including obesity, sedentary lifestyle, or an unhealthy diet full of fats, cholesterol, or sodium.

Of all the diets, DASH not only had the attention of the top nutritionists, dietitians, physicians, and researchers in the country, it had the support of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. One institute under its control, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHIBI) of the National Institute of Health (NIH), lead the way when it compiled information gathered from a study that spanned from August 1993 to July 1997, and used it to formulate a diet plan that lowered blood pressure as well as one’s weight.

At the heart of DASH is the type of foods and servings one must take on a daily basis. The diet is fairly rigid; it requires the dieter to eat a certain amount of servings from each food group.  It also suggests the amount of serving for three targeted calorie intake groups: 1600, 2600, and 3100 calories.

One example of the servings is as follows

Grain: 6 servings (1600 cal.); 10-11 (2600 cal.); 12-13 (3100 cal.)

A complete list of the food/calorie intake can be found on the website for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institute of Health (www.nhibi.nih.gov).

Another way the diet lowers blood pressure is by reducing the daily in-take of sodium. Sodium, found in salty foods, has been long suspected of causing hypertension when used in large amounts.  The diet plan suggests that the daily sodium intake should be between 1500 mg and 2300 mg per day.

Other rules to DASH state that the dieter on this plan must limit their consumption of trans-fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. Trans-fat is the common name for unsaturated fat with trans-isomer fatty acids. This type of fat

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