What is the DASH Diet?
DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, a diet that is made up of high consumption of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and a low intake of fat and dairy products. What makes the DASH diet appealing is that it reduces the risk of developing heart failure in a recent study.
The DASH diet has been shown to reduce blood pressure, and observational studies have also suggested that it may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. The current research, published in the May 11, 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at whether such a diet could also reduce the risk of heart failure in healthy women.
Researchers, led by Dr Emily Levitan (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA), studied 36 019 women aged 48 to 83 years taking part in the Swedish Mammography Cohort. The women did not have heart failure, diabetes, or a history of MI at baseline. Diet was measured using food-frequency questionnaires. A score was created to assess consistency with the DASH diet, and heart-failure hospitalization or death was determined using the Swedish inpatient and cause-of-death registers.
Results showed that women in the top quartile of the DASH component score ate, on average, three servings of fruit, 3.5 servings of vegetables, 5.1 servings of whole grains, 1.6 servings of low-fat dairy products, 0.1 servings of sweetened beverages, and 0.8 servings of red or processed meat per day. In comparison, women in the bottom quartile of the score ate, on average, 1.4 servings of fruit, 1.8 servings of vegetables, 3.3 servings of whole grains, 0.6 servings of low-fat dairy products, 0.4 servings of sweetened beverages, and 1.3 servings of red or processed meat per day.
(Source) Heart Org