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This section contains helpful information that explains the DASH diet more specifically and offers information to help you make DASH part of your life. As you learn more about DASH, you'll also learn more about the Food Guide Pyramid and what it really means to follow a healthy diet. Remember that it is most effective to make changes using small steps. Pick just one or two changes to make at a time.While you are working on diet changes, be sure to take good care of yourself in other ways, too. Drink plenty of water. Go for bike rides or walks. Get plenty of sleep. Good Luck!
Following the DASH Diet:
Americans are now eating all the time, wherever we please. "Consumers now see eating as something to be done while doing something else," said Bobby Calder, a marketing professor at Northwestern University (NYT 7/30/99). "Everybody wants to save time by multitasking. So, we don't sit down and eat. We eat while we work, while we're watching TV, while we drive." The consequences can make you shudder when you consider the lack of nutrients in typical snack foods, but snacking doesn't have to be "bad thing." Be it grazing, snacking or noshing, when it comes to dining DASH-style, snacks can be the key to getting in extra servings of fruits and vegetables and low fat dairy products. Keep the DASH guidelines in mind when you choose what to eat. For your next snack opportunity try some of these tempting tastes:
Eating DASH style doesn't mean a major re-model for your kitchen. It will, however, cause you to reorganize your pantry and refrigerator and make a few revisions to your shopping list.
Get started with a good look inside your kitchen. Are the drawers at the bottom of your refrigerator empty except for a few wilted, long forgotten carrots? Are there more fruit flies than bananas in your fruit basket? Got milk? If not, you've got some milk mustaches to make! Make a clean sweep and prepare your kitchen for more healthy, fresh foods. Make more room for grains, nuts, legumes as well as fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, and low and nonfat milk, cheese and yogurt.
When you go shopping, make sure these same healthy foods - especially fruits and vegetables and low and nonfat dairy products - take up the majority of your cart. Try shoving a gallon of milk onto the bottom rack rather than a case of soda pop. Place those fresh greens for a salad on top rather than a bag of potato chips. Don't forget the garlic and herbs for flavor!
What to do when there's only you or two of you for dinner? Dine on a DASH meal, that's what to do! It may seem easier to pour a bowl of cereal, but the recipes and menus in our cookbook may be almost as easy and are surely more flavorful. With singles and empty nesters in mind, these recipes have been tested in smaller quantities. If you just want a little, make half a recipe (be sure to use a smaller dish or pan). Or, make a full recipe and save the leftovers for another meal. Even better, invite a friend or neighbor to join you. Have them bring fruit for dessert and you'll be set.
To make DASH meals work for you, try these ideas for cooking for one or two:
It is easy for other family members to glibly say, "I don't have high blood pressure, I don't need to follow your special diet." On the flip side, you can tell them that DASH is a way of eating that will help keep everyone healthy, old and young, hypertensive or not. It is never too early or too late to start eating healthy foods. And, while their blood pressure may be normal now, hypertension is passed on from one generation to another. The best way to prevent it is to have a
healthy lifestyle from the beginning.
Research shows that when people eat together, the food that they eat is more nutritious. Involve your kids in the menu planning, shopping and food preparation. It's funny how food tastes better if you've helped prepare it! Be adventurous and try new foods together. Choose a theme based on a particular culture or an upcoming holiday. For more ideas of how to feed your family nutritious foods, check out our references section for some great links.
The DASH recipes and menus rely on the flavors of foods and seasonings other than salt. While the DASH diet was not a low sodium diet, health experts recommend cutting back on salt to reduce hypertension (see http://dash.bwh.harvard.edu/dashdietsalt.html for details). Most of the sodium we consume comes from convenience foods, fast foods, and condiments. If frozen dinners, spaghetti sauce, pizza, French Fries, soy sauce and ketchup are your mainstays, you are average!
To break the salt habit, turn to other sources of flavor when you cook: garlic, herbs, seasoning blends, cayenne, curry, or ginger...there are so many choices! Let the DASH recipes be your guide to new flavors with less sodium.
When you eat away from home, look for menu offerings that are marked as healthy. Choose foods that don't use large amounts of soy sauce, broth or condiments. Ask servers to leave off any added salt and to suggest low sodium choices. When you eat-on-the-run, grab fresh foods. Stop at a grocery store instead of a convenience store. Run through the salad bar, grab some fresh fruit and a carton of yogurt, pick-up some string cheese and baby carrots. You'll be surprised when you see how many choices there are in grocery stores today for healthy, on-the-go eating.
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