The DASH Diet

by Valerie Ann Murphy- Work-at-Home Wife and Mom
(Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin)

The DASH Diet

I noticed that some of the stories shared here recently are about different diets, so I am now sharing my own which is about the DASH Diet. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. I am making this clear first because some people thought along that this is just another one of those fad diets. Hypertension as we all know is high blood pressure and being overweight or obese has a lot of relevance to hypertension.

You see, I used to weight 185 pounds of mostly fat and flab which I gained when I gave birth to my first child. I was only thirty-two years old when my blood pressure reached 150/80. My doctor said it was all a carry over from my pregnancy which I was never able to bring back to normal because I kept gaining more weight instead of losing some. The feelings of dizziness and nausea plus the sound of something buzzing in my ear made me really scared. I was experiencing the immediate symptoms of hypertension. In fact my doctor diagnosed it as a mild stroke attack.

I was having the happiest time of my life taking care of my baby and the thought of not being fit and healthy for my little one was something that shook me out of my stubbornness. I finally decided to take on my doctors advice of getting into the DASH diet. A year after my pregnancy, my doctor already told me about this diet program but I also thought it was just a fad. In fact I was expecting my doctor to sell me something but he explained that it was a solution recommended by the National Institutes of Health to manage hypertension.

By changing my eating habits altogether, my blood pressure will normalize and at the same time result to weight reduction. It was my very obesity that was causing my hypertension since my blood circulation was affected by hardening arterial vessels and lack of viscosity in my blood. This meant that the quality of my blood was too thick with fat content to be readily absorbed by my blood cells.

This was how my doctor explained it to me as to why there is a great relationship between being obese and having hypertension. He said that pressure points in some areas were caused by blood that could not flow freely while my heart continues to pump and function normally, releasing pressure for the blood to surge forward.

Starting with the DASH Diet:

1. To my surprise, it was not so hard to get started because the change did not have to be abrupt. I had no problems with the vegetables since I just came out pregnancy, vegetables and fruits comprised a great deal of my meal. It was the salad dressing and the salt part that had to change. I had to cut back by at least half and at the same time use fat-free salad dressings.

2. The coke and soda had to go, because the Dash Diet wanted me to drink more of the low fat milk. Kicking off the soft drinks habit was the hardest part because I really found my meals more enjoyable if I had them. But then again I was able to convince myself that I was on a diet and I guess the diet will be more effective if I did not enjoy my meals.

3. I had no issues with eating less meat either, but if ever I had a desire for meat it was for the marbled portion wherein the soft gelatinous fats are in-between the meat grains. So if I cannot have those, I did not eat beef at all because it only made me crave for the taste I was so used to. I stayed with white meat, fish and occasional lean meat.

4. Since my meals were altogether beginning to lack appeal and all, eating in portions seemed to come naturally. Everything had to be unsalted, use of butter was always just a hint and salad dressings were bland.

5. I always snacked on something though because working around the house and looking after a toddler could really make me hungry. I kept some dried fruits, dates and raisins mostly, banana, fruit-flavored yogurt, graham crackers always handy and ready, then wash them down with a glass of low-fat milk. In fact, I began to like the habit of eating less of the big meals

6. Now the workouts were important. I was glad it did not have to be something strenuous but just something to keep my blood circulating properly. Since my kid was just a toddler then, I had to do a lot of running after. I was getting better at it because I was feeling lighter and lighter. In fact the improvement I noticed was more on how I was able to do more work in the house by not feeling so sluggish. Whereas before when I was 185 pounds, it took a lot of effort for me to get up and my breathing was always labored.

Everything is a lot different now and by changing to a healthier eating lifestyle, I was able to incorporate healthy cooking instead of influencing my husband with my food preferences. Before DASH, my food preparations were always rich and savory, with thick sauces and rich dressings. Actually, my husband and I soon developed a liking for the natural taste of vegetables. Less salt was not so bad after all because it allowed me to savor natural flavors and I forgot the meaning of the words bland-tasting altogether.

What I recommend is for everyone to try the DASH Diet because it is all a matter of adopting healthy eating habits. Waiting until you develop some kind of disorder is just like putting your life on the line. I learned that I was lucky I was able to come out of my hypertension with only a mild stroke attack.

My doctor said it could have been worse if I had been less active, like working in an office where I had to seat all day, The fact that I worked at home and did some house chores aside from taking care of my toddler lessened the impact of my unhealthy eating habits. Today at 115 pounds, my blood pressure remains stable at 110/80 and I maintain calorie intakes at 1,500 per day because I live an active lifestyle as a work-at-home housewife and hands on mother to an active 4 year-old boy.

The greatest benefit I got from DASH Diet is that it got us prepared for recession. It hit us at the time when my husband and I was already used to eating portion sizes; now we are having more veggies, white meat and fish more than ever and it is something we have been used to for quite some time now.