If you're a fan of making resolutions for the new year, making some changes to your diet now may help protect your health for years to come.
Some people with high blood pressure - also known as hypertension - are able to control the problem without medication by using lifestyle changes such as weight loss, exercising, and stopping smoking. According to the National Institutes of Health, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan may be a particularly helpful way to lower your blood pressure.
An early study on the DASH diet found that it had the biggest effect on blood pressure among three types of diets that researchers tested in a large group of adults. A second study found that the DASH diet was especially helpful when people also slashed the amount of sodium they consumed.
This way of eating isn't revolutionary or hard to do. It emphasizes grains, fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy, and fish, and it limits saturated fat, salt, and sugar. Because fruits and vegetables make up more of your daily meals and snacks, you're naturally taking in less sodium and getting more potassium (this latter mineral has been linked to lower blood pressure).
More recent studies have uncovered evidence that the DASH diet can protect your health in ways aside from your blood pressure. A 2008 study that followed more than 88,000 women for several decades found that those who stuck most closely to a DASH-type diet had a lower risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. Other research found that following the DASH diet was linked to a lower risk of precancerous colon growths in men and a lower risk of type 2 diabetes in whites.
However, evidence suggests that people with high blood pressure have grown less likely to follow a DASH-type diet in recent decades. That's too bad, since high blood pressure increases your risk of stroke, heart failure, kidney disease and blindness.
You can learn more about adopting the DASH eating plan at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/new_dash.pdf. But here are a few pointers to get you started:
- Make small changes. Add an additional serving of fruit or vegetables to your meals or snacks rather than trying to go vegetarian overnight. Also gradually start replacing your sodas with fat-free or low-fat milk.
- Whenever you eat grain-based foods, such as bread or pasta, choose types made with whole grains.
- Hide your salt shaker in the pantry and try new and different herbs and spices to flavor your food instead.
- Cut back on processed foods like frozen dinners and canned soups, since these often contain a lot of sodium. This is where you get most of the salt from your diet - not the shaker. So getting more unprocessed foods can help make a big difference in your blood pressure.
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