December 22nd, 2008
Was the DASH diet one of the big 2008 fads?
DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. My story on it was the 9th most popular item at this blog for 2008.
The key takeaway was that a diet heavy on the veg and light on the milkfat can cut your risk of hypertension as much as 24%.
Those who are unfit in other ways — smokers and those who are already hypertensive — benefitted most from the diet.
I found it most interesting that smokers cut their risks more than others, but the fact is that smokers are at enormous risk, so this is just a product of numbers.
If you want to do the DASH Diet just go to the old food pyramid, where you’ll see 6-12 servings of grain (half should be whole grain), 4-6 servings each of fruits and veg, and just half that number of servings for meat and sweets.
It’s a tribute to self-denial until you recognize the natural sweetness of fruit and of veggies like onions. Then you suddenly realize it’s an oriental diet, and until recently most Chinese had a very tough time getting even that much meat.
It’s not that the poor eat better, but that some poor, those without access to Western stores, are forced to. It can cost a fortune to eat like this in most American cities, and a big part of our health policy reform should be changing that.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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