The DASH diet is probably one of the more well-known diet plans out there as it has won numerous awards from various organizations, including the U.S. News & World Report, who ranked it as the best diet for those with diabetes.
For those who have never heard of this diet before and are wondering what “DASH” stands for, it stands for dietary approaches to stop hypertension.
Initially the diet was designed to help those suffering from heart issues, such as high blood pressure. But, the diet has since evolved to also help people lose weight. Is this diet effective and worth your time?
Key Features
- Diet focuses on helping people to maintain good cholesterol and blood pressure levels.
- Healthy blood pressure can reduce your risk of a number of dangerous health conditions.
- Focuses on cutting out saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol.
- Diet focuses on getting more vegetables and dairy products into people’s diet.
- Diet aims to drastically cut down on the amount of sodium and sugar that a person ingests.
Pros
One of the main things that sets this diet apart from many others is that the DASH diet helps deal with cardiovascular issues like high blood pressure and high cholesterol. A lot of diets focus solely on weight loss, but they fail to address other issues that can also be solved through proper dieting. While not everyone has cardiovascular issues, those who do will be glad that the DASH diet can help them stay slim and keep their cardiovascular system healthy at the same time.
Likewise, this diet is also good for those suffering from issues like type-2 diabetes. Far too often diets forget about people who have restricted food choice, thankfully the DASH diet is not one of them.
In terms of food choice, the DASH diet is pretty great. You have a wide variety of food to choose from and the portions that you can eat are pretty generous. The DASH diet focuses more on food choice than it does on controlling portions.
Cons
Because it is not solely focused on helping people lose weight, the DASH diet may not be the best option for those seeking to lose weight quickly. Those who want rapid weight loss may need to look elsewhere for a diet that is specifically geared towards this goal. However, make no mistake, the DASH diet does help you lose weight, just maybe not as quickly as some other diets will.
