Dana Angelo White - Dash Diet Meal Prep for Beginners: Make-Ahead Recipes to Lower Your Blood Pressure & Lose Weight

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The road to a healthy lifestyle might look too long and the idea of weight loss and better heart health might seem unattainable. But what most people fail to realize is that theyre trying too hard.

Crash diets and starving yourself feel like torture because they are, causing harmful damage that gets harder to undo as you get older. But the DASH diet was created with promoting heart health in mind. Its also a sensible and sustainable way of eating that promotes weight loss and allows people to have long-term success! Honestly, I dont even consider DASH a diet in the mainstream sense of the word because it isnt a fad that leads to yo-yo weight shifts. That being said, I do realize cooking and meal prep are new to many.

As a registered dietitian, Ive studied DASH and its heart-health benefits extensively. Speaking of hearts, I poured mine into these recipes. I revised old favorites and created new onesall with DASH guidelines and meal prep in mind. I hope this book gives you the guidance and tools to make the journey a little easier, more organized, and, most of all, super tasty.

Dana Angelo White (MS, RD, ATC) is a registered dietitian, certified athletic trainer, and nutrition and fitness consultant. Shes the nutrition expert for Food Network.com and the founding contributor for Food Networks Healthy Eats blog. Shes written eight books, including the best-selling Healthy Air Fryer Cookbook, Healthy Instant Pot Cookbook, and Healthy, Quick & Easy Smoothies.

Dana is the sports dietitian and assistant clinical faculty in the Department of Athletic Training and Sports Medicine at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. She resides in Fairfield, Connecticut, with her husband, three children, and Boston Terrier, Violet Pickles.

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Dash Diet Essentials | CONTENTS

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More than 100 million adults in the United States have hypertension, but only about 1 in 4 people have their high blood pressure under controlusually with medication. With a few changes to your eating habits by using DASH, though, you can still lower and manage your hypertension. But what is DASH and how does it help with hypertension?

The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension offers eating guidelines that can help treat or prevent hypertension. The primary focus is to limit sodium intake and to consume foods that are nutrient-denselow in calories and high in nutrients. Because many processed meats, deli meats, and precooked proteins and grains have added sodium, these foods are recommended in moderation. Instead, the core of DASH includes fruits, vegetables, grains, lean proteins, and low-fat or nonfat dairy. This approach naturally increases nutrients that also help lower blood pressure, including calcium, potassium, and magnesium.

DASH has two common sodium recommendations:

• Standard diet: limits sodium to 2,300 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day (about 1 teaspoon)
• Lower-sodium diet: limits sodium to 1,500mg per day (about teaspoon)

Like the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, DASH also recommends limiting saturated fats (from animal products or tropical oils) and the excess consumption of added sugar. These are in line with guidelines to help prevent other diseasesincluding heart disease, stroke, and diabetesthat are often related to or caused by hypertension.

DASH has consistently been ranked as one of the top overall diets for the past decade because its sustainable, doesnt remove or limit nutritious food groups, and can help to prevent or dramatically improve your health conditions. Plus, its been shown to be more effective than hypertension medicines. After all, food is medicine!

Dash Diet Essentials | DASH 101

A LITTLE HISTORY

Lets take a trip back in time to the 1990swhen DASH was born. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) wanted to find out whether dietary interventions could help reduce the incidence of hypertension. Through their research, they saw that changing what people atewithout any other interventionscould reduce systolic blood pressure by notable amounts. Although this isnt a big surprise now, what you eat can make a big difference!

Why DASH Can Work for You

First and foremost, Id like to remove the idea of DASH being a diet because that word often has a negative connotation or is associated with an extreme approach. DASH is more of a dietary lifestyle you can adopt for the long run. You dont have to sacrifice flavor or the enjoyment of your food either. If anything, DASH provides an opportunity to explore the world of minimally processed foods, herbs and spices, and new alternatives you wouldnt have sought out before. Your food might have more flavor than its ever had! Youll be able to shop at your usual grocery store, navigate lower-sodium options at restaurants, and likely continue buying many of the same key items youre already purchasing. Its a way of eating and living that takes small adjustments in the short term to make big health changes in the long term.

Whether youve already been diagnosed with hypertension or youre looking to take preventative steps, this book will give you easy solutions to your new lifestyle as well as highlight the meal prep tools to make these changes more sustainable.

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Lowering Your Blood Pressure

If left untreated, hypertension can cause heart attacks, kidney failure, strokes, dementia, and other serious issues. Complementing DASH with other changes can help prevent hypertension and lower your blood pressure. Knowing a good blood pressure reading for you can also help you set goals.

What Do the Numbers Mean?

The American Heart Association has buckled down on the guidelines for blood pressure (BP), and to truly be in the clear from hypertension, your BP needs to be below 120/80. Weve all had our blood pressure taken and know numbers are involved, but what those numbers mean can be confusing.

Blood pressure measures the systolic and diastolic pressures of your blood as it pumps through your body.