Contents:
- Medical Video: What's the DASH Diet and Why Doctors Call It the Best Diet
- What is the DASH diet?
- Here's how to reduce salt with the DASH diet
Medical Video: What's the DASH Diet and Why Doctors Call It the Best Diet
Many people find it difficult to limit salt intake, because this ingredient is important for food flavoring. Not only for food flavoring, salt also serves to preserve food. In fact, the key to cooking. But for people with hypertension, salt is the biggest enemy that they can't help but avoid. Well, for that you need to apply a hypertension diet so that blood pressure is controlled and the DASH diet can be the best choice for reducing daily salt intake.
What is the DASH diet?
Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, aka the DASH diet is healthy diet that has been proven to help achieve and maintain a healthy weight for people with hypertension.
The DASH diet includes a hypertensive diet that helps you choose healthy foods and take other actions to help control blood pressure and improve overall health.
This hypertension diet is done by reducing the intake of sodium (salt), fat, and cholesterol by increasing the intake of protein, fiber, and vitamins and minerals from the food you consume daily.
Based on the results of the study, people who take the DASH diet by eating foods rich in vegetables and fruit can lower their blood pressure within 2 weeks.
Fiber, potassium, and magnesium which are mostly contained in fruits and vegetables are some of the nutrients that can help control blood pressure.
Here's how to reduce salt with the DASH diet
As mentioned above, the key to this hypertension diet is to eat foods rich in vegetables. Just like other types of diets, you are also required to apply the DASH diet consistently so the results look optimal.
The following easy tips reduce the habit of consuming salt that you can try:
Fresh fruit and vegetables are the best choice
But if you don't get it, you can choose frozen vegetables rather than canned. Frozen vegetables are usually salt free (without sauce).
Limit consumption of processed meat
Processed meats like bacon, ham and sausages. Usually salt is added to these foods as preservatives to last longer. Well, therefore, it is important for you to limit these foods to at least once a week or less.
Choose lower salt cheese
You can eat low-salt cheese like Swiss or Lorraine cheese. Eat high-salt cheese in smaller portions. Don't forget, always read the label to check the sodium content of various types of cheese sold in the market.
Replace desserts with fruits
Usually the dessert menu is synonymous with sweets such as cakes, ice cream, pudding, or so on. Instead, choose fresh fruit as a dessert. This is done to reduce salt while increasing fruit portions.
Eat cucumber
Because the cucumber has the same effect as the hypertension drug ACE inhibitor, which inhibits the angiotensin I protein in the blood. Not only that, in one serving of 50 grams of cucumber containing 80 grams of potassium, which is good for lowering blood.
Choose natural cooking ingredients
Besides salt, it turns out that there are many natural flavorings that are no less appetizing. Some of them like garlic, onion, pepper or pepper, turmeric, coriander, and cumin. The ingredients of spices if formulated properly can stimulate appetite and add to the taste of food.
Make your own food at home
Instead of spending money on eating out, you can prepare a menu and healthy food items at home. Besides being healthy, cooking itself tastes more satisfying and can improve your ability to process food.
If eating out, avoid high-calorie foods
But if there are important things that require eating in a restaurant, you may have difficulty reducing salt. Instead, limiting fried foods is the right choice to reduce extra calories and fat.
