The new Higher Fat DASH Diet

Over the years, I’ve talked about the highly recommended heart-healthy DASH diet on several occasions. It stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and the original DASH, was high in fruits and vegetables, and also recommended low fat dairy food. But the diet designers have had a re-think on the issue of fat. Researchers ran a clinical trial to see what would happen if they substituted full fat dairy products for the low-fat ones and reduced carbohydrates – mostly by cutting down on fruit juices and other sugars.

Their findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that a higher fat DASH diet lowered blood pressure to the same extent as the original, and also reduced triglycerides but did not significantly raise LDL or (“bad” cholesterol).

The bottom line – the researchers say, the modified HF-DASH diet presents an effective alternative to the old DASH diet, with less stringent dietary fat constraints.And that means more people may be able to stick to it!