DASH Diet Recipes can help you lower your blood pressure and reduce hypertension.
May is Blood Pressure Awareness Month. I wanted to help you by sharing a DASH Diet Recipe.
During your days of sheltering in place, you may not be DASHing around. Yet, now is the perfect time to give your meals a DASH Diet makeover.
The DASH Diet stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. It is a delicious way to eat, based on solid science that has shown lower blood pressure in about two weeks. Highly recommended by US News and World Report, health professionals and government agencies, its best endorsement is its ease and flexibility. Now the COVID 19 pandemic gives you another reason to keep blood pressure healthy – reducing risk of virus complications.
The DASH Diet is really a lifestyle. The benefits are more than lower blood pressure – studies should the more your diet matches the DASH eating style, you reduce your risk for many health concerns such as Type 2 Diabetes, Stroke, Heart Disease, and possibly some types of dementia. The DASH Diet is recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans – in fact, for the last 20 years! – so your whole family can benefit from more DASH Diet Recipes in your meals.
The DASH Eating Style is based on basic healthy foods with an emphasis on vegetables, fruits and dairy products. Add in lean meat and fish in moderate portions, nuts and legumes, and whole grains. The produce and dairy foods are packed with potassium, calcium and magnesium – three minerals that influence blood pressure that if you are like most Americans, you may not get enough of these in your diet.
The graph belows show how effective DASH is at lower blood pressure compared to the Standard American Diet (SAD). The data, from the DASH Sodium research trial, shows that DASH is more effective at lower blood pressure than a sodium restricted SAD Diet at all sodium levels. You may find it easier to reduce sodium to between 3300 and 2400 mg and follow DASH compared to strict sodium restriction (1500 mg NA or less) combined with a typical American diet.
Now is the perfect time to DASH up your diet. Enjoying vegetables and fruits is easy with this quick and tasty salad – it is a choice to help lower your blood pressure.
Eating more veggies and fruits is as easy as this recipe for Avocado Beet Citrus Salad. I created this recipe for a January family gathering and it was a hit! Winter is a time of year when salad ingredients fresh from the garden are in shorter supply in locations with four seasons. The recipe features healthy fats from avocado. In May, Avocados are usually plentiful, so it is a great time use this DASH Diet Recipe. This salad shows that leafy greens are not required; though, this salad nestled in a bed of spring greens is another serving idea and way to increase veggies even more.
Here is how to make it.
Easy Avocado Beet Citrus Salad Recipe
2 cups of chilled, diced cooked beets
1 medium to large avocado, diced
1 ruby red grapefruit, peeled and sectioned to remove membrane and broken into bite-size pieces
Drizzle of pomegranate salad dressing
Add the diced beets, avocado and grapefruit pieces in a large bowl. Gently mix and drizzle with a small amount of dressing. Serve immediately. Refrigerate any leftovers.
Makes about 4 1-cup portions.
PRO COOKING TIP #1: Red beets will “color” other foods, so gently combine these ingredients just before serving. I used a precooked, vacuum packed beet with very little liquid. These convenience beets, from a warehouse store, were in a four pack with a long shelf life when keep refrigerated. I could enjoy this delight over and over. During the growing season, oven roasted yellow beets would be worth the work, too!
PRO COOKING TIP #2: When food supplies or choices are limited, make substitutions such as
Drain and rinse sliced or diced canned beets, pat dry with paper towel to reduce beet liquid in recipe
Fresh orange segments or canned grapefruit or mandarin orange segments
Frozen avocado thawed and chunked or “dress” the beets and citrus in a smooth, thin guacamole.
You can protect your health and lower your blood pressure with your fork. Give your meals a DASH Diet makeover – include more servings of vegetables and fruits such as this delicious, easy salad recipe. Besides great taste, other benefits includes lower blood pressure and reduced risk of diabetes, stroke and heart disease – underlying chronic health conditions that may also contribution to COVID 19 complications.
Please share this recipe idea with others. Send me a message – tell me what other foods you need help with for family meals. I will share recipes to help you.