Dash over to the vegetable stand if you want to stave off high blood pressure and the need for costly prescription drugs. The “DASH Diet” promises a natural alternative that’s recommended by the American Heart Association. Midwestern dietitian Toni Kuehneman says it’s no fad, it’s based on good science. DASH stands for Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension, and Kuehneman says it gets you calcium, magnesium and potassium, minerals that help reduce blood pressure.You eat eight to ten servings each day of fruits and vegetables, three dairy foods a day and less salt. The dietitian says it’s not so tough to calculate if you think about serving sizes. Six ounces of juice is one serving, and she recommends thinking of a tennis-ball size portion when gauging how much you’re eating, since a big apple the size of a softball counts as two servings. The American Heart Association is recommending the DASH Diet.
Iowa's Radio News Network
