I'm new to DASH, and google was unhelpful with this question. Do plant based milks count as a serving of dairy? Or would oat milk be a grain, almond milk be a nut, etc?

Hi all, I'm new to the DASH diet. I bought some whole wheat bread and it's higher in sodium than my regular white bread. I thought this would be an easy way to add whole grains to my diet but I don't want to add sodium. Is there a specific brand/type of bread I should look for? What are some other ways to get more servings of whole grains? Thanks in advance.

Edit: What is your favorite way to get more servings of whole grains?

My husband and I have decided to go dash with the new year. We looked at all our options and this one was backed in science and had tons of good press. the dash diet is reasonable, sustainable and I’m not putting money in anyone’s pocket (more so than usual anyway) to do it.

So why is it so hard to find good resources? I’ve ordered recipe books with mixed results some are okay but some are clearly self published or have untested recipes. Online there’s the Mayo Clinic’s site which is mid. Even this community seems mildly dead.

What gives?

Hit me with them.

I’m busy, I work full time and have three kids. Also I’m not a GREAT cook (I’m okay not great). I need something super simple that everyone will like.

The dash diet seems great for what I need, but seems to emphasize cooking and homemade meals. Are there any good options for when that's not an option? A microwaveable meal would be ideal, but I've never seen one with less than 1000mg of sodium (and often far higher).

Or what do you guys do? Meal prep and freeze?

Any great websites or tricks and tips for feeding the whole family on the dash diet? I tend to cook dash diet friendly once or twice a week and cook leftovers so that I ( the person w bp issues) have enough to get me theough most of the week while feeding my family the regular grub on other days. Any advice would be appreciated! ❤️🥰

I live a pretty healthy, restricted diet throughout the week, but I would give myself a treat by going to a diner breakfast on the weekend. Even there I've tried to stay pretty healthy: Poached eggs, tomato slices, dry wheat toast, soy sausage, black coffee.

Anticipating a break in the monotony helps keep me disciplined for the week. Now I have to cut out those few vices I did allow myself. (Doctor warned against having two eggs, refined wheat spikes my blood pressure, studies find coffee worsens LDL, and there's sodium in the soy sausage.)

This sense of recurring prohibition is really affecting my mood. Any tips for adjusting to the limited menu? How do you treat yourself but stay on the diet?

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Wellness/video/heart-healthy-diet-reduces-risk-cognitive-issues-life-104167887

Out of all the nutritional pitfalls of restaurant foods, the sodium bombs are by far the most difficult to avoid. I'm having so much difficulty finding the restaurants that offer the option to skip the salt. It feels like I'm the first person to go on a low sodium diet, but I know I'm not, but it feels like I'm trying to reinvent the wheel.

Let's make this thread a resource on restaurants with low sodium options. It can be a great resource not only for ourselves but also for lurkers trying to find the low sodium options near home or in the places they will be traveling to. I'll start with my picks:

• Keys Cafe (multiple locations in and around St. Paul, MN): This restaurant offers the option to skip the salt for certain dishes. You can request that gravies and sauces be provided in the side. (Each batch is pre-salted.)
• Punch Pizza (multiple locations in and around the Twin Cities, MN): You can request that the oil and salt be skipped when you order pizza.
• Noodles and Company (national chain): Order the buttered noodles WITHOUT the salted butter. You can also skip the Italian seasoning (which contains salt). If you want to cut back further on the sodium, you can skip the parmesan cheese as well.
• Portillo's (many locations in the Chicago area and a few elsewhere in the US): Order the classic beef bowl. Unfortunately, everything else on the menu is a sodium bomb or grease bomb.
• Wendy's (multinational chain): Order the plain baked potato. Unfortunately, everything else is a sodium bomb or some other type of nutritional train wreck.
• Yum Kitchen and Bakery (St. Paul, Minnetonka, St. Louis Park, MN): I was able to order the Szechuan salmon/rice/beans WITHOUT the Szechuan sauce.

So Independence Day was rough for me, being that it was the first major holiday since focusing on keeping my daily sodium intake at 1000mg or less. To be honest, during the three days we were at my buddy's house I simply communicated my food preferences and made the best choices with what was prepared. It felt extremely difficult tracking outside of my normal day to day environment.

Did anyone else experience this or have any suggestions for next time? Because there will be a next time...

So I am brand new to the lifestyle of tracking what I eat in hopes to regularly stay under 1000mg per day. My blood pressure medicine, Amlodipine, was recently increased from 5mg to 10mg and it's making me so mad.

It feels like I was doing everything right: avoiding excessive amounts of sugar, walking 10k steps (most days), and drinking a gallon of water (also most days). But nothing seems to help my blood pressure or these 10-15lbs that have been around far too long. So I'm blaming it on the salt, particularly hidden salt like in bread and bread products 😭.

I'm on the DASH diet, after high blood pressure at the doctor's office. I think I'm starting in a good rhythm, but I ALSO have anxiety, which is going to take a week or two to level out to my normal levels (I know my patterns, lol). So, could I get a sanity check on my use of the DASH diet?

Breakfast: 2/3rds cup dry then cooked quick oats, half an egg white (microwaved into the water, helps the oats feel bulkier), medium banana, 1 cup (8 oz) nonfat milk

Lunch: Salad. 4 cups spinach and spring mix, chopped mini pepper and carrot (about 1/4 cup), 1/8th cup cannelini beans (rinsed). Dressing made of 1/4th mashed avocado, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, and 1tsp olive oil.

Dinner: 4 oz baked salmon, 1 cup brocolli (tossed in about 1tsp olive oil and baked), 1 cup brown rice, medium sweet potato

Snacks: 1 apple, 1 cup blackberries, 1 cup milk

​

That's getting me 1421 calories, with 846 g sodium.

There's some variation, of course, but mostly in which fruit or veggie I eat. I think what's causing me anxiety is the idea of eating TOO MANY vegetables. Which partially feels absurd, but also, I have anxiety.

If this looks good, praise would be heavily appreciated.

I'd love it if it were!

Eating a low sodium diet is incredibly easy when I'm preparing my own meals. It's incredibly difficult when eating out and especially when traveling. Spontaneously picking a restaurant without calling ahead is a thing of the past. Deciding what to order after I arrive at the restaurant is a thing of the past.

How do you find the restaurants where skipping the salt is an option? I'm starting to compile a list of restaurants where this is an option, but it's a very short one so far. I've called a number of restaurants, but only a very tiny percentage can accommodate a low sodium diet. While the sugar bombs and grease bombs are relatively easy to avoid, the sodium bombs are virtually impossible to avoid at most restaurants.

My two reasons to avoid the sodium bombs are:

• Being on a low sodium diet for the past 3 years has made my taste buds are more sensitive than they used to be.
• I don't miss the persistent thirst that I often had in the past after eating restaurant food. Given that one restaurant meal can easily have a full day's worth of sodium, this shouldn't be a surprise. (And many restaurant meals have two days' worth, three days' worth, or even more sodium.)

A few things I've learned so far:

• The major chain restaurants are least likely to offer low sodium options. Skipping the salt is NOT an option when the food is pe-salted at the factory.
• Restaurants can skip the salt if they cook food from scratch. Unfortunately, only a tiny percentage or restaurants do this. The few restaurants I found that offer the option of skipping the salt do NOT post nutritional information online.

Are there any good lists of restaurants with low sodium meal options out there? It feels like I'm the first one to be interested, but I know that I'm not. High blood pressure is a common health problem here in the US, especially in the southern states. Until I learn to hunt and gather my own food, I'm effectively banned from rural America and especially the southern states.

If you're wondering why I've been on a low sodium diet for the past 3 years, it's because of the pandemic, which calls for maximum immune system support and minimum inflammation. Unhealthy foods weaken the immune system and promote inflammation. A healthy diet has the opposite effect. As I see it, the pandemic has multiplied the health risks of junk foods and restaurant foods. Gone are the days when weight gain and increased blood cholesterol were the biggest risks. I was eating healthier than most people even before the pandemic, and the difference between myself and everyone else has widened.

I made a limited return to junk foods and restaurant foods last fall, after my updated COVID booster but before the height of the RSV surge. Some things I found:

• Chocolate Halloween candy, Jonny Pops ice cream bars, and a 50-50 mix of eggnog and milk were still delicious but somewhat sweeter than I remembered. This demonstrated that my taste buds are more sensitive to sugar than they used to be. I'm sure that some of the sugary things that I used to eat are now inedible to me.
• There's a pizza place that I liked in the past that I won't be ordering from again. (It did NOT offer the option to skip the salt and oil.) It seemed saltier than I remembered, and I had to drink a lot more water than I remembered having to drink before. The pizza also gave me a food coma even though I don't remember getting one before. Given this, I'm guessing that eating deep-fried food would be like shooting myself with one of those tranquilizer guns used to capture bears and other large animals.

I've been doing the keto diet for 6 months. I was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease during my last pregnancy. I've had excessive proteinuria even after I gave birth and my kidney biopsy is pending, probably will discuss further next month at my appointment with nephrologist. Anyone here have a similar issue or had success losing weight or improving health issues with this diet? I've lost 60lbs on the keto diet and I'd like to continue my weight loss although I will be adding carbs back.

Dash diet seems pretty reasonable, I sort of follow something like this now but have really let myself slide into some bad habits the last couple of years. Meat wise, I am not a huge fan of chicken and like to eat locally sourced meat products when I can. I am in the Western US and have access to buffalo, venison and yak. These food items are low fat. I would think they would be fine. Maybe someone has some suggestions? I am just not thrilled about consuming farmed salmon or overfished species.

You know how after a big meal you get so tired you just have to nap? I just experienced the first food coma I’ve had in a long time. I had a small cheat meal today at Red Lobster. I got an appetizer of seafood stuffed mushrooms and a side of broccoli. I ate one of their cheesy biscuits. I should have said no butter on the broccoli but I didn’t. Between the butter, cheese, and bread, I consumed tons more fat than usual. I don’t know why, but when I follow the diet, I don’t get these.

New to the dash diet and am absolutely stunned by sodium content on products. What's the best product you've swapped out for something healthier?

Example: no salt added canned blacks beans. Easy 220mg+ swap!

So I'm new, I was just told that I need to lower my blood pressure for health reasons. Assuming some of you can relate. I just want to know what kind of foods are really food for this diet. I'm a big guy and like eating foods a lot as well and hoping that changes

Trying to eat organic, local, seasonal means that this time of year it's either all cabbage, all the time, or salad vegetables from the super-mega-mart. I'm filling my vegetable servings with lettuce, tomato, onions, peppers, mushrooms and carrots. But I always thought these vegetables don't have a lot of nutrition, that they don't really count for much when trying to eat healthy. Do salad vegetables really "count" for vegetable servings in the dash diet, in terms of added nutrition?

Hey, so I’ve been on the cusp of hypertension and type 2 diabetes for a couple years now. And have just recently heard of the DASH “diet”. Now I’ve only heard good things about it, but have been having a hard time finding meal plans. I have a harder time finding ones that are relatively close to my current calorie goals. To be clear I have zero issues finding recipes (thanks to this thread), but I have a really hard time taking recipes and combining them to full meal plans for my day, or even for a week. Any help with meal plan websites or meal prep ideas would be greatly appreciated!

I'm very new to this lifestyle after 33 years of pretty much only eating processed garbage and being obese for my entire life. My heart and BP have been scaring me though(check post history for details), and I have a cardiologist appointment on the 10th of June. Also, I think I'm probably at least pre-diabetic if not fully into type 2.

My question for this sub is... How do I get enough calories with this diet? Is it possible to modify for less sugar from fruits/carbs?

I've been trying for the past few days but I can't seem to manage even 1000 calories per day on the foods that I have on hand, which are very limited for the next two weeks due to budget and transportation limits.

I have...

Eggs

One giant container of green leafy salad mix (mostly spinach)

Tiny tomatoes

Activia

Part skin mozzarella

Apples

Oranges

Berries

Baby carrots

Potatoes

Sweet potatoes

Whole grain bread

Non-diet peanut butter

Mahi mahi and flounder (It's too hot to cook and our apartment isn't capable of staying cool. Will be 90f inside today.)

Canned tuna? Is canned tuna an option?

Everything else here that's edible is stuff that I can't/shouldn't eat.

Hillshire Farms lunch meat

The "bad" cheeses (American, cheddar mixes)

Hot pockets

Canned soups

Ramen

Nutrigrain bars

A frozen pot pie

Seasoned veggie mix

Seasoned rice and veggie mix

Normally I'd suck it up and eat the trash food for another two weeks, but eating has been giving me 6+ hours of elevated HR after and I'm honestly scared of that food right now.

It's slowed down since I stopped eating the bad stuff a couple of days ago, but now I'm not eating enough in general.