Shahar Madjar, MD, Journal columnist

Not all diets are designed with the goal of weight loss in mind. Some diets aim at preventing this or that ailment, other diets attempt to improve individuals’ quality of life, or to extend life. What if you could obtain more goals than merely losing weight by using a single, highly effective diet?

The DASH (DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) was developed as a treatment option for hypertension. As I have explained in my previous article, hypertension is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Therefore, the treatment of hypertension is a worthy cause. The DASH diet calls for increased consumption of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, fish, poultry, beans, and nuts. It also advises against the consumption of sweets, red meat, and processed meats. It limits the consumption of sodium to between 1,500 and 2,300 milligrams a day (the equivalent of about a single teaspoon of table salt a day).

A typical DASH diet of 2,000 calories a day would include 6-8 servings of grains; 4-5 servings of vegetables; 4-5 servings of fruits; 2-3 servings of low-fat, or fat-free milk; 6 servings of one ounce of lean meat, poultry, or fish; and 2-3 servings of fats and oils. Nuts and seeds are limited to 4-5 servings a week, and sweets and added sugars to 5 or fewer servings a week.

The serving sizes are small: a medium-size fruit or 1/2 a cup of fruit juice; 1 cup of low-fat or fat-free-milk; one ounce of skinless chicken; 2 tablespoons of peanut butter; one teaspoon of vegetable oil; and one tablespoon of sugar (to make the diet go down).

Is DASH effective in treating hypertension? A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine by Frank M Sacks and his colleagues in 2001 tried to answer this question. The researchers compared the DASH diet to a control diet (typical of the diet consumed in the US). And then, within each diet (DASH or control), the researchers compared high, intermediate, and low consumption of sodium.

The results were encouraging. At any level of sodium consumption, the DASH diet was associated with a significantly lower systolic blood pressure. But the participants who consumed low levels of sodium did even better. And so, for example, in the group of participants with high blood pressure, those who were on the low-sodium DASH diet had a systolic blood pressure which was 11 mmHg lower than the participants on the high-sodium control diet.

Although not originally designed for this purpose, the DASH diet may also result in weight loss. In an extensive analysis of 13 previously published research studies on the effects of DASH diet, Sepideh Soltani found that adults on the DASH diet lost more weight (1.42 kg in 8-24 weeks) than those on a control diet. The DASH diet also had a positive effect on the participants’ BMI (body mass index), and on their waist circumference. This relatively small weight loss is unsurprising since the aim of the intervention wasn’t weight loss and therefore no caloric restriction was built into the program. But the participants still lost weight–a testament to the fact that it is hard to gain weight on a diet consisting of apples and cucumbers. In other words, nobody gets fat on bananas.

And when it comes to the DASH diet, the flow of good news seem to never stop. In 2020, Sepideh Soltani published yet another analysis, this time on the association between the DASH diet and mortality. One sub-analysis (of 9 different studies, conducted over periods of 6.5 to 19.2 years, with a total of 1,240,308 participants) showed that participants who adhered to the DASH diet were 5% less likely to die of any cause. These results remain valid when more specific causes of mortality were looked upon–the DASH diet was associated with decreased mortality from cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cancer. And the more participants adhered to the DASH diet, the less likely they were to die during the periods in which the studies were conducted.

The DASH diet isn’t the only diet that was scientifically proven to provide health benefits. Another example is the Mediterranean Diet which I described in prior articles.

There is a price to be paid for staying healthy. It takes planning, hard work, and adherence to good habits. It isn’t for everyone. But while we don’t have control over factors like genetics and bad luck, we have the choice to follow patterns of behavior that prove to be beneficial to our health. The question remains, will we?

Editor’s note: Dr. Shahar Madjar is a urologist at Aspirus and the author of “Is Life Too Long? Essays about Life, Death and Other Trivial Matters.” Contact him at smadjar@yahoo.com.