DASH Diet thread
Replies
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I want to circle back and thank you for referencing the n=1 podcast. I’ve listened to it multiple times now. I found it really informative even though I’ve been loosely following DASH for several months. I am finding several ways to improve my nutrition after listening. My sister also listened and is tweaking her eating a bit more as a result. She isn’t active on the message boards but may wander over at some point specifically because of this thread to speak for herself about her results in DASH.
After bread has gotten such a bad reputation from the popularity of low carb diets, I wasn’t incorporating it as often as I should for DASH. I am finding the inclusion of whole grains very satisfying.1 -
I love n=1 podcast. I recommend finding nutritionwonk's website, which is useful. I subscribed and followed her on twitter a while back.
I'm super-excited about a dairy-positive diet.4 -
I was a little worried that I wouldn’t meet my protein needs on DASH but the dairy seems to help quite a bit. I landed around 80 in protein yesterday which isn’t horrible for my stats1
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I assumed I was under my protein goal yesterday but when I checked I was at 92.2
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Wrapping up the month-
- down 6.2lbs for the month, which is in part due to water weight from going back into a short weight loss phase. Also, the focus on more fiber has made things much more 'regular,' so that's probably reflected on the scale. I stuck to my calorie deficit pretty closely overall, which is set for .5lb a week. So 2ish pounds of actual weight loss and around 4lbs of 'other' lol.
Reflecting on the past few weeks:
The upside of DASH for me-an intentional focus on veggies, fruit and whole grains was really nice and lines up with how I'm feeling I want to eat at this point. Reiterating that dairy is good is moderation was also helpful, (I've spent too much time on sites like Furhmans and Gregers, and their mantra of dairy being of the debil
). Its also made me realize that beans really are awesome and can be used instead of meat at a meal. I've also expanded a bit on seafood-I bought shrimp for the first time ever today! Already had it in a stirfry and it was great 
The downside of DASH for me-the NIH's serving size recommendations don't always match nutrition label serving sizes and that drove me nuts! I spent a lot of time checking and re-checking their serving size recommendations and that was by far the most frustrating thing about this whole process. Moving forward I'm going back to 'normal' serving sizes for things like fats, nuts and seeds etc. This will mean I'm not really being 'DASH compliant' but since I'm doing this for fun, I'm not going to worry about the details too much at this point. At some point later on I may decide to get stricter with the plan though.
My takeaway so far is that I believe DASH is a really solid, nutrient dense, way of eating, and can be a realistic and sustainable method-with some tweaks. I'll continue modeling my way of eating using it's principles, but I will be making a few adjustments to make it work a bit easier for me.
I still plan on tracking here most days too, for the time being-I'm really having fun with this!
eta: as a side note/followup to my earlier post-moving my green smoothie to the morning worked really well for me today, I loved being able to check so many servings off between the smoothie and my toast and cheese, so early in the day! It was also nice not feeling like I had to make the smoothie this afternoon and instead enjoyed my cup of coffee
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2/1
Fruit -- 2
Veg -- 10
Dairy -- 1,5
Grains & Beans- 8 (includes a serving of beans)
Meat (oz) -- 5oz
Added fat --
Nuts and seeds --
Added sugar - yes: teriyaki sauce
+ one alcoholic beverage, not sure where to categorize that lol1 -
I did pretty well throughout the day but I would rather have pizza with my grandson tonight than to plan a DASH compliant dinner. I really do like DASH as an eating model. I’ll still be ok on calories when looking at weekly stats since I got lots of excercise this week. I know I could eat something else, but I think I’d rather not 🍕2
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Fruit -- 4
Veg -- 1
Dairy -- 1.5
Whole grains - 2
Meat -- 3 oz
Added fat -- ? I’m sure the pizza had some unhealthy fats
Nuts and seeds -- 1
Added sugar - yes
My fiber landed at 29. Sodium way over by DASH standards.2 -
Didn't log today or eat that well, but:
Using the Oregon spreadsheet with my modifications as explained above:
Fruit -- 3-4 servings: 0
Veg -- 4+ servings: 5
Dairy -- 2-3 servings: 2
Whole grains, beans, etc. -- 3 servings: 1
Meat -- 3-6 oz: 3oz
Added fat -- 2 tsp: probably about 6 (2 tbsp)
Nuts and seeds -- 1-2 servings (28 g/serving): 0 serving
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I have been looking for a dash group. I have been keeping my sodium count below 1500mg since end of Dec and I feel so much better. I'll read through the posts and would like to check in daily for support and accountability.4
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Agreed!0
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With a focus on micronutrients today’s breakfast was a cup of Raisin Bran with a cup of skim milk, a cup of orange juice and a cup of strawberries. I’ve avoided “drinking my calories” for so long, but it feels good to add it back in for the potassium. In other news the scale was down .7 this morning. So I am less than 2 lbs from my pre-Christmas weight. So that’s nice.5
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emmamcgarity wrote: »With a focus on micronutrients today’s breakfast was a cup of Raisin Bran with a cup of skim milk, a cup of orange juice and a cup of strawberries. I’ve avoided “drinking my calories” for so long, but it feels good to add it back in for the potassium. In other news the scale was down .7 this morning. So I am less than 2 lbs from my pre-Christmas weight. So that’s nice.
Question... wouldn’t that be a lot of sugar? I was told by the hospital dietitian and all the reading I’ve done that we should keep our sugar down to 25g per day. That we would get from whole fruit. Wouldn’t the juice and raisin have a lot of sugar in them. I was told to eat the whole orange for fibre and not to drink juices which would have the equivalent of 10 oranges to get that much juice. 🤷🏻♀️1 -
I went and enter them in MFP and got:
Orange juice 1 cup 20.8g
Raisin bran cereal 1 cup 18g
What does the dash diet recommend for your daily sugar intake?0 -
amberellen12 wrote: »emmamcgarity wrote: »With a focus on micronutrients today’s breakfast was a cup of Raisin Bran with a cup of skim milk, a cup of orange juice and a cup of strawberries. I’ve avoided “drinking my calories” for so long, but it feels good to add it back in for the potassium. In other news the scale was down .7 this morning. So I am less than 2 lbs from my pre-Christmas weight. So that’s nice.
Question... wouldn’t that be a lot of sugar? I was told by the hospital dietitian and all the reading I’ve done that we should keep our sugar down to 25g per day. That we would get from whole fruit. Wouldn’t the juice and raisin have a lot of sugar in them. I was told to eat the whole orange for fibre and not to drink juices which would have the equivalent of 10 oranges to get that much juice. 🤷🏻♀️
DASH allows for juice-if I'm remembering correctly that was actually the main fruit source during the trials (I believe it's mentioned in the first podcast?).
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It definitely felt weird to drink the juice for the reasons you mentioned. DASH recommends watching added sugar which the sugar in the orange juice is concentrated rather than added. Sugar in fruit is not discouraged on DASH. I ended up opting for the juice after listening to n=1 podcast as a strategy to get more potassium. I find it hard to reach the DASH potassium goals. I believe part of my problem is because it isn’t always reported. But also the potassium goals are high. I don’t actually have high blood pressure, but I am enjoying that on DASH, carbs are not evil. I also have traditionally eaten the whole fruit but I added the juice today to see where my micronutrients land. I did end up eating a fiber bar that has added sugar in it for a snack because the fiber goals on DASH seems really high as well. Raisin Bran was also a strategy to increase fiber. I need to read the box again but I had planned to count it as one of my whole grain servings.2
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amberellen12 wrote: »emmamcgarity wrote: »With a focus on micronutrients today’s breakfast was a cup of Raisin Bran with a cup of skim milk, a cup of orange juice and a cup of strawberries. I’ve avoided “drinking my calories” for so long, but it feels good to add it back in for the potassium. In other news the scale was down .7 this morning. So I am less than 2 lbs from my pre-Christmas weight. So that’s nice.
Question... wouldn’t that be a lot of sugar? I was told by the hospital dietitian and all the reading I’ve done that we should keep our sugar down to 25g per day. That we would get from whole fruit. Wouldn’t the juice and raisin have a lot of sugar in them. I was told to eat the whole orange for fibre and not to drink juices which would have the equivalent of 10 oranges to get that much juice. 🤷🏻♀️
DASH allows for juice-if I'm remembering correctly that was actually the main fruit source during the trials (I believe it's mentioned in the first podcast?).
That doesn’t make sense to me. With the intake of added sugars in everything so high why would they promote drinking juice that can spike your blood sugar. If that’s so then this isn’t a diet for me. I want to keep my blood sugar down.1 -
amberellen12 wrote: »emmamcgarity wrote: »With a focus on micronutrients today’s breakfast was a cup of Raisin Bran with a cup of skim milk, a cup of orange juice and a cup of strawberries. I’ve avoided “drinking my calories” for so long, but it feels good to add it back in for the potassium. In other news the scale was down .7 this morning. So I am less than 2 lbs from my pre-Christmas weight. So that’s nice.
Question... wouldn’t that be a lot of sugar? I was told by the hospital dietitian and all the reading I’ve done that we should keep our sugar down to 25g per day. That we would get from whole fruit. Wouldn’t the juice and raisin have a lot of sugar in them. I was told to eat the whole orange for fibre and not to drink juices which would have the equivalent of 10 oranges to get that much juice. 🤷🏻♀️
The sugar recommendations are for added sugar only, and that breakfast would have plenty of fiber in it regardless. Worrying about sugar spikes is really only necessary if you are diabetic, and would involve consuming just something sugary with no protein, fat, or fiber to slow down digestion.
I've mostly cut out orange and apple juice because I decided the calories were better used elsewhere, but as long as it's consumed with a meal it should be fine. Having said that, I'm obviously not familiar with your health concerns, so I'm not saying the dietitian was wrong, but it's not universally necessary.3 -
amberellen12 wrote: »I went and enter them in MFP and got:
Orange juice 1 cup 20.8g
Raisin bran cereal 1 cup 18g
What does the dash diet recommend for your daily sugar intake?
They differentiate between added sugar and then sugar from fruit (and they include juice and dried fruit in the fruit category). From the NIH site, under the category of what counts for fruit:
1 medium fruit
¼ cup dried fruit
½ cup fresh, frozen, or canned fruit
½ cup fruit juice
(Apples, apricots, bananas, dates, grapes, oranges, grapefruit, grapefruit juice, mangoes, melons, peaches, pineapples, raisins, strawberries, tangerines)
And then what they count for the sugar category, which has very limited servings (3 servings a week, which is crazy lol)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp jelly or jam
½ cup sorbet, gelatin dessert
1 cup lemonade
(Fruit-flavored gelatin, fruit punch, hard candy, jelly, maple syrup, sorbet and ices, sugar)1 -
Where do eggs fit in DASH, are they part of the meat category? If so, when I plan this out, I'll have to tweak it to add more eggs, because they are an important part of my diet and I don't believe they are problematic.1
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I’ve been loosely following DASH for several months to support my sister. And this is the first time I’ve actually had juice. What I do like about DASH is that you can make choices about which foods work for you to meet the goals. I have no idea where my calories will land today, but I am tweaking a little here and there to see which strategies I keep and which I drop. The experimentation is actually fun for me.3
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amberellen12 wrote: »amberellen12 wrote: »emmamcgarity wrote: »With a focus on micronutrients today’s breakfast was a cup of Raisin Bran with a cup of skim milk, a cup of orange juice and a cup of strawberries. I’ve avoided “drinking my calories” for so long, but it feels good to add it back in for the potassium. In other news the scale was down .7 this morning. So I am less than 2 lbs from my pre-Christmas weight. So that’s nice.
Question... wouldn’t that be a lot of sugar? I was told by the hospital dietitian and all the reading I’ve done that we should keep our sugar down to 25g per day. That we would get from whole fruit. Wouldn’t the juice and raisin have a lot of sugar in them. I was told to eat the whole orange for fibre and not to drink juices which would have the equivalent of 10 oranges to get that much juice. 🤷🏻♀️
DASH allows for juice-if I'm remembering correctly that was actually the main fruit source during the trials (I believe it's mentioned in the first podcast?).
That doesn’t make sense to me. With the intake of added sugars in everything so high why would they promote drinking juice that can spike your blood sugar. If that’s so then this isn’t a diet for me. I want to keep my blood sugar down.
If you have a specific medical condition where you need to monitor your blood sugar, then DASH might not be the best fit. It's a plan that was created specifically for high blood pressure/hypertension, though it's also highly recommended as a well balanced, nutrient dense eating plan for those who do not have blood pressure/heart health issues. It's definitely a higher carb way of eating though, so it may not be a good fit for people with type 2 diabetes etc.
eta: edited1 -
Each egg counts as an ounce of meat2
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emmamcgarity wrote: »Each egg counts as an ounce of meat
Thanks! I could probably reduce my typical meat serving to fit in an egg here and there, but I suspect I will still end up "grandfathering in" a few extra eggs
And I agree with what you said above - DASH / MIND / Mediterranean are not rote diet plans that you must follow exactly to make them "work", or honestly I would have no interest. They are guidelines to aim for, and two people could eat really different diets and be like 90% compliant just the same. I'm sure you could eat a diabetic-appropriate DASH diet, but you would have to tweak it to honor both.2 -
If eggs were not allowed I would be a very unhappy person.3
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emmamcgarity wrote: »Each egg counts as an ounce of meat
Thanks! I could probably reduce my typical meat serving to fit in an egg here and there, but I suspect I will still end up "grandfathering in" a few extra eggs
And I agree with what you said above - DASH / MIND / Mediterranean are not rote diet plans that you must follow exactly to make them "work", or honestly I would have no interest. They are guidelines to aim for, and two people could eat really different diets and be like 90% compliant just the same. I'm sure you could eat a diabetic-appropriate DASH diet, but you would have to tweak it to honor both.
My sister is the one with high blood pressure and is 80-90% DASH compliant with good results. It was a game changer for her in that it prevented meds. For me, I think it’s a good backbone for getting proper nutrition. I will admit that I don’t pay much attention to added sugar because I like sugar. But I am finding my added sugar is less than it traditionally is without DASH simply because the volume of food is very satisfying.1 -
Thank you ladies for your replies.👍
Right now I don’t have any major health conditions, except this excess weight 40 lbs, but at my age 61 I would like to keep it that way and not do anything that can cause a condition in the future. That’s why I’m so interested in what Dash allows for the daily sugar intake with diabetes rapidly increasing so much in the world. How to make sure I’m not eating foods that can promote it and other conditions is very important to me.2 -
amberellen12 wrote: »Thank you ladies for your replies.👍
Right now I don’t have any major health conditions, except this excess weight 40 lbs, but at my age 61 I would like to keep it that way and not do anything that can cause a condition in the future. That’s why I’m so interested in what Dash allows for the daily sugar intake with diabetes rapidly increasing so much in the world. How to make sure I’m not eating foods that can promote it and other conditions is very important to me.
You definitely need to do what you feel is best
As a sidenote-I actually used to be a prediabetic, and come from a family tree full of type 2 diabetics. Getting my prediabetic diagnosis (in my 30s), was what triggered my weight loss and after losing 50lbs I normalized my fasting glucose numbers, into the 80s. At the time of my weight loss phase I was still eating a very typical SAD diet (fast food all the time, all sorts of 'processed' foods etc). In my case it didn't matter what I was eating though, it was the excess weight that was causing my glucose numbers to go wonky.
I'm now a few years into maintaining and in that time I've experimented with numerous ways of eating (it helps stave off boredom in maintenance for me). I get twice a year blood work/health screenings, and the data shows that it hasn't mattered what I'm eating-my weight, and being at the lower end of the healthy BMI scale, is what regulates my glucose number.
It really is crazy what excess weight can do to our health, I think more than we even know at this point!
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