To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) Diet Reduces Cholesterol, Long-Term Cardiac Risk URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/1FED7A.htm Doctor's Guide June 21, 2001
BETHESDA, MD -- June 21, 2001 -- In research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Obarzanek et al. tested the effects of a blood pressure-lowering diet, the Dietary Approaches To Stop Hypertension (DASH), on lipid lowering in a cohort that was half female and more than half African American.
The DASH diet contains increased amounts of fruits and vegetables and low-fat dairy products and reduced amounts of total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. The authors found that the DASH diet produced significant changes in total, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, but no change in triacylglycerol levels.
The 436 participants were middle-aged men and women (average age 44 years) who were all overweight or obese, inactive, and had high blood pressure. In an eight-week trial, the subjects consumed a control diet based on the typical American diet, a diet increased in fruit and vegetables, or the DASH diet. The DASH diet resulted in an average 13.7 mg/dL decline in total cholesterol, a 10.7 mg/dL decline in LDL cholesterol, and a 3.7 mg/dL decline in HDL cholesterol.
Men had a greater improvement in LDL:HDL than women did, while African Americans and whites had the same response to the diet. By contrast, cholesterol reductions were insignificant with the fruit and vegetable diet. Based on these results, the authors project that adherents to the DASH diet could expect a 12 percent reduction in cardiovascular risk over a 10-year period, compared with a somewhat increased risk for those who consume the control diet.
An editorial by Dr. Blackburn cautions that the extent of behavior modification that would be required to adopt a diet with twice the volume of healthful food in the typical American diet could be prohibitive, whereas "those who make small, incremental changes in their diet over time have the highest probability of success."
References: Obarzanek, Eva et al. Effects on blood lipids of a blood pressure-lowering diet: the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Trial. Am J Clin Nutr 2001;74:80-9.
Blackburn, George L. The public health implications of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Trial. Am J Clin Nutr 2001;74:1-2.
SOURCE: The American Society for Clinical Nutrition --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of P\S\L content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of P\S\L. P\S\L shall not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this content or any other content on its sites, newsletters or other publications, nor for any decisions or actions taken in reliance on such content. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This news story was printed from *Doctor's Guide to the Internet* located at http://www.docguide.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to News Story Page This site is maintained by webmaster@pslgroup.com Please contact us with any comments, problems or bugs. All contents Copyright (c) 1998 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved.