Why The DASH Diet Is Named The #1 Overall Best Diet Every Year

BY ASHLEY MATEO
JAN 5, 2018

To be honest, the DASH Diet sounds like something the Kardashians would hawk.

But DASH—which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension—is far from a fad diet. Created by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the DASH Diet is designed to improve health in people with high blood pressure, a.k.a. hypertension. (In the U.S., one out of every three adults has high blood pressure, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.) U.S. News & World Report has named the DASH Diet the best overall diet for the past eight years.

That’s because the DASH Diet has been proven to work, says Reshmi Srinath, M.D., an assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. One study found that people who followed the DASH Diet had lower blood pressure and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels than those who consumed a typical American diet or an American diet infused with extra fruits and veggies.

And while the diet wasn't designed with weight loss as a primary goal, it's no secret that many of the nutritional factors that influence blood pressure also influence weight, she says. Think: processed foods, trans fats, and excess sugar. According to one DASH study, adults who who followed the diet lost more weight in a span of eight to 24 weeks than those adhering to other low-calorie diets.

What's On (And Off) the Menu?

So, what is the DASH Diet all about? It's a flexible eating plan that prioritizes whole foods like vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, as well as fat-free or low-fat dairy products, fish, poultry, beans, nuts, and vegetable oils like olive oil—all of which have been linked to improved health, including weight loss.

“Unlike many popular diets, there’s really not a huge focus on eliminating starches,” Srinath says. “What most studies have found is that dieting is really about sustainability—so the people who lose the most weight are those who are able to maintain a diet and keep up with it," she says. "A big issue with a lot of the low-carb diets out there is that it’s really, really hard to limit carbs completely. That’s why I think DASH is more palatable to people." Yaaas, carbs!

The only limitations: processed foods, and excess intake of fats, sugars, and sodium. And, yes, nixing processed foods pretty much takes care of the fat, sugar, and sodium problem, Srinath says. Research published in BMJ Journal shows that ultra-processed foods make up 58 percent of all of the calories and 90 percent of the added sugars that the average American consumes in a given day. And 75 percent of the average American’s sodium consumption (which is about 1.5 times the RDA of sodium per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) comes from processed foods, per Harvard University.