{"id":6556,"date":"2011-06-09T10:46:24","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T14:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm-news\/?p=1474"},"modified":"2015-07-08T23:13:51","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T03:13:51","slug":"us-news-world-report-dash-diet-number-one-bu-created-plan-tops-magazines-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2011\/06\/09\/us-news-world-report-dash-diet-number-one-bu-created-plan-tops-magazines-list\/","title":{"rendered":"US News & World Report: DASH Diet Number One, BU-created plan tops magazine\u2019s list"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want the inside scoop on dieting? Ask BU\u2019s Thomas Moore. The Medical Campus associate provost helped create the best diet plan going, according to US News & World Report.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"DASH-1\"DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) topped 19 other diet plans in the magazine\u2019s \u201cBest Diets Overal<\/a>l\u201d\u00a0 category, beating out such popular plans as Atkins, Jenny Craig, and Slim-Fast. The accolade is eye-catching for two reasons: DASH hasn\u2019t been commercially marketed like those other plans\u2014you don\u2019t \u201csee it at halftime during the football game,\u201d notes Moore, a School of Medicine professor. And it wasn\u2019t even designed to shrink waistlines. Rather, it\u2019s a doctor-devised regimen to help people lower high blood pressure.<\/p>\n

Several studies have confirmed DASH\u2019s calorie-cutting potential, including this\u00a0 one<\/a> by researchers who looked at adolescent girls using the diet. The plan was devised in the 1990s in a multi\u2013medical center trial led by Moore, who was a Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital researcher at the time. Since then, it has anchored a BU-developed weight reduction regimen offered free to University employees. Moore says several companies, including CVS, offer DASH to workers.<\/p>\n

The benefits of DASH, which is similar to the Mediterranean diet, won\u2019t surprise followers of nutrition news. The diet stresses fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and avoiding high-fat dairy products and high-sugar foods. Cutting salt intake enhances the diet\u2019s potency. DASH\u2019s key insight is that a nutritional diet can reduce high blood pressure, just as losing weight and cutting your salt intake can. It also recommends exercise as a complement to the menu.<\/p>\n

\u201cDASH is really better known to the medical community,\u201d says Moore. \u201cTo get it out in the lay press like this is always lots of fun,\u201d not to mention great publicity: the day US News<\/em> announced its rankings, traffic to the DASH website jumped 20-fold, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s OK to ease into DASH,\u201d US News<\/em> writes. \u201cTry adding just one vegetable serving to a meal, and a fruit serving to another. Go (sort of) vegetarian by preparing two or more meat-free dishes each week. And start using the herbs and spices hiding in the back of the pantry\u2014they\u2019ll make you forget the salt\u2019s not on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tom
Tom Moore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBecause DASH emphasizes so many healthful foods, it can easily support weight loss,\u201d the magazine writes, adding that the diet also improves heart health: \u201cRigorous studies show DASH can lower blood pressure, which if too high can trigger heart disease, heart failure, and stroke.\u2026It\u2019s also been shown to increase \u2018good\u2019 HDL cholesterol and decrease \u2018bad\u2019 LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, a fatty substance that in excess has been linked to heart disease. Overall, DASH reflects the medical community\u2019s widely accepted definition of a heart-healthy diet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The magazine includes some caveats: people seeking to lose weight above all else might prefer to choose plans from its \u201cBest Weight-Loss Diets\u201d category, since DASH\u2019s primary goal is to reduce hypertension. (The magazine also graded the \u201cBest Diabetes Diets.\u201d) Moore\u2019s plan can cost a bit more than some, it adds, since fresh produce is more costly than the processed foods beloved by Americans and larded with ingredients subsidized by the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worried about that from the time we did the research,\u201d says Moore. \u201cYou can eat cheaper than this, but it\u2019s not by any means off the charts.\u201d He and his colleagues found that a week\u2019s worth of groceries under the DASH plan fell in the middle-price range. Dieters can save some money, he says, by replacing fresh produce with frozen varieties.<\/p>\n

This BU Today<\/em> article was written by Rich Barlow.\u00a0 He\u00a0 can be reached at barlowr@bu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Want the inside scoop on dieting? Ask BU\u2019s Thomas Moore. The Medical Campus associate provost helped create the best diet plan going, according to US News & World Report. DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) topped 19 other diet plans in the magazine\u2019s \u201cBest Diets Overall\u201d category, beating out such popular plans as Atkins, Jenny Craig, and Slim-Fast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6556"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6556"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20525,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6556\/revisions\/20525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}