More on eating plans

[Margo Harris]

I enjoy Molly Martin's column, "On Fitness" in the Sunday Seattle Times
magazine, Pacific.  If you don't get the "real" paper, you can see it
online -
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis/web/vortex/display?s
lug=pdash30&date=20000730

This Sunday's article focused on DASH - nope, not the CDC's Division on
Adolescent and School Health.  Rather, Dietary Approaches to Stop
Hypertension, a plan inspired by the 1997 National Institutes of Health
study that found adding fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products to a
varied diet could lower blood pressure.  Now the goal of the program is not
weight loss, but some DASH subjects tended to lose weight.  According to
Martin, "calcium (from the dairy products) as well as potassium (from the
fruits and vegetables) apparently work together to pump fluids across cell
membranes and out of the bloodstream, helping to stabilize blood pressure."

I was curious about sodium, and that question was answered like this, "For
starters, not everyone with hypertension is salt-sensitive, so restricting
sodium doesn't work across the board.  Among those who could benefit by
cutting back on sodium, the ones who actually stick with such a diet are
discouragingly few...'Quite frankly, a recommendation that nobody will
follow isn't going to do any good,' says Dr. Michael Zemel, a professor of
nutrition and medicine at the University of Tennessee, who has studied the
role of diet in preventing and controlling hypertension.  'It's a whole lot
easier to add something to somebody's diet than to take something away.'"

Molly Martin has a regular column on Sundays, plus a sidebar notebook,
"Fitness news you can use."  In the sidebar this week, she sends you to some
additional DASH resources, including - http://dash.bwh.harvard.edu/ , as
well as NHLBI where you can get a 16-page, free "Facts About The DASH Diet"
Publication No. 98-4082 if you call 301/592-8573.  You can also visit NHLBI
on the Web for information about high blood pressure - www.nhlbi.nih.gov
Search using the term, DASH, or try this link to get the booklet -
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/index.htm  You'll need
Acrobat Reader to download.  Margo

Margo Harris
Harris Training & Consulting Services
Seattle, WA
Email: margo at htcs.com
Internet: www.htcs.com
"I know God won't give me anything I can't handle.
I just wish (s)he didn't trust me so much."  Mother Theresa