Patient was educated on measures to be considered for compliance with DASH diet recommendations as follows:
- Prefer having your vegetables, plain & fresh, baked or boiled versus fried, without any heavy cream added. Avoid or observe moderation with seasonings rich in saturated and unhealthy fats, such as, sauces, butter, and margarine. While using sauce for flavoring your food, try using sauces low in fat content, such as, marinara sauce, sweet and sour sauce, or homemade barbeque sauce versus creamy white sauce, pesto sauce, or tartar sauce, which are high in fat content.
- Choosing vegetable sources for protein, such as, tofu, beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas, and soybeans over animal meat, twice a week, can help cut down on unhealthy fat consumption. On consumption of meat, substituting fish, chicken, and turkey for beef, lamb, and pork, twice a week, can help cutting down on consumption of unhealthy fat that is increasingly associated with red meat.
- Animal sources for saturated fats and cholesterol include red meat such as, beef, pork, lamb, and organ meats, such as, liver, brain, heart, tongue, & kidney from chicken, lamb, and cow. Processed meats like sausage, bacon, ham, jerky, salami, and white meat of chicken with skin are also considered rich sources for saturated fats and cholesterol. Also, organ meats are very rich in sodium content. Avoid or observe moderation with consumption of red, organ, and processed meats, to be compliant with the recommendation for DASH diet.
- While picking meat, choose to have your meat cooked fresh versus processed/cured/smoked/cold cut deli. Strictly avoid all processed/cured/smoked/cold cut deli meats such as, hot dogs, sausages, ham, corned beef, bologna, salami, bratwurst, blood sausages, jerky meats, smoked fish, caviar, and liverwurst, as loads of salt are added to them during the processing and curing. Even while choosing to eat processed/cured/smoked/cold cut deli meats, pick the products with the label, reduced or low sodium.
