DASH vs. Mediterranean Diet: Which Is Best for High Blood Pressure? | Dr. Neal Barnard Live Q&A
The Exam Room by the Physicians Committee
Physicians Committee
4.9 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 31 August 2023
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Two of the top diets for high blood pressure are reviewed. Is the DASH diet or Mediterranean diet more effective?
Dr. Neal Barnard discusses the findings of a study that examined the two widely prescribed diets. The results are surprising given that the higher fat diet actually fared better. However, many questions remain, including whether there is another diet that is even more effective and whether salt is the single most important factor for hypertension.
Dr. Barnard share his hypothesis with “The Weight Loss Champion” Chuck Carroll on The Exam Room LIVE.
Topic Discussed
- Best diet for high blood pressure
- Genetics and blood pressure
- DASH diet basics
- Mediterranean diet basics
- Best foods for lowering blood pressure
- Does fat cause high blood pressure?
- Can a vegan diet lower blood pressure?
- And more
This episode of The Exam Room™ Podcast is sponsored by The Gregory J. Reiter Memorial Fund, which supports organizations like the Physicians Committee that carry on Greg’s passion and love for animals through rescue efforts, veganism, and wildlife conservation.
— — UPCOMING EVENTS — —
Exam Room LIVE with the Esselstyn Family
Tickets: https://bit.ly/ERLiveinDC23
Who: Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn with Ann, Rip, and Jane. Plus, Dr. Neal Barnard and Chuck Carroll.
When: Nov. 7, 2023
Where: National Press Club in Washington, DC
— — —
Dr. Neal Barnard Presents Carbonworks
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When: Sept. 20, 2023
Where: The NARO Cinema in Norfolk, VA
— — —
Healthy For A Lifetime
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When: Sept. 23, 2023
Where: CHI Health Center Omaha in Omaha, NE
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Coming up on the exam room. |
| 0:03.6 | This was a great study and it was a three month study done in Greece. |
| 0:07.5 | What if you do a salt restriction and you also have the dash diet, the dietary approaches |
| 0:13.2 | to stop hypertension? |
| 0:14.6 | This diet goes back a couple of decades and it's a kind of interesting story. |
| 0:20.0 | Researchers began this diet or formulated this diet because they noticed that vegetarians |
| 0:25.1 | tended to have lower blood pressure and so they thought, well, what are vegetarians doing? |
| 0:28.9 | They're eating lots of vegetables and fruits so the dash diet was invented with lots of |
| 0:33.6 | vegetables and fruits and they noticed the vegetarians obviously aren't eating meat |
| 0:37.4 | so they thought, well, let's reduce them maybe not cut it out completely but reduce it. |
| 0:42.6 | But they kept dairy in it and they did find that if you reduce the sodium and do the |
| 0:48.5 | dash diet over a three month period you're going to add another or maybe several points |
| 0:54.2 | of reduction off of your blood pressure, systolic and diastolic, fair enough. |
| 1:00.1 | And then they brought in a third group where they did the sodium reduction and they also |
| 1:04.8 | then did a Mediterranean diet. |
| 1:07.4 | Now Mediterranean diet is different from dash. |
| 1:09.9 | It really emphasizes the fruits and the vegetables but it is not dairy friendly especially. |
| 1:15.5 | Dairy is kind of an afterthought it's not excluded but it's not the big thing and oils |
| 1:19.3 | come in. |
| 1:20.7 | If you're looking for what's the best diet in this study, it was a combination of reducing |
| 1:25.4 | your sodium and also doing vegetables and really getting away from dairy products. |
| 1:31.5 | But I think that we can do better than that if we really put the best diets altogether. |
... |
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