The DASH diet was formulated by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to help people control hypertension.

In fact, DASH is short for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. In general the diet plan limits sodium intake and encourages people to eat nuts, whole grains, fish, poultry, as well as fruits and vegetables. It discourages eating red meat, sweets, and sugar. Here's more information about the DASH diet.

The DASH diet resulted from a series of studies that examined dietary plans and their results. The diet plan not only includes showing people good eating habits, but also shows them healthier alternatives to junk foods. Coming up with decent junk food alternatives helps people stick to the diet long term. Processed foods are also out with this diet.

The DASH diet comes complete with a published guide book. This guide shows the nutrition facts of many foods and shows their healthy alternatives. It also explains in details the meal plans of the DASH diet along with nutritional information for those plans. The manual even has a list of resources to help maintain the diet, and how to obtain these resources. It's one of the most complete guides that explains a diet plan.

The website Yahoo contains a detailed information page about the DASH diet. This information page includes links to most major sources on the diet including a Wikipedia entry, a Google blog search, videos that show the progress of people who tried the diet, and many others.

The DASH diet is down on processed foods because they are the source of 75% of the sodium most people consume. Because sodium causes hypertension, cutting it from the diet will reduce the risks.

The DASH diet is not another fad diet. It was created after painstaking research, and many health experts believe in it.

It's for anyone fighting high blood pressure or who want to eat a healthy diet in general. If you start on the DASH diet today you will likely never have to deal with hypertension or high blood pressure.