Dash Diet to the Rescue
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Helping Black men reduce weight
Black men have higher incidence of heart conditions, hypertension, and diabetes than other American men. Not only do they have a higher incidence of these diseases, but they acquire these diseases at an earlier age than other men. American men typically start gaining weight in their twenties and begin showing changes in their health biometrics in their thirties. Consistent with the Office of Minority Health, 70.6% of Black men 20 years of age or older were overweight or obese. That number was even higher in Black women, 80.6%. Black men enter this chronic disease pathway a decade before white men. The underlying culprit is weight gain.
This weight gain may be a conundrum of sustained adolescent eating, declining exercise, social factors, and not monitoring their health biometric indicators. Because Black men don’t see a doctor, they are unaware of changes in their health biometrics until they’re faced with a chronic disease like diabetes, hypertension, stroke.
The entrance into this unhealthy lifestyle pattern is often delayed or prevented through healthy eating practices. One healthy eating practice that’s prescribed for people with hypertension and maybe adopted by all is the DASH diet.
The DASH diet emphasizes
· eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and fewer dairy, meat, fats or sweets,
· foods that are naturally low in salt,
· reading food labels to spot sodium (salt) content per serving,
· simple techniques to scale back calories, and
· reducing the reducing of saturated fats, total fats, and cholesterol in your diet.
People see benefits from the DASH diet, weight loss and reduction in blood pressure within 2 weeks.
One warning about the DASH diet is that you simply must increase intake of fruits and vegetables over time because these foods increase your fiber intake and can cause bloating and gas.
For detailed information about the DASH diet including a weekly planner and recipes click either of the two links below:
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/files/docs/public/heart/hbp_low.pdf
https://www.move.va.gov/docs/Resources/DASHEatingPlan.pdf
or if you want the information short and simple click this link
Barrington, D. S., James, S. A., & Williams, D. R. (2021). Socioeconomic Correlates of Obesity in African- American and Caribbean-Black Men and Women. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 8(2), 422–432. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-020-00798-4
