A diet LSU researchers helped develop has been recognized as the best heart-healthy diet and second-best diet overall for the second year in a row.
The nationally recognized diet coined its name, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, in 1997. The diet has been federally recognized as the best diet for eight years. LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center played a part in getting the diet developed almost 30 years ago.
Catherine Champagne, a research professor studying nutritional epidemiology, has been working at Pennington Biomedical Research Center for almost 36 years. She was very involved in the development of the diet and was a major contributor to creating the food plans that make up the DASH diet.
“It was a consortium between four different sites in the United States and the four sites had dieticians that worked there in the kitchens and they came up with some menus,” Champagne said. “My job was to take the menus they came up with and make them better–meaning they contain the foods that would contain the nutrient targets we were looking for.”
Lindsay Barleycorn, an instructor at LSU’s School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, explained that the diet is focused on people getting larger amounts of potassium, magnesium and calcium while being low in total fat and sodium.
As a result, it helps to regulate blood pressure. High blood pressure, which puts people at risk for heart disease and strokes, is prevalent in Americans. According to the CDC, nearly 50% of Americans have high blood pressure.
Barleycorn, who is also a registered dietician, said that she believes the DASH diet can be a tool to help people slowly incorporate whole foods into their diet.
“Anybody can do it and it’s really not that much different from any of the recommendations we make for just general eating habits,” Barelycorn said. “It’s also something that most people can slowly implement into their daily life and it’s pretty easy to follow.”
Ava Heath, a nutrition and food science senior, believes that the DASH diet is a great way to address the hypertension epidemic in America.
“DASH is a dietary pattern that people can realistically sustain in everyday life, making it applicable across communities, cultures and life stages as a prevention-focused approach on long-term health,” Heath said. “Its realism and educational value makes DASH one of our best chances to address the hypertension epidemic.”
Even after nearly three decades, the diet continues to make its impact on the food scene in America. This year, the diet appeared in the top five of 15 different categories of U.S. News and World Report rankings.
Champagne explained that in her nearly four decades of work at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, her work on the DASH diet is what makes her most proud.
“With all of the work that I have done in all of these years at Pennington. I think this is the one that makes me most proud because I knew I was very, very involved in it,” Champagne said. “I just feel good that my work in helping to finalize those diets was a really successful part of the research.”
