Little-known diet for lowering blood pressure – it’s as good as Michael Mosley’s

If you’re looking for 2024 to be a healthier year, you may be looking for an eating plan that’s actually sustainable and that you’ll see results from.

Many will automatically think of extreme diets to see quick results, but slow and steady wins the race and it’s better to see slower results over a longer period of time than drastic results you cannot keep on top of.

Nutrition experts have revealed the best diets to follow this year, ranking the most effective ten. The Forbes Advisor team gathered the experts to find out what the best diets were – and the Mediterranean diet, popularised by Michael Mosley, came out on top for people looking to lose weight.

Coming in joint-first was the DASH Diet, which also received a perfect five out of five-star score.

DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) is a flexible and balanced eating plan that helps create a heart-healthy eating style for life while reducing sodium intake. The diet was first introduced by the American Heart Association in 1996 and later published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

A Forbes Advisor wrote: “The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet was designed specifically with heart health in mind. It takes a low-sodium approach to eating, and studies show the DASH diet effectively lowers blood pressure and ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol.”

Melina Jampolis, M.D, a board-certified physician nutritionist, told the publication that it’s “harder” go to out for meals when you’re eating a diet with reduced sodium, but she said, “adding in spices and herbs can make this diet even healthier.”

Negatives of this diet, however, can include the consumption of daily carbohydrates not being suitable for those with diabetes.

The diet specifies the number of servings for each of the recommended food groups per day, the exact number is dependent on calorie requirements with plans based on 1,600, 2,000 or 2,600 kcal intakes. According to the Mayo Clinic, the standard DASH diet limits salt to 2,300 milligrams (mg) a day.

Foods included in the diet fruit and vegetables, fat-free and low-fat dairy products, whole grains, lean meats, poultry and fish, as well as unsalted nuts and seeds. The diet recommends you minimise your intake of red meat, sweets, added sugars and sugary drinks, as well as foods with high levels of salt, ultimately reducing an individual’s reliance on processed foods, reports Gloucestershire Live.

Based on a 2,009-calorie-a-day diet, you should have these servings: