The DASH diet meal plan: What a dietitian follows him to eat in a day

• The DASH diet is better than the Mediterranean diet for heart health, according to experts.
• Registered dietitian Rosanne Rust has followed the diet for eight years.
• He told Insider what he likes to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert on the DASH diet.

A dietitian who follows the DASH diet, which experts say is even healthier than the wildly popular Mediterranean diet, has shared what he eats in a day.

That A Dietary Approach to Stopping the Hypertension diet usually recommended for people who have high blood pressure – and thereby reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke – but it can also be followed as a healthy diet in general.

The DASH diet includes lots of vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, nuts, and skinless fish and poultry, according to the American Heart Association. It also focuses on reducing salt, saturated fat, as well as red meat, alcohol and added sugar.

It’s often been compared to the Mediterranean diet, with the AHA naming it even better for heart health earlier this year. While the Mediterranean diet allows alcohol in moderation, the DASH diet aims to minimize it. The DASH diet also addresses added salt.

But Dr. Amit Khera, a professor of medicine and program director of preventive cardiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas who has helped develop the AHA guidelines, told the organization in 2019 that the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet are more similar than they are different.

Rosanne Rust, a registered dietitian specializing in heart health and who has been following the DASH diet for eight years, told Insider what he tends to eat each day.

Breakfast: Yogurt with toppings

For breakfast, Rust eats nonfat yogurt with berries, such as blueberries or raspberries, and top with some chia seeds or a bit of granola seeds.

He says an easy way to make your diet “more DASH” is to try and add fruit or vegetables to any meal. This breakfast is better than just a slice of toast, because it contains a serving of milk as well as the nutrients and fiber from the fruit. Blueberries are delicious, because they are full of antioxidantshe says.

Lunch: Flatbread with salad and tuna

Rust likes to fill flatbreads, such as pita or naan, with hummus, lots of chopped vegetables, and sometimes tuna for lunch.

While buying bread, he checked nutrition label and choose one with a low sodium (or salt) level so he doesn’t eat too much of it. That the AHA recommends that adults eat no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, and ideally less than 1,500 milligrams, to protect heart health.

AHAs too recommend eat two servings of fish per week as it is thought to benefit heart health and lower the risk of stroke.

Insiders previously reported that Skipjack canned tunawhich is used in many light tuna products, is a smarter choice than other canned tuna because it contains lower levels of mercury, according to the FDA.

Dinner: Vegetable soup

For dinner, Rust likes soup with lots of vegetables, such as tomatoes, green beans, carrots, and celery. He sometimes adds ground turkey for protein, or makes ratatouille instead of stew.

Cooking vegetables may actually increase their benefits: Ripe tomatoes release more lycopeneantioxidants that help protect against cell damage, compared to raw tomatoes, for example.

Dessert: Homemade crunchy oatmeal

Rust likes to make his own desserts at home so he can control the amount of sugar in them, for example by only using two tablespoons if a recipe calls for one cup. She also likes to include fruit in her desserts, again to maximize the amount of fruits and vegetables in her diet.

She made crunchy oatmeal, which is ripe fruit baked topped with sweet, crumbly oats, which was provided protein and fiberwith fresh apples or pears.