Question

During your Community Health Nursing posting, you discover that many parents and grandparents are at risk for heart disease due to high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure and obesity or being overweight. Also, the school nurse reports that a number of students have some of these same risk factors for heart disease.

Discuss the four main Dietary Reference Intake categories.

Make recommendations, according to dietary guidelines, that could reduce the risk of heart disease among the students and their families.

Answer 1

Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) is an eating plsn to lower or control high blood pressure. The DASH diet emphasizes foods that are lower in sodium as well as foods that are rich in potassium, magnesium and calcium- nutrients that help lower blood pressure.

The DASH diet includes vegetables, fruits and low fat dairy foods and moderate amounts of whole grains, fish, poultry and nuts. In addition to the standard DASH diet, there is also a lower sodium version of the diet.

Foods and drinks to avoid when following DASH diet include high sugar , high fat snacks, and foods high in salt such as candy, cookies and chips.

Fruits such as blueberries, raspberries and strawberries are easy to add to your diet.

Drinks such as tomato juice , beet juice, prune juice, pomegranate juice, berry juice, skim milk, and tea are promote heart health.