To determine how DASH affected coronary heart disease risk, researchers plugged their data (blood pressure and cholesterol results) into the Framingham Heart Risk Equation and calculated the 10-year risk of developing coronary heart disease, researchers said. The Framingham Risk equation uses data that has been collected from the ongoing Framingham Heart Study, which has followed two generations of participants in Framingham, Mass. This equation is commonly used by doctors to estimate the risk of heart disease in their patients.

"The blood pressure reduction in blacks seemed to be somewhat greater than in whites," Maruthur added. "Blacks seem to be particularly sensitive to the blood- pressure-lowering effects of the DASH diet."

This research confirms that people can benefit from eating according to the DASH plan. The next step, according to researchers, is to make policy changes that encourage Americans to embrace the DASH eating plan.

The trial was a "feeding study," in which researchers provided participants with food and compared blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels before the study to eight weeks after the study began. This was not a weight loss study, and the participants' weight remained stable throughout the study period.

"This is not a diet that is difficult to maintain. It includes all types of foods," Maruthur said. "It is a way of eating recommended in the American Heart Association's 2020 Strategic Goals, in the 2006 American Heart Association diet and lifestyle recommendations, and in the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans. We and others have shown that eating this diet should have great public health benefits given the enormous and persistent burden of coronary heart disease."

Source: American Heart Association