This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Black, H. R. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Black, H. R.

(Hypertension. 2001;38:e33.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.

Book Reviews

The Dash Diet for Hypertension: Lower Your Blood Pressure in 14 Days–Without Drugs

Henry R. Black,

Chairman, Department of Preventive Medicine, Rush-Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois 60612

Thomas J. Moore, ed. 288 pp.
US rate: $25.00. ISBN 0-7432-0295-3

The recently published Dash Diet was one of the most important lifestyle modification clinical trials ever performed. It clearly showed the value of a high fruit and vegetable and low saturated fat diet to lower blood pressure. The more recently completed Dash-Sodium study also unequivocally demonstrated that a sodium-restricted diet in addition to the Dash Diet could lower blood pressure even further and do so in a wide variety of subjects with high normal or stage 1 hypertension.

Some of the investigators in that trial, in conjunction with a "freelance writer" have now produced a book entitled The Dash Diet for Hypertension. This book is designed to provide information for the public on how to integrate the findings of the Dash Diet into practical and useful terms. While the premise is admirable, in translating the results of a clinical trial into practice, the authors (with the help of their ghostwriter) seem excessively optimistic and enthusiastic about what the Dash Diet can do. The authors claim that clinical trials are a "foolproof"" way to test a treatment. I wish it were.

In the preface, for example, the authors state that "not only does the Dash Diet treat and prevent high blood pressure, but it will reduce your risk of several deadly illnesses, including heart disease, stroke, cancer and osteoporosis." They go on to say the diet will "make you feel better both mentally and physically" and that these "are . . . [Full Text of this Article]