Many people strive to lose weight, start exercising, and look to dietary changes when they receive their first high blood pressure diagnosis.  High blood pressure damages arterial walls, may lead to heart attack or stroke and can damage the kidneys.  Dubbed the silent killer, it rarely causes symptoms.
High Blood Pressure Risk Factors
Before age 45, men are more likely to have high blood pressure. Â However, most people eventually develop blood pressure issues with age. Â Additionally, African Americans are more likely to get high blood pressure at earlier ages. Â While sex, age, and race are all risk factors, almost 60% of people with diabetes also experience high blood pressure. Â Also, overweight individuals experience increased disadvantage.
What Can You Do to Help Prevent or Lower Blood Pressure
Of course, you cannot alter the essence of who you are. Â You cannot change your race or your sex. Â And, medical science hasn’t discovered how to reverse aging, so getting younger remains in the realms of my favorite sci-fi and fantasy movies. Â There are steps you can take to reduce your risk.
- Get more physical. Â An active lifestyle can help keep blood pressure in check.
- If you are overweight, lose weight.
- Eat a high fiber, low-sodium diet.
- Eat more whole foods and fewer processed foods. Â Most dietary sodium comes from canned goods and processed foods. Â If you must eat canned foods, look for low sodium alternatives.
- Control stress. Â Find ways to reduce stress.
- Limit alcohol consumption to two servings a day for men – and one a day for women.
- If you cannot reduce your blood pressure through lifestyle changes, talk to your doctor about any medications you are taking that may cause it.
Several years ago, I was on high blood pressure medication. Â Simply by changing my diet, losing weight, and increasing exercise, I no longer need that medicine. Â My blood pressure still runs in the pre-hypertensive range and bare watching. Â So I work to maintain my healthy lifestyle habits.
Let’s Talk about the DASH diet
Usually, I am not a fan of prescribed diets. Â I prefer to eat what I want in reasonable portions and make my own healthy food choices. Â However, I do like the DASH diet.
DASH, an acronym for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, is a diet designed to teach you how to eat for improved heart health.  The American Heart Association endorses The DASH diet.  It limits sweets and sugary treats, tropical oils, red meats, sodium, and trans-fats.  While the American Heart Association offers an informative, downloadable PDF further expounding on the DASH diet, I also received a DASH diet cookbook you may like.
DASH Diet for Beginners
Do not expect elaborate recipes that take an hour to prepare. Â Most of these recipes come together quickly and easily. Â Like the title says, it’s a beginner’s cookbook. Â It’s an easy-to-follow guide to get you started on the DASH diet.
While the book offers many nutritious recipes, I do want to issue a few caveats about the book.
- While it’s a book about a diet that limits sodium, the book offers no nutritional information about the recipes. Â I suggest using MyFitnessPal or a similar recipe calculator.
- The book frequently calls on canned goods (like tomatoes, broth, etc.). Â However, most of the recipes do NOT specify to use lower sodium versions. Â I’m sure Sam Kuma believed that it was just common sense, but not everyone reads food labels. Â I prefer that to be spelled out.
- The book’s intro contains a few grammatical errors and only cursory information about the DASH diet. Â I believe the author could have elaborated further on this fantastic diet.
Sample Recipe
The Red Lentil Stew recipe below comes straight from the book, with a few simple modifications to fit our tastes. Â The author called for kale. Â I meant to substitute spinach (but completely forgot it. Â OOPS!). Â Just stir in 1 cup of baby spinach at cook-time end if you desire. Â He called for vegetable broth. Â So you have greater control over sodium content, I suggest making your own homemade broth. It’s easy and free. Â To keep the recipe DASH diet-friendly, be sure to use low-sodium canned tomatoes.
This delicious Red Lentil Stew recipe is a comfort food recipe that follows the DASH diet guidelines. It's vegan, low-sodium, and nutritious.
It's a hearty meal destined to rank as one of your favorite comfort foods. Add a handful of spinach at the end of cooking if you like. A handful of fresh basil also rounds out the flavor profile well.
Spritz large soup pan with vegetable oil cooking spray and heat to medium.
Saute onions and garlic until translucent
Add all the fresh vegetables sauté for 2-3 minutes.
Add tomatoes, lentils, and vegetable broth to pot. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low. Cover pot and simmer for about 30 minutes, till lentils are tender.
Ladle into soup bowls and serve.
Servings 4
- Amount Per Serving
- Calories 304
- % Daily Value *
- Total Fat 1g2%
- Saturated Fat 0g
- Trans Fat 0g
- Cholesterol 0mg
- Sodium 222mg10%
- Potassium 801mg23%
- Total Carbohydrate 55g19%
- Dietary Fiber 19g76%
- Sugars 11g
- Protein 19g38%
- Vitamin A 166%
- Vitamin C 172%
- Calcium 21%
- Iron 42%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Ingredients
Directions
Spritz large soup pan with vegetable oil cooking spray and heat to medium.
Saute onions and garlic until translucent
Add all the fresh vegetables sauté for 2-3 minutes.
Add tomatoes, lentils, and vegetable broth to pot. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low. Cover pot and simmer for about 30 minutes, till lentils are tender.
Ladle into soup bowls and serve.
Alicia Taylor
We enjoy hosting parties and my husband and I are both avid gamers. You can find me on PS4 as SunshineFlaGirl. We also play tabletop RPGs and eurogames.
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22 Comments
Lorraine McLeggan
February 16, 2021 - 9:12 amI would like to make this in the instant pot. Do you have a time setting that would be good?
Alicia Taylor
January 29, 2022 - 3:06 pmI usually cook them on 10 minutes on high and 10 minute slow release. I hope that helps
Kathryn
November 9, 2020 - 11:12 amWas looking at the Red Lentil Stew and thought YUM. Question, your recipe and picture don’t quite match. I SEE carrots and ?beets? in the picture, neither of which appear in the recipe. I’m NOT a cook but I like your recipe. Is this one of those ‘a dash of this and a pinch of that’ types of recipes?
It LOOKS delicious. Thank-you.
Alicia Taylor
January 29, 2022 - 3:12 pmNo beets – but yes, I did throw in carrots. You can really add any vegetables that you like. I use spinach instead of kale.
Lisa
January 18, 2020 - 11:52 amThis looks great, and I am eager to try it. One question though – my husband has stage 3a CKD, and I am trying to figure out how to keep his potassium on the lower end. Is there a suggestion on how to lower the amount of potassium per serving in this dish? Does it mostly come from the red lentils, or something else that could be swapped out? Thanks.
Sarah
January 20, 2019 - 8:30 amLooks great! Could you tell me how much sodium is in this? My husband recently started a really low-sodium diet to manage Meniere’s disease, and I wonder if this recipe would qualify. Thanks!
Alicia Taylor
January 29, 2019 - 4:56 pmSarah, I had all the information in the recipe, but for some reason, my new recipe software stripped out the nutritional information! If you use homemade veggie broth and low-sodium tomatoes beans (or dried beans) it is low-sodium.
Sarah James @ Tales From The Kitchen Shed
March 6, 2017 - 11:05 amI love cooking with lentils and your lentil stew looks delicious. I like the idea of adding a big bunch of spinach at the end.
Manju Mahadevan
March 6, 2017 - 3:49 amThis is so my kind of comfort food. Looks delicious!
Elizabeth
March 5, 2017 - 12:45 amI’m a big fan of red lentils and this looks like a tasty and hearty veggie stew for those midweek meals! Yum!
karyld2016
March 4, 2017 - 12:12 pmI don’t think I’ve ever cooked with lentils, but this recipe looks super simple. I’ll definitely share it with my parents, because they are vegetarian and are always looking for new recipes to make.
The FoodOlic
March 4, 2017 - 5:30 amComfort food hat its best! Plus it’s filled with vitamins, a great dish!
Amy
March 3, 2017 - 11:28 pmI have never heard of a DASH diet before, but this post was really helpful and informative about it. The red lentil stew sounds so filling and yummy.
Gloria Duggan
March 2, 2017 - 3:23 pmLentils are such a great ingredient to works with. So healthy, and you can make them so tasty as well. We try to eat them at least once a week….perfect for any meal of the day.
MyYellowApron
March 2, 2017 - 12:41 pmRed Lentils are a staple at my house. I male lentil soup or otherwise known as dal almost every alternate day. I like your recipe as well.
Nicole
March 2, 2017 - 10:54 amI agree we should all start looking at what we eat and our lifestyle choices. This is a lovely dish, looks delicious!
Gillian's Kitchen
March 2, 2017 - 5:50 amThanks for sharing your DASH diet information. I’d never heard of this. Looks like a dish for our Meat Free Monday board 🙂
Alicia Taylor
March 2, 2017 - 10:59 amMeat-free Monday 🙂 Most of my recipes are meat free, so I’ll be on the look out for that.
Fred Nonterah
March 1, 2017 - 4:37 pmThanks for your words of inspiration regarding us keeping up a healthy life style. I love your recipe and it looks like its full of flavor and very healthy. Thanks for sharing!
Alicia Taylor
March 1, 2017 - 5:07 pmYou are quite welcome! I hope you give it a try!
Divya @ Eat. Teach. Blog.
March 1, 2017 - 1:44 pmI SO much prefer stews to soups. I feel like there’s something about the added chunk – and not just broth – that makes me feel like I’m full. This looks great!
Alicia Taylor
March 1, 2017 - 5:06 pmI completely agree! Although, I’m a huge fan of hearty soups – but if it’s just a bowl of broth? Well, that’s just broth.