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DASH Diet Meal Plan: One Sample Day With Numbers
A DASH diet meal plan is a day of meals built around vegetables, fruit, whole grains, dairy, fish and beans, with sodium capped at 2,300 mg, or 1,500 mg for a stricter goal. On 2,000 calories, NHLBI lists 4-5 vegetable and 4-5 fruit servings. The sample day below splits those numbers across four meals.
Written by the Melonex numbers deskUpdated · 4 min read
01The plan
What is a DASH diet meal plan?
A DASH diet meal plan is a day of eating that follows the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension pattern from NHLBI.
DASH favors vegetables, fruit, whole grains, low-fat dairy, fish, poultry, beans, nuts and vegetable oils. It limits saturated fat, sugary drinks and sweets (NHLBI, DASH eating plan).
It is a pattern, not a product. You do not buy it in a box.
Two numbers anchor a day. For a 2,000-calorie diet, NHLBI lists 4-5 vegetable and 4-5 fruit servings. Sodium targets are 2,300 mg a day, with 1,500 mg lowering pressure further (NHLBI, DASH eating plan).
02One sample day
What does one DASH day look like?
One DASH day spreads 4-5 vegetable and 4-5 fruit servings over breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack, with a sodium budget for each.
The table is a sample for a 2,000-calorie day. The meal ideas are examples, and the sodium column is a budget you set, not a DASH rule. Your calorie need may differ; ask your care team.
| Meal | Example | Veg | Fruit | Sodium budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | Oatmeal, berries, banana, plain yogurt | 0 | 2 | 500 mg |
| Lunch | Bean and vegetable soup, apple | 2 | 1 | 700 mg |
| Dinner | Baked fish, brown rice, greens, tomato | 2-3 | 1 | 800 mg |
| Snack | Unsalted nuts, orange | 0 | 1 | 300 mg |
| Total | 4-5 | 5 | 2,300 mg |
For the 1,500 mg goal, scale each budget by about two thirds: 330, 460, 530 and 200 mg.
03Sodium budget
How do you keep a DASH day under 2,300 mg of sodium?
Keep a DASH day under 2,300 mg by choosing fresh or low-sodium versions of packaged foods, since over 70% of sodium comes from packaged and prepared food (FDA, Sodium in your diet).
Americans average about 3,400 mg a day (FDA, Sodium in your diet). The AHA says cutting 1,000 mg can help pressure, and calls 1,500 mg the optimal goal for most adults (AHA, How much sodium).
Read the panel first
Check sodium per serving on soups, breads and sauces before they hit the cart.
Cook the dinner
A home-cooked plate lets you pick the salt.
Rinse canned beans
It is a cheap swap that costs no time.
People with kidney disease, or who take ACE inhibitors or potassium-sparing diuretics, can end up with too much potassium. Ask first (NIH ODS, Potassium).
04The evidence
Does a DASH diet meal plan change blood pressure?
In the DASH-Sodium trial of 412 adults, the DASH diet plus low sodium brought systolic pressure down by about 9 mm Hg on average (AFP summary of DASH-Sodium (NEJM 2001)).
Each step down in sodium helped on both diets. The trial fed participants for five weeks at each level, so real life may look different.
Keep taking prescribed medicine. Food changes sit beside treatment, and your doctor decides any change to your pills. Track the effect with a home cuff; the numbers guide shows the ranges, and the heart basics page covers the other habits.
Melonex is a capsule, not a food. The label says one capsule a day with 8 oz of water. It prints no time of day, so some people tie it to breakfast. The dial shows one way to fit it beside meals, a walk and a cuff check.
- Morning, about 8:00
One capsule with an 8 oz glass of water, as the label says. No time is printed; tie it to breakfast so it is hard to skip. Prescribed medicine keeps its own schedule.
- Before breakfast: the cuff
Sit 5 minutes, arm at heart level, two readings one minute apart, and write them down (AHA).
- A walk after work
Adults need 150 minutes of moderate activity a week (CDC): about 30 minutes, five days.
- Night, 7 or more hours
CDC: adults 18-60 need 7 or more hours; enough sleep helps lower the risk of high blood pressure.
Cuff steps from the American Heart Association (AHA, Home blood pressure monitoring); activity (CDC, Adult activity guidelines) and sleep (CDC, About sleep) from the CDC. The capsule time is only a suggestion, so go by your label.
05A supplement beside it
Where does Melonex fit beside a DASH plan?
Melonex sits beside a DASH plan as an optional capsule, never as a replacement for the food.
Packs run $79, $69 or $49 a bottle, from the seller's order page. The 3-bottle pack is $207 and the 6-bottle pack is $294. The how to take it page covers the label directions.
Prices listed on the seller's order page; confirm at checkout. The 2-bottle kit costs $158, with $9.99 shipping. Ask your doctor about your medicines first. 60-day money-back guarantee per the seller.
Melonex is not a treatment; it is a dietary supplement. Ask your doctor or pharmacist first if you take blood-pressure medicine, nitrates for chest pain, an erectile-dysfunction drug such as sildenafil or tadalafil, a potassium-sparing diuretic (amiloride, spironolactone, triamterene), a blood thinner, or diabetes medicine, or if you have had a recent heart attack. Arginine and citrulline can add to these. Keep taking prescribed medicine. See side effects and interactions.
06FAQ
Melonex questions people ask
What can you eat on a DASH diet?
You eat vegetables, fruit, whole grains, low-fat dairy, fish, poultry, beans, nuts and vegetable oils. You limit saturated fat, sugary drinks and sweets (NHLBI, DASH eating plan). No food is banned outright, but sodium is capped, so processed meats and canned soups need a label check.
How many servings of fruit and vegetables on DASH?
On a 2,000-calorie plan NHLBI lists 4-5 servings of vegetables and 4-5 of fruit a day (NHLBI, DASH eating plan). Your own number depends on calories, so ask a dietitian or your care team to adjust it for you.
Is a DASH day the same as a low-sodium day?
No. DASH is a full eating pattern, and sodium is one lever within it. The DASH-Sodium trial found DASH plus low sodium did better than either change alone (AFP summary of DASH-Sodium (NEJM 2001)). You can follow the pattern at 2,300 mg and still tighten later.
07Who wrote this
Written and reviewed by
Pages built from the label, the seller's materials and linked NIH, FDA, CDC, AHA, FTC and peer-reviewed sources.
Last updated . Read how we write and how we check reviews. This website is run by Melonexheart, which describes itself as a U.S. authorized Melonex merchant. It is not the manufacturer or the label's distributor, and we cannot independently verify the 'authorized' status. We are paid when you buy through our order links.
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