DASH is the only dietary pattern with a landmark trial behind its name, and it still usually gets explained as a spreadsheet. This page skips the spreadsheet: a real week, real meals, built from green-rated foods, with each day's approximate sodium and potassium totals shown so the two-column logic is visible. The pattern targets under 2,300 mg sodium and toward 4,700 mg potassium daily — the meals below land near 1,500–1,900 mg and 3,800–4,600 mg without heroics.
Every meal below uses the same three-slot template: a potassium-heavy anchor (beans, greens, potatoes, fruit), a quiet-column protein (fish, poultry, eggs, legumes — cooked without added salt), and a deliberate sodium spend (bread, cheese, or sauce — one per meal, chosen on purpose). No meal needs to be "diet food"; the recipes elsewhere on this site — like the zero-salt breakfast bake or the five-minute soup upgrade — plug directly into the slots.
Two principles keep the week honest. First, the sodium budget is spent, never drifted: the bread on Tuesday and the feta on Thursday are decisions, made at the plate, not accidents that happen while cooking. Second, repetition is a feature — the same breakfast bakes, soups and bean salads rotate on purpose, because a pattern you have cooked twice is a pattern you will still be cooking in March. Variety matters across weeks, not within one.
One shopping trip covers all seven days, and every item has a quiet sodium column: rolled oats, bananas, blueberries, Greek yogurt, eggs; dried or low-sodium canned beans, lentils, edamame; chicken thighs, a whole turkey breast or ground turkey, two salmon fillets, a no-salt tuna can; sweet potatoes, potatoes, spinach, chard, broccoli, green beans, tomatoes; whole-grain bread, quinoa, millet or brown rice; olive oil, lemons, garlic, dill, and one wedge of feta for the deliberate spends. The total sodium for the week lives in the bread, the feta, and the two tortillas — everything else contributes rounding errors.
Notice what is absent: nothing cured, nothing brined, no regular canned soup, no sauce jars. That is not discipline; it is arithmetic. The six hiding places are simply not on the list, so the daily totals land in range without a single meal feeling like a punishment.
| Day | Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner | Na (approx) | K (approx) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Banana-oat bake · White-bean & spinach soup upgrade · Chicken, roast potatoes, chard | ~1,620 mg | ~4,400 mg |
| Tue | Greek yogurt & blueberries · Lentil salad, lemon-olive oil · Baked salmon, broccoli, quinoa | ~1,470 mg | ~4,600 mg |
| Wed | Oatmeal, banana, walnuts · Leftover lentil salad · Turkey (no-salt) chili, cornbread | ~1,520 mg | ~4,100 mg |
| Thu | Veggie omelet, orange · Tuna (no-salt can) & white-bean salad · Whole-wheat pasta, tomato-olive sauce, feta | ~1,780 mg | ~3,900 mg |
| Fri | Banana-oat bake · Edamame & rice bowl, sesame · Sheet-pan chicken, sweet potatoes, green beans | ~1,590 mg | ~4,500 mg |
| Sat | Whole-grain toast, avocado, egg · Minestrone (home pot, no-salt base) · Grilled shrimp tacos, slaw | ~1,860 mg | ~3,800 mg |
| Sun | Greek yogurt parfait · Roast chicken leftovers, big green salad · Seared salmon, Swiss chard, millet | ~1,540 mg | ~4,700 mg |
The totals above assume standard portions; real weeks flex. A training day or a physical job shifts calories up — scale the anchors (an extra banana, a bigger bean lunch, another cup of rice) before touching the sodium budget, because the potassium column scales safely and the sodium column does not. A rest day or a small appetite shifts everything down proportionally; the pattern survives smaller plates better than it survives skipped anchors.
Eating out twice in a week is survivable too, and the week does not restart — the restaurant rules (sauce on the side, grilled over glazed, bread counted) keep a dinner near 1,000 mg instead of the 3,000 mg the kitchen is hiding. Two such dinners land the week around the 2,000 mg/day average, which is still a DASH week by any honest measure. The point of the table is not perfection; it is showing that the range is reachable by a person with a job, a family, and a grocery store.
The week above repeats deliberately — the same breakfast bakes, the same bean lunches rotate — because a pattern you cook twice is a pattern you keep. Sodium is spent on purpose: the feta on Day 2, the whole-grain roll on Day 5, the parmesan on Day 6. Nothing is accidental and nothing is forbidden; the red-rated foods (cured meats, regular canned soup, brine pickles) simply do not appear because their column arithmetic doesn't fit the day. The full rule set is on the methodology page.
Start the rotation with the 30-second label routine for the shopping trip, then let the Food Verdicts answer the per-food questions as they come up. The hidden sodium guide is the companion piece for anyone whose week includes packaged food — which is everyone.
Yes — the 2025 ACC/AHA guideline edition continues to anchor dietary therapy on the DASH pattern with sodium reduction, and it remains the pattern with the strongest randomized-trial evidence behind it.
The classic DASH trial diets ran about 2,300–3,000 mg; the DASH-Sodium trial's lowest arm paired DASH with 1,500 mg/day and produced the largest reductions. The week on this page lands at 1,470–1,860 mg/day.
No — the pattern survives restaurants and cans if the three-slot template holds. The Aisle Detective case files show how to adapt packaged food; the label routine handles everything else.
SodiumScore is an independent data project — not a medical practice.
Ratings derive from USDA FoodData Central nutrient data and the 2025 ACC/AHA Hypertension Guidelines (DASH pattern).
Dietary reference information only. Always consult your healthcare provider before making dietary changes.
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