An Optimal DASH Diet Model for People with Hypertension Using Linear Programming Approach

Abstract

Selecting diets by quantitative techniques is becoming increasingly common. Linear programming is the most popular technique for the selection of least cost mixes of food to meet specific nutritional requirements for a particular group of persons for either general health or disease-related reason. Hypertension is a silent killer and its prevalence rate especially in the developing countries, which has been mostly associated to demographic, environmental and genetic factors, is becoming alarming. The DASH diet has been clinically proven to prevent and control hypertension. In this paper, a model that provides a Daily Optimal (minimum cost) DASH Diet plan for people with hypertension is formulated. The objective is to obtain daily minimum cost diet plans that satisfy the DASH Diets’ nutrients Tolerable Upper and Lower Intake for different daily Calorie Levels. The formulated DASH diet model was further illustrated using real data set with food samples gotten from the DASH eating plan chart. A DASH diet model for a hypertensive person with a 2000-daily-caloric need was formulated and its optimal diet plan for a day obtained with a total cost of 944.41 Naira. Optimal diet plans for other recommended daily calorie levels were also obtained.