Acceptability of the DASH Diet and Its Components by Race
Subgroups. At all sodium levels, African Americans and
non-African Americans liked the DASH diet to a similar
extent (Table 2, lower half). Diet acceptability scores
ranged from 5.5 to 6.5 for African Americans and 5.8 to
6.7 for non-African Americans. In contrast, diet acceptability
scores on the control diet ranged from 5.8 to 6.8 for
African Americans but only 4.0 to 5.0 for non-African
Americans (range in P values for between-race differences:
0.03 to 0.0001). Thus, the higher acceptability of
the DASH diet compared with the control diet was seen
only in non-African Americans.
Acceptability scores for the number of servings of the
key food groups that define the DASH dietary pattern
(eg, fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy products) in both
African Americans and non-African Americans were almost
always higher on the DASH diet than control diet
(significant for more than 75% [19 out of 24] of the comparisons,
see Table 3). Scores were similar between African
Americans and non-African Americans receiving the
DASH diet at all three sodium levels (about 0.1 point
different for fruits and vegetables and about 0.3 point
different for dairy servings). Compared with non-African
Americans, African Americans were more accepting of
and gave higher scores to the number of servings of fruits
and vegetables and dairy products provided in the control
diet. All 12 between-race comparisons were significant
(range in P values: 0.0004 to 0.0001). Thus, the magnitude
of acceptability for the DASH diet features compared
with the control diet was greater for non-African
Americans than for African Americans.