As I am looking ahead to the Superbowl I wonder about how much salt people eat. As I understand it eating out and packaged foods from the grocery make up about 80% of the sodium in our diets, and another 11% comes from our salt shakers.Current guidelines suggest people eat no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day or about a teaspoon of salt. Actually that’s about half of what many people actually use.
Those at risk for high blood pressure, like African-Americans and older people, are advised to eat much less. Genetics indicate that different people have different reactions to sodium. Some people are more sensitive to high levels of salt, and in others, low levels of sodium can be unhealthy.
When I stop and think about it I have grown up eating really salty foods (which I need to reverse) and so has the rest of our whole society. If I could just cut my salt or sodium in half it would be a major boost to staying heart healthy.
My cardiologist told me that other nutritional issues get more attention but high blood pressure is a leading factor in the number of heart attack and stroke, and salt causes it to rise. I take medicine for hypertension, but not everybody has access health care to get the medication. He has been telling people to watch their salt for years, it hasn’t been working.
There are certain food categories I have to watch like cheese, breakfast cereals, bread, macaroni and pastas, cake mixes, condiments and soups.
The federal government has been trying to control sodium levels for decades. In the 1980s, the federal dietary guidelines warned about excess sodium, and the FDA also asked the food industry to reduce sodium levels in processed foods voluntarily.
Surprise … It didn’t work. By 2000, a study showed that men were consuming 48 percent more salt than they did in the early 1970s, and women, 69 percent more because food got saltier and people were consuming more calories.
For me the whole idea of controlling my diet is incredibly complicated. My overall strategy is just find ways to balance diet and exercise and keep on my weight loss program. If I remember to eat in moderation as I lower my weight I increase my health.
When I stop and think about it I have grown up eating really salty foods (which I need to reverse) and so has the rest of our whole society. If I could just cut my salt or sodium in half it would be a major boost to staying heart healthy.
My cardiologist told me that other nutritional issues get more attention but high blood pressure is a leading factor in the number of heart attack and stroke, and salt causes it to rise. I take medicine for hypertension, but not everybody has access health care to get the medication. He has been telling people to watch their salt for years, it hasn’t been working.
There are certain food categories I have to watch like cheese, breakfast cereals, bread, macaroni and pastas, cake mixes, condiments and soups.
The federal government has been trying to control sodium levels for decades. In the 1980s, the federal dietary guidelines warned about excess sodium, and the FDA also asked the food industry to reduce sodium levels in processed foods voluntarily.
Surprise … It didn’t work. By 2000, a study showed that men were consuming 48 percent more salt than they did in the early 1970s, and women, 69 percent more because food got saltier and people were consuming more calories.
For me the whole idea of controlling my diet is incredibly complicated. My overall strategy is just find ways to balance diet and exercise and keep on my weight loss program. If I remember to eat in moderation as I lower my weight I increase my health.
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