Shake It Up

Article by healthybalance.com staff
Posted on May 14, 2008

If you or someone in your family has heart problems or high blood pressure, your doctor has most likely warned you away from salt. However, if you assume that trading the salt shaker for a shaker of salt substitute is your answer to reducing sodium in your diet, you are wrong—perhaps dead wrong.

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, only six per cent of the salt we ingest comes from the shaker. Another small 5 percent is added by the home cook. But, 77% of the salt we eat comes from processed foods-those foods that line the shelves of your grocery store aisle, in their brightly colored packaging or attractively labeled cans. Restaurant foods are also high-sodium culprits. Consider this. A Panera Bread turkey Panini contains 2,390 milligrams of sodium. A Starbucks cinnamon roll serves up 700 milligrams and a Dunkin Donuts large white hot chocolate, 600 milligrams.

Here are approximate sodium counts for some other examples:

• McDonald’s Small Hamburger 530 mg
• Burger King Double Whopper with Cheese 1,500 mg
• Arby’s Breakfast Biscuit with Ham 1,610 mg
• Pizza Hut Pepperoni Lovers® pizza, 6-inch 1,760 mg
• Hamburger Helper, one serving 1,000 mg
• Campbell’s Cream of Chicken Soup 1/2 cup 590 mg

The American Medical Association states that any food containing more than 480 milligrams of sodium per serving has too much sodium.

Seeing as most people should not ingest more than 2,400 milligrams a day, it’s easy to see why these processed foods are no good for your health. While sodium is necessary to healthy body function, people under age 50 only need 1, 500 milligrams a day. Those over 50 need less—1,200 to 1,300.

The best way to cut down on sodium isn’t to forsake the family saltshaker—it’s to start eating most of your meals made from scratch, at home or brought from home. If you’re living in the fast lane like most of us these days, you may feel like this is an impossible task. Think again! A little planning and less time than you spend waiting in the drive-through lane can make healthy home-prepared fare easier than ordering fries with that excessive shake—of salt.

When you concentrate on a healthier diet of fresh foods prepared from scratch, you can, in most cases, feel free to salt your food to taste on any occasion with little worry over getting a heart attack.