Better Health & Living
Shake the Salt Habit
Why everyone needs to cut back on sodium
Published in food+nutrition •eating_right | 0 Comments, Talk about this article »
After two weeks in Hawaii, I was totally relaxed, but my cardiovascular system wasn’t. When I got home, I found that my blood pressure had skyrocketed. The reason? I ate out every day while I was away, and strangers were salting my food. Just two days of my own low-sodium cooking yanked me back into safe territory.
Like about half of the 65 million Americans with high blood pressure, I am sodium sensitive, meaning my blood pressure soars if I indulge in too many over-salted meals. So far, I’ve been able to control it by sticking to a very low sodium diet.
I also watch my weight, exercise, and follow the research-designed DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) Diet that’s rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy foods. But eating at restaurants or using simple convenience foods like pasta sauce or a can of soup, packing as much as 800 milligrams of sodium, can nudge me dangerously over the line. (The recommended daily sodium intake is 2,400 milligrams; people with hypertension need to keep it at 1,500 milligrams.)
Seventy-five percent of the sodium in the American diet comes from convenience and restaurant foods, so I was excited last year when the American Medical Association (AMA) urged the FDA to step in to reduce the amount of sodium in processed foods. The AMA’s recommendations: Declare salt a food additive so the FDA can regulate it, force food companies and restaurants to gradually lower the amount in their food by 50 percent over 10 years, and provide warning labels on high-sodium foods.
But my hopes were dashed when Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest told me that his organization has been hounding the FDA about salt for the past 20 years and that its own petition, similar to the AMA’s and submitted a year earlier, drew little but a yawn. “In this pro-industry climate, nothing is likely to happen,” he says.
To Salt or Not to Salt
Some food companies, such as Campbell’s, General Mills, ConAgra, Amy’s Organic, and Glory Foods, are voluntarily cutting back on sodium. For the most part, though, we’re on our own.
Even if you’re highly motivated to avoid having to take blood pressure drugs, don’t expect it to be easy to give up the enhanced flavor sodium brings to foods. We’ve all been trained to expect a certain level of saltiness in our food, and without it we perceive some foods as bland.
“With earnest effort, good behavior, and lots of support, it’s still quite challenging to stay on a low-sodium diet in today’s marketplace,” says Jeffrey Cutler, MD, chief of the vascular biology and hypertension branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which sponsored the DASH research.
If you’re patient and persistent, however, within a couple of months, your taste buds will adapt so well to the unadorned taste of food that even a small bite of one of your old favorites—like boxed stuffing—will make you wonder how you ever liked it.
There are also foods that deliver the salt kick with less sodium. For example, my favorite pasta sauce has only 300 milligrams of sodium per serving, yet it’s so rich in anchovies, olives, and capers that my husband, who practically lives at the salt lick, is perfectly pleased, too.
Head It Off at the Pass
You’re not off the hook if your blood pressure is normal now (under 120/80). Once you reach age 55, you have a 90 percent risk of developing hypertension (blood pressure of 140/90 or above), particularly if you’re African American, have a family history of high blood pressure, have pre-hypertension (pressure between 120/80 and 139/89), or are overweight.
Begin by checking out the sodium line on the Nutrition Facts labels on the convenience foods you eat most often. Here are a few ways to save big without giving up flavor or your favorite foods.
Deli turkey: Typical brands tip the saltshaker at 633 milligrams per 2-ounce portion. Healthy Choice halves that. Just Perfect Natural Turkey Breast wins with 29 milligrams. Sodium savings: 604 milligrams.
Cheese: Parmesan contains a whopping 465 milligrams of sodium per ounce, but mozzarella has only 149. Yummier yet is Apple Smoked brand smoked provolone at just 84 milligrams per ounce. Sodium savings: 381 milligrams.
Salad dressing: Healthy-sounding light Caesar delivers 620 milligrams of sodium per 2 tablespoons. Try Marie’s Zesty Fat-Free Raspberry Vinaigrette, with just 35 milligrams. Sodium savings: 585 milligrams.
Pasta sauce: Many brands salt away up to 770 milligrams of sodium per 1/2 cup. Classico Roasted Garlic is equally tasty but has only 220 milligrams per serving. Sodium savings: 550 milligrams.
Salsa: Hot, medium, or mild, 2 tablespoons can pile on 240 milligrams of sodium versus just 25 milligrams for Desert Pepper Trading Company’s peach mango salsa. Sodium savings: 215 milligrams.
Vegetables: Canned asparagus delivers a briny 695 milligrams of sodium per cup, but the frozen equivalent has just 7 milligrams! Sodium savings: 688 milligrams.
Frozen pizza: Sodium content ranges from 1,190 to 480 milligrams per serving, so check the labels. Sodium savings: 710 milligrams.
Colleen Pierre, RD, is coauthor of The Giant Book of Kitchen Counter Cures
Related Articles
Eat Healthy For Less
Posted by Colleen Pierre, RD5 Minute Breakfasts
Posted by Elizabeth Somer, RDEat To Beat Depression
Posted by Winnie YuThe New Superfoods
Posted by Daryn EllerBad Foods You Should Be Eating
Posted by Robin Warshaw
» Advertisement «