High Blood Pressure | Straight Talk about Eating Smart

March 17, 2010

What’s Your Salt IQ? Part 2: Cut the Salt but not the Flavor

Shaking salt from your diet is constantly in the news. But, I don’t want to lose the flavor of my food, do you? Did you know that approximately seventy five percent of the sodium in the American diet comes from the various sodium products added during processing? Incredible isn’t it? So get your label sleuth glasses on… it’s time to read the fine print! Reading labels is key to finding all the hidden sodium. There are a lot of us checking out food labels according to a 2009 survey by Mintel. Over 25% of people responding are always watching salt in their diet.

Check out the sodium level in some of these notorious sodium offenders as the level really does vary company to company:

Sauces and salad dressings: consider making your own from a flavored balsamic vinegar and good olive oil
Frozen and canned veggies
Frozen entrees
Fast foods
Deli meats plus ham, hot dogs, sausage and bacon
Soup
Bouillon cubes

Because salt adds flavor to food, you might be wondering whether you’re going to miss all that added sodium. You’ll like this answer. Your taste buds will adapt after about 6-8 weeks of gradually cutting back on the amount of sodium that you consume.

More tips to shake the sodium but not the flavor in your diet:

It’s all about fresh…start with fresh ingredients when at all possible. Bonus! When you eat more fruit and veggies, the additional potassium has a positive or lowering effect on blood pressure.
Rethink your seasonings…pepper is great but try a wide variety of fresh and dried herbs/spices and delightful seasoning blends without added sodium. Use more lemon, lime and other citrus for flavor along with a variety of vinegars. Grow fresh herbs in pots to use in your dishes too.
Rinse tuna, canned beans and canned veggies to lower the sodium content. Add your fresh herbs and spices to kick up the flavor.

What’s your favorite trick to shake the salt? Email me and I’ll share some of your tips in my podcast.

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March 10, 2010

What’s Your Salt IQ? Part 1, The Salty Facts

Did you know that March is National Nutrition Month and today is Registered Dietitian Day? I want to give a shout out to Registered Dietitians. They are committed to improving the health of our communities and our country. As the nation’s food and nutrition experts, registered dietitians bring food and nutrition expertise to the table. Thank you for all that you do every day to provide accurate and usable nutrition information and to empower people to make smart decisions for their health.

Salt is quickly becoming the next trans fat. Which item do you think contains the most sodium? A Subway six inch oven roasted chicken sandwich or the serving of Subway roasted chicken noodle soup? If you guessed the soup, you’re correct. A serving of the soup is a mere 80 calories but a whopping 950 milligrams (mg) of sodium compared to the six inch chicken sandwich which contains 320 calories and 750 milligrams of sodium…still quite a high number. Here’s another chance. Which contains more sodium? A McDonald’s Big Mac or a large order of French fries? It’s the Big Mac with 1,040 milligrams of sodium (half the sodium you need for an entire day by the way and two thirds of the sodium people need as they get older or if they have high blood pressure). Compare the Big Mac to the French fries which contain 350 milligrams of sodium. Surprised? Many times you don’t taste the sodium added to the product the way you taste the salt on the outside.

Table salt is sodium chloride which means that it’s made up of part sodium and part chloride. But there are many other types of sodium or sodium products in food, particularly processed foods. As a general rule, the more processed a food item, the more sodium it will contain. You will see names such as the preservative sodium benzoate, or sodium bicarbonate which is baking soda, monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer or sodium nitrate/nitrite which are used as curing agents/preservatives in deli meats. It’s the total amount of sodium that you take in every day from both salt and all the other forms of sodium combined that affect your body. Sodium is measured in milligrams and designated as ‘mg’ on the Nutrition Facts food label. Any idea how much of your total sodium intake every day comes from the salt shaker? Most people get 25% or less of their total sodium intake from the salt shaker. The rest is added to food in the various sodium forms.