Everything You Need to Know About Salt

By Joy Bauer, RD

When you scan a food label, chances are your eyes drift toward total calories, total fat and maybe saturated fat. But what about sodium? Salt may not make you gain weight, but it's worth paying attention to. Eating too much of it can lead to a host of health problems, and the shaker on your table isn't the likely culprit: A jaw-dropping 75 percent of our salt intake comes from restaurant meals and processed foods like frozen dinners and canned soups. (Salt is used to enhance flavor, affect texture, stabilize volume, act as a tenderizer and promote color enhancement, among other things.)

Why is Salt so Worrisome?
Getting too much increases your risk of high blood pressure (a.k.a. hypertension), a silent but deadly condition that puts you at risk for heart attack , stroke, and heart and kidney failure. Seventy-five million American adults now have hypertension (defined as 140/90 or higher) and an additional 50 million have prehypertension (between 120/80 and 139/89). If you already have either of these conditions, cutting back on salt is especially important, as too much can raise your numbers to dangerously high levels.

Studies also suggest that eating too much salt can damage the heart muscle and make arteries more rigid (a hallmark of atherosclerosis, a condition in which fat accumulates in artery walls, putting you at high risk for heart attack or stroke). Other research has linked high-salt diets to an increased risk of stomach cancer-which is one of the most common causes of cancer death (second only to lung cancer). In fact, a 2004 study in the British Journal of Cancer reported that people who regularly ate high-salt foods had double the risk of stomach cancer of those who had a low intake. And do we even need to talk about bloating? While salt is not the sole trigger (hello, hormones!), it certainly contributes to that inflated-inner-tube feeling by forcing your body to hold on to water.

That said, salt isn't all bad. We need it to maintain the balance of fluids in our bodies, transmit nerve impulses, and help the heart and other muscles contract. But the amount we need is pretty low-about 500 milligrams per day. Since most Americans are now eating about 3,000 milligrams daily, reducing that number to 500 is virtually impossible. But health experts urge us to cut back dramatically: In fact, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee proposed that the USDA lower the recommended daily intake to 1,500 mg of sodium (from 2,300 mg).

I realize this may sound daunting, but I assure you it's possible! First of all, packaged food manufacturers may start cutting back on sodium in their products due to legislation that has been proposed by the Institute of Medicine, a nonprofit group. Right now many companies lace their food with so much salt that our taste buds have become accustomed to absurdly high levels. Until legislation gets passed, though, it's up to you to know where salt lurks and make smart choices. Here's how.

Get the facts. The Nutrition Facts, that is. Read labels carefully so you can compare options and pick the lower-sodium choice. Since your goal is to eat no more than 1,500 mg of sodium a day, aim for 500 mg or less per meal. If you're eating a packaged entrée, like a frozen dinner, up to 600 mg is a reasonable cutoff. When shopping for snacks (such as crackers and nuts) and side items (such as rice, potato and vegetable mixes), buy those with no more than 150 mg sodium per serving.

Learn how to read food labels to ensure you are making healthy eating choices.

Go fresh. Remember, processed foods contribute the most sodium to our diets, so try to eat fresh produce, meat, poultry and fish rather than canned meats/fish or cold cuts. If you want to find out how much sodium is in a fresh food-or in a restaurant menu item-go to nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Just type in the name of the food (like "pizza"), choose the brand or a generic option ("fast-food pizza chain, 14" pizza"), select the serving size ("1 slice") and you'll get the complete nutrition stats for that item (scroll down for sodium).

Ditch the can opener. Fresh and frozen plain green beans don't have any sodium at all, but 1 cup of canned green beans can have more than 700 mg! If you must buy canned vegetables, rinsing them with water can help remove much of the sodium. (Same goes for canned beans-rinse them well using a colander.) When it comes to canned soup, look for lower sodium options (ideally fewer than 200 mg per serving), and if you choose to make your own, use low-sodium broth as a base.

Spice it up. Adding flavor without adding excess salt is easy. You can use herbs, spices, lemon juice, balsamic and other exotic vinegars, or any no-/low-salt condiments. I love to create a flavorful spice rub by mixing chili powder, dried oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, ground coriander, ground cumin, and a pinch each of black and cayenne pepper. It's delicious on poultry, fish and beef.

I also make a simple marinara sauce with sodium-free canned crushed tomatoes: I simmer the tomatoes with a dried Italian herb blend, crushed red pepper flakes, minced garlic, balsamic vinegar and chopped onions. The sauce is perfect on pasta, turkey meatballs or grilled chicken Parmesan

Salt by Any Other Name…
All types of salt-table, kosher and sea-are made of sodium chloride and have similar effects on the body, so don't be fooled by tricky marketing. For example, some manufacturers add sea salt to potato chips, canned soups and other packaged foods to make the products seem healthier and more natural, but the amount of salt they're adding, not the type, is what's important for health purposes. (Always check the Nutrition Facts.)

But when it comes to cooking at home, there are some differences. Coarse-grained salts, like kosher and some sea salts (make sure they're labeled "coarse," as sea salt also comes in a fine grain), have larger granules that don't clump together as closely as fine-grained salts. As a result, they have 15 to 50 percent less sodium per teaspoon. So if you're measuring a specific amount of salt for a recipe, substituting kosher salt for table salt can significantly trim the sodium stats (if you're sprinkling freehand and salting to taste, you won't necessarily get the same benefit). 



Original article can be found on WomansDay.com

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