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Have you ever gone to a restaurant, particularly those
Chinese or Mexican places, and an hour later, you’re so thirsty that you
have to load up on a gallon of water? The food really tastes good,
doesn’t it? One of the main reasons for this—and the cause of your
thirst—is salt.
With more and more people eating out for
more meals, whether it’s fast food, take out, or an elegant dinner
(someplace where the utensils aren’t plastic) we all seem to be
unknowingly ingesting more salt. It’s essential for life, but too much
of it can lead to nasty health problems. The National Research Council of
the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., has said a range of
500-2,400 mg of salt intake daily is OK. However, the council has said
that lowering sodium intake to 1,800 milligrams would probably be
healthier.
As a comparison, just 1 teaspoon of table
salt contains 2,300 mg of sodium.
Some people are eating over 6,000 mg of
salt daily. They’re probably the ones on the go who eat out, or consume
a lot of packaged, processed, and prepared foods. That stuff is incredibly
salty. In fact, 75% of the salt we eat comes from processed foods, not
from the saltshaker in your kitchen.
Why? Salt is cheap. Besides acting as a
preservative, salt stimulates the taste buds and makes food taste better
and sweeter. It’s also great at covering up metallic tastes and
improving consistency, as in soups. And if food tastes better, it sells
better. Many manufacturers use it as a taste-enhancer. Imagine potato
chips with no salt, or French fries, or oatmeal. Salt actually increases
the taste. But today, salt has been heavily added to almost all the foods
we consume.
If you’ve been on a low sodium diet for a
while, you’ll think almost all food is too salty to eat when you end
that diet. In years past, we didn’t have such a variety of packaged and
prepared foods, and people used to do more cooking at home. But with
canned, refrigerated, and frozen items—and a population too “on the
go” to cook, salt intake has shot up. Check out the nutrition label on
anything in the grocery store, and you’ll see the sodium amount listed.
You might be astonished at how high those numbers are. You can use these
labels to help you total up the amount of “hidden” salt you’re
eating on a daily basis.
The situation is so serious that the
American Public Health Association—the nation’s largest public health
group—is recommending a 50 percent decrease in salt in processed food
and restaurant meals over the next 10 years. They believe this could save
150,000 lives a year by reducing strokes, heart attacks, and other health
problems associated with high blood pressure. There is also growing
evidence that high salt intake can aggravate asthma, gastric cancer,
kidney stones, and osteoporosis.
What should you do? Well, most people
don’t have to worry too much. If you’re otherwise healthy and don’t
have high blood pressure, you can probably eat 2,400 mg of sodium daily
without much of a problem. But if you’re not in that group, you should
probably be cautious and limit your intake.
There are a couple of easy-to-follow
guidelines to keep your salt intake in the healthy range:
Switch to fresh or frozen vegetables,
instead of canned. Although draining the liquid from canned vegetables may
appear to get rid of most of the salt, it doesn’t. Draining the liquid
before cooking removes only about a third of the total sodium. If you also
rinse the vegetables under running water, you’ll remove about 40% of the
salt.
Limit your intake of canned meats and fish,
like Spam or tuna, because salt is heavily used in these products as a
preservative.
Try to reduce the amount you eat out at
restaurants, especially cuisine you know is incredibly salty. If you are
going to eat at these restaurants, try to request low-salt dishes and
cooking methods, if possible.
Don’t automatically sprinkle salt on
everything you eat. If you taste the food first, it may be salty enough,
or you may quickly get used to the reduced saltiness. My mother used to
jump all over my father because he would automatically salt his dinner
when it was placed in front of him, without even tasting it first.
You should avoid fast food if you can. Not
only is it loaded with artery-clogging grease; it’s salty, too.
Eat snack foods in moderation, or not at
all. If it’s deep-fried and in a brightly colored plastic bag, chances
are it’s loaded with salt, too. There are some low-salt snack foods out
there, like salt-free pretzels. Try those instead.
As we sit down with our families and
friends to celebrate the holiday season, we should be aware that our
holiday meals can be much healthier if we are aware of the amount of
sodium we’re cooking with and eating. Use unsalted butter. Serve turkey
that’s been minimally processed, instead of an “injected” turkey, or
a salty ham. When baking cookies and cakes, cut the salt in half. Even
bread has salt in it. Don’t add salt if you need to boil water for
potatoes or pasta. Experiment with herbs and spices to give your food a
better taste, instead of immediately reaching for the salt. Chives, basil,
and rosemary are my favorites.
Hopefully, you’ll not only reduce your
salt intake, you’ll keep your portions and waistline under control, too.
Happy holidays!
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