LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Fitness |
by Rick Moore |
A Pinch of This, a Dash of That
It was Saturday morning and I was upstairs making the bed, when Nick yelled, "Hey, Rick, get dressed. I'm taking you out to lunch today." Lunch? Well, this really was a treat. Nick said he'd just gotten off the phone with Joe and Mark, and they were on their way over. Plus, they would drive! They arrived shortly thereafter, and we piled into their car. Off we went to Dover. Cool. Well, we wound up at Sam's Club. Nick had meant that this was the day where they have lots of vendors with food samples for the public. So, this was lunch!? Actually, there are a lot of samples and you could get some tasty bitsif that's what you like. Some samples smelled wonderful. Some were quite tasty. But the problem was the salt content. Every item that I checked out and tasted had the nutrition label available. The chicken scampi with pasta was very tasty, but one serving had 750 milligrams of salt. There were seven servings per package, and since a lot of people don't eat just one single serving, the sodium can really add up. The average person should keep his/her salt intake to around 2000 milligrams of salt per daythat's about 1 teaspoon. I'm serious. That's it! The mozzarella sticks were tasty too, but at 300 milligrams of salt each you could again exceed your salt daily limit. Why do food manufacturers have to load up their product with salt? This is a serious health issue. Have you seen the TV commercial where the husband is reading the ingredients in Chef Boyardee Ravioli out loud, and his wife is trying to shut him up? She's afraid that if their kid finds out it is healthy, he won't eat it. If the husband mentioned the salt content in one can to his wife, she might not "shush" him. One serving of ravioli has 890 milligrams of salt. That's a lot of salt for a kid, especially in one meal. Hey mom, your kid will be on fluid pills, diuretics, and blood pressure meds sooner than you think. Hey mom, serve this kid some condensed soup and put him in shock. Read the label on canned soupthat will give you a heart attack. The lo-sodium soups have a tad bit less salt, but still too much. Check out the frozen food aisle. Those home style and healthy dinners and side dishes are eye-popping sodium offenders. One meal can send your blood pressure sky-high. But the biggest offenders in the salt assault are restaurants. Doesn't matter if it is fast food or fancy, you really have to be careful. That Big Mac may give you a heart attack, but the healthy entre you ordered at Chez Sodium could just as easily put you in a coma. Nick and I started a Friday night dinner group. There are places we've gone where the food was so salty we would need the wait staff to have gallons of water available. One restaurant was so bad that I couldn't eat their foodthe saltiness burned my mouth. We never went back. So, is there anyone out there looking out for us? Why, yes, there is. Just recently the City of New York took on the issue of salt in restaurant food. The New York City Health Departmentthe folks that put a ban on trans-fatsis now taking on salt. They want people in the industry to voluntarily cut back on the amount of processed salt that is put in restaurant food. With the help from the salt industry, medical groups, and public health agencies, New York City hopes to cut salt intake by 20%. Now if only we can get Obama and the US Food and Drug Agencies to hop on board. Then maybe we can get a handle on the sky-high number of citizens who have life threatening high blood pressure. Note: 2000 milligrams of salt is equal to about a teaspoon. Rick Moore is a personal trainer certified by the American Fitness Professionals &Associates. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 19 No. 04 May 08, 2009 |