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Are We Ingesting Too Much Salt?

October 12th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

To salt or not to salt, this has been a subject of controversy for several years however the general consensus is that we ingest far to much on a regular basis. Salt has been blamed on increasing blood pressure or at the very least increasing your risk of high blood pressure. There is also new concern that a diet rich in salt (sodium) will lead to stroke, coronary heart disease and cancer. Although there isn’t complete agreement on the extent of sodium’s negative effects on our bodies many physicians believe it is best to error on the side of caution or in this case reduction.

The recommended maximum amount of salt is 6g or approximately one teaspoon. Many of you may be thinking, that is easy enough because there is no way I put 1 teaspoon of salt on my food. If this indeed what you are thinking you are probably greatly underestimating the amount of sodium you are ingesting on a regular basis. Most salt that we ingest actually comes from processed or prepared food that we purchase. With this being the case it is important that you read the labels of the products you buy, once you start this practice you will be surprised at the amount of sodium you are really consuming.

The easiest way to cut back on salt is to buy fresh. Even foods that we presume are healthy choices such as canned vegetables are actually quite often loaded with salt. Always look for labels that state sodium reduced or better yet salt free. You may also notice that different brand names will contain different amounts of sodium in comparison to their competitor.

One reason many people give for choosing salt enriched foods is for taste, they say salt free foods are bland and tasteless. It is true that when you first reduce your salt consumption you may indeed notice a difference this is because your taste buds will need a couple weeks to adjust. Once this adjustment period passes you will probably find that your food actually tastes better because you are able to pick up many more of the subtle flavors found in food. In addition, there are many healthy alternatives to use to spice up the taste of your food for instance try pepper or get to know the natural herbs, for instance start to experiment with oregano, basal, chilies, garlic, lemon or lime. Adding wines and marinades is also a good alternative.