Singling out salt

by Nicole Weston, Posted Jun 16th 2006 @ 7:02AM

A representative for the Food Products Association asked the American Medical association why they were singling out salt as a health risk to the American public. Predictably, they cited evidence that salt may cause an increased risk of elevated blood pressure and heart disease. But is an increased risk enough to label salt as a danger?

There is no denying that there is a lot of salt in the foods we eat. The recommended daily amount of salt is about 2,400 mg, which is roughly a teaspoonful. Many people consume double that in a day. But the salt that we add to our homemade chicken dinners is not the problem; the greatest source of sodium in our diets is processed food. For example, a Big Mac contains over 1000mg of salt - half the recommended allowance. Unfortunately, because this salt isn't readily apparent to the eater, people don't know its there - and if they are told by their doctor to watch their salt intake, or take to heart the advice from the AMA, they end up watching the wrong places.

The seemingly obvious way to cut out salt is to take it out where it is visible. Many people end up leaving foods unsalted (and bland) at home and eat out more to avoid not salting their foods. Homemade cookies have 1/2 teaspoon of salt in them? The homemade bread has 2 teaspoons? That may sound like a lot, but realize that the cookies packaged at the store have more, it just wasn't put there by you. This is another trap that people fall into, leaving out salt in places where it is required by recipes for fear of having too much salt in general.

The tastelessness of this modified own cooking can lead people to eating out even more and buying more processed foods, where even "low salt" options will have more salt than they would put on foods they prepared themselves.

If you really want to cut down on salt, don't cut it out in things that need it, like the bread and cookies mentioned above, unless you are planning to eat the whole batch/loaf at once – and if you are, salt is probably not the main thing in your diet that you need to watch. Instead, use spices to add dimension to food and do more of your cooking at home, where you can still salt your food, but can be certain that the sprinkle or two you add is the only salt it has.

Filed Under: Health & Medical, Ingredients, How To
Tags: add, added, adding, cooking, diet, health, healthy, heart, medical, salt, salty, sodium, spices

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-16-2006 @7:07AM Alex said... So, basically, don't eat processed foods, right?!
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6-16-2006 @8:14AM Nicole Weston said... If you're inclined to keep your salt intake down, right.
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6-16-2006 @9:28AM Calee said... We were living in Ireland last year and it was all about the no salt craze. It was almost like stepping back to the early 90s when people were still using salt substitues and there were public service announcements all over the radio.

I love how they make all the fuss about sodium intake and don't just warn people to eat less processed foods.

Thanks for this blog--I just found it!
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6-16-2006 @10:49AM Baron said... Don't forget though, you NEED salt. Of course, you would have to go pretty far out of your way to not get any salt, but I have seen it happen before. So there are people out there that really don't know salt is used in a Big Mac? Really? Honestly?
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6-16-2006 @11:58AM Hawk said... I think there's an error. A teaspoon of salt != a teaspoon of sodium. 2400mg of SODIUM is the RDA in the united states, and I highly doubt that one measely teaspoon of salt provides all of that.
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6-16-2006 @1:03PM jmforester said... Actually the information is correct that 1 tsp of salt conatins the daily amount of sodium. Here's a link to the American Heart Association.

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4708

The problem with this and all salt related information is that only people who are sensitive to sodium need to watch their intake. If you don't have sodium sensitivity that affects your cardiopulmonary system then you can eat large amounts of salt with no bad effect as long as you drink the appropriate amount of water to cleanse yourself of the excess.

The US is actually seeing an enormous increase in hyponatremia , otherwise known as "water intoxication," among those who are athletic or trying to "eat healthy" because people are drinking way too much water without electrolytes / sodium and potassium to balance it.

Like all things considered "healthy" today, many people are aware of only some of the facts, and many books and media focus on scary information without putting forth all the correct information.
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6-20-2006 @3:26PM Deb said... I prefer to add salt to taste or enhance only the flavor of the meal. This way, I use considerably less salt than most people and find pre-packaged foods unpalatable.
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