Post by Katie on Aug 19, 2004 11:51:18 GMT -5
Salt/Sodum - UGGGGGGGG!
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SALT
Many people think salt and sodium are one and the same. They’re not. Sodium is a basic chemical element, an electrolyte wee need regulate blood volume, to maintain the acid-balance, and to transmit nerve impulses and muscle contractions.
Salt, on the other hand, is sodium chloride, a simple compound composed of 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride (chloride, like sodium, is essential to life and import for maintaining the acid balance in the blood). Although sodium can also be found in things like baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and mineral water, in our diets, sodium chloride – pure, white table salt – is by far the dominant form consumed.
Currently, the average adult in the United States consumes 4,000 to 6,000 milligrams of sodium daily. Even at the low end, 4,000 milligrams of sodium comes out to about 10 grams of salt, or nearly 2 teasthingys, every day. Considering that the government sets a minimum of 500 milligrams for adequacy and the Daily Values in the U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommends moderate sodium intakes of 2,400 milligrams a daily – found in about 6 grams of salt – we eat much more salt than we need to. Whether high salt intakes are actually bad for us is another issue and one that is surrounded by controversy.
Throughout the centuries, salt has been a valuable commodity. It’s used as a preservative and processing agent in foods as breads, meats, and pickled vegetables. Some foods, like cheese, cannot be formed without salt. Today, its main purpose is as a flavor enhancer, heightening and intensifying natural flavors, at the same time adding its own characteristic flavor – a taste many people crave.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, about 75 percent of the sodium we consume is in the form of processed foods – canned, frozen, and convenience items. The rest of our sodium comes naturally from food (about 15 percent) and as salt (about 10 percent) in its pure form, added during cooking or straight from the shaker once the meal is served.
HIDDEN SALTS
Part of the reason people have so much trouble lowering their salt intake is that many times they just don’t know they’re eating it. Food doesn’t have to taste salty to be high in sodium. These hidden sources of salt are our worse enemies. Take for example the difference between potato chips and corn flakes. Most people assume the potato chips are higher in salt. But a once-ounce serving of potato chips contains about 150 milligrams of sodium; the same size serving of corn flakes has nearly twice that amount. Following are some other surprisingly high sodium foods:
Canned Corn, ½ cup = 285 mgs
Instant Vanilla Pudding, ½ cup from box mix = 410 mgs
Canned tuna fish, 2 ounces (light chunk, packed in water) = 300 mgs
Pizza, frozen, ¼ pie (4.5 ounces) = 770 mgs
Cheese, American, processed, 1 ounce = 410 mgs
English Muffin, 1 = 365 mgs
Ketchup, tomato, 2 tablesthingys = 360 mgs
Turkey Hot Dog – 485 mgs
(Figures are based on Jean A. T. Pennington’s Food Values of Portions Commonly Consumed, 16th ed. [Philadelphia, Penn.: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1994).
SALT AND HYPERTENSION
Despite its illustrious past, over the last few decades salt has fallen out of favor with the American public because too much salt is said to trigger hypertension, or high blood pressure, in some individuals. Hypertension, defined as a blood pressure reading of 140/90 or above, afflicts nearly 50 million Americans and is believed to play a role in 700,00 deaths a year, primarily from heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease.
Results from a massive 1988 research project called Intersalt found that the more sodium a person excretes in the urine, the higher their blood pressure. Sine, in general, urinary sodium levels are directly related to the amount of salt a person consumes, the research concluded that people who eat more salt have higher blood pressure than people who eat less. The study also showed that high salt intakes increases the rise in blood pressure that naturally occurs with age.
But some scientists do not believe everyone needs to reduce salt consumption. Research from Toronto, Canada, found that older adults who already have hypertension could only mildly lower their blood pressure by restricting salt in their diet. Moreover, there was no benefit associated with a low-salt diet for younger people with normal blood pressure.
The problem is that not everyone’s blood pressure will respond to changes in salt intake, and there is no way of knowing who is salt-sensitive and who is not. In any case, the medical community does agree that salt is only part of the picture.
The most promising findings for controlling hypertension come for DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), a recent landmark study that looked at total diet and high blood pressure. Through careful clinical trials, DASH researchers concluded that a diet low in fat, and rich in fruits and vegetables and low-fat dairy foods lowered blood pressure levels just as effectively as many antihypertensive drugs.
Researchers think the result is a combination of several factors: the high mineral content found in fruits and vegetables, the calcium in dairy foods, the low fat intake, and the reduced salt intake (participants were given a constant 3,000 milligrams of sodium a day).
OTHER HEALTH RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH SALT
Eating a diet high in salt exacerbates calcium losses, ultimately leading to a loss in bone density. AT a sodium level of 2,400 milligrams a day, taking in the recommended RDA of 1,200 milligrams of dietary calcium will sufficiently protect your bones; consuming more slat requires an increase in calcium. Since few Americans meet the calcium RDA as it is, women, especially, should keep salt intake in check.
In addition to osteoporosis, scientists think taking in large amounts of sodium over a long period of time may be related to asthma, kidney stones, and stomach cancer.
HOW TO REDUCE YOUR SALT INTAKE
Even if you don’t have hypertension or other health problems, cutting back on salt may still be a wise decision. The easiest way to do this is to pinpoint the source of most of your salt intake. Since convenience foods contain the largest amounts of sodium in the average diet, steering clear of these products or choosing low-sodium brands is your first step. Here are a few others:
1) Read food labels to see if a product is high in sodium. Try to choose foods with fewer than 480 milligrams of sodium per serving.
2) Stay away from salty foods like pretzels (buy unsalted), potato chips, olives and pickles.
3) In cooking, replace the salt with extra herbs and spices to pump up the flavor in soups, sauces, and entrees. Some good choices are garlic, lemon, basil, mint, oregano, thyme and parsley.
4) If you do use salt, add it in at the end of cooking or sue the salt shaker at the table instead. Cooking mutes salt’s flavor, so adding it in later means you’ll need less salt in the long run.
5) Watch out for processed meats, frozen foods, and canned items. They are usually loaded with sodium. Choose low-sodium or sodium-free varieties if available.
From THE COMPLETE BOOK OF FITNESS MIND*BODY*SPIRIT by the editors of Fitness Magazine with Karen Andres. Copyright 1999 by Roundtable Press, Inc., and Gruner + Jahr USA Publishing
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SALT
Many people think salt and sodium are one and the same. They’re not. Sodium is a basic chemical element, an electrolyte wee need regulate blood volume, to maintain the acid-balance, and to transmit nerve impulses and muscle contractions.
Salt, on the other hand, is sodium chloride, a simple compound composed of 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride (chloride, like sodium, is essential to life and import for maintaining the acid balance in the blood). Although sodium can also be found in things like baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and mineral water, in our diets, sodium chloride – pure, white table salt – is by far the dominant form consumed.
Currently, the average adult in the United States consumes 4,000 to 6,000 milligrams of sodium daily. Even at the low end, 4,000 milligrams of sodium comes out to about 10 grams of salt, or nearly 2 teasthingys, every day. Considering that the government sets a minimum of 500 milligrams for adequacy and the Daily Values in the U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommends moderate sodium intakes of 2,400 milligrams a daily – found in about 6 grams of salt – we eat much more salt than we need to. Whether high salt intakes are actually bad for us is another issue and one that is surrounded by controversy.
Throughout the centuries, salt has been a valuable commodity. It’s used as a preservative and processing agent in foods as breads, meats, and pickled vegetables. Some foods, like cheese, cannot be formed without salt. Today, its main purpose is as a flavor enhancer, heightening and intensifying natural flavors, at the same time adding its own characteristic flavor – a taste many people crave.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, about 75 percent of the sodium we consume is in the form of processed foods – canned, frozen, and convenience items. The rest of our sodium comes naturally from food (about 15 percent) and as salt (about 10 percent) in its pure form, added during cooking or straight from the shaker once the meal is served.
HIDDEN SALTS
Part of the reason people have so much trouble lowering their salt intake is that many times they just don’t know they’re eating it. Food doesn’t have to taste salty to be high in sodium. These hidden sources of salt are our worse enemies. Take for example the difference between potato chips and corn flakes. Most people assume the potato chips are higher in salt. But a once-ounce serving of potato chips contains about 150 milligrams of sodium; the same size serving of corn flakes has nearly twice that amount. Following are some other surprisingly high sodium foods:
Canned Corn, ½ cup = 285 mgs
Instant Vanilla Pudding, ½ cup from box mix = 410 mgs
Canned tuna fish, 2 ounces (light chunk, packed in water) = 300 mgs
Pizza, frozen, ¼ pie (4.5 ounces) = 770 mgs
Cheese, American, processed, 1 ounce = 410 mgs
English Muffin, 1 = 365 mgs
Ketchup, tomato, 2 tablesthingys = 360 mgs
Turkey Hot Dog – 485 mgs
(Figures are based on Jean A. T. Pennington’s Food Values of Portions Commonly Consumed, 16th ed. [Philadelphia, Penn.: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1994).
SALT AND HYPERTENSION
Despite its illustrious past, over the last few decades salt has fallen out of favor with the American public because too much salt is said to trigger hypertension, or high blood pressure, in some individuals. Hypertension, defined as a blood pressure reading of 140/90 or above, afflicts nearly 50 million Americans and is believed to play a role in 700,00 deaths a year, primarily from heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease.
Results from a massive 1988 research project called Intersalt found that the more sodium a person excretes in the urine, the higher their blood pressure. Sine, in general, urinary sodium levels are directly related to the amount of salt a person consumes, the research concluded that people who eat more salt have higher blood pressure than people who eat less. The study also showed that high salt intakes increases the rise in blood pressure that naturally occurs with age.
But some scientists do not believe everyone needs to reduce salt consumption. Research from Toronto, Canada, found that older adults who already have hypertension could only mildly lower their blood pressure by restricting salt in their diet. Moreover, there was no benefit associated with a low-salt diet for younger people with normal blood pressure.
The problem is that not everyone’s blood pressure will respond to changes in salt intake, and there is no way of knowing who is salt-sensitive and who is not. In any case, the medical community does agree that salt is only part of the picture.
The most promising findings for controlling hypertension come for DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), a recent landmark study that looked at total diet and high blood pressure. Through careful clinical trials, DASH researchers concluded that a diet low in fat, and rich in fruits and vegetables and low-fat dairy foods lowered blood pressure levels just as effectively as many antihypertensive drugs.
Researchers think the result is a combination of several factors: the high mineral content found in fruits and vegetables, the calcium in dairy foods, the low fat intake, and the reduced salt intake (participants were given a constant 3,000 milligrams of sodium a day).
OTHER HEALTH RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH SALT
Eating a diet high in salt exacerbates calcium losses, ultimately leading to a loss in bone density. AT a sodium level of 2,400 milligrams a day, taking in the recommended RDA of 1,200 milligrams of dietary calcium will sufficiently protect your bones; consuming more slat requires an increase in calcium. Since few Americans meet the calcium RDA as it is, women, especially, should keep salt intake in check.
In addition to osteoporosis, scientists think taking in large amounts of sodium over a long period of time may be related to asthma, kidney stones, and stomach cancer.
HOW TO REDUCE YOUR SALT INTAKE
Even if you don’t have hypertension or other health problems, cutting back on salt may still be a wise decision. The easiest way to do this is to pinpoint the source of most of your salt intake. Since convenience foods contain the largest amounts of sodium in the average diet, steering clear of these products or choosing low-sodium brands is your first step. Here are a few others:
1) Read food labels to see if a product is high in sodium. Try to choose foods with fewer than 480 milligrams of sodium per serving.
2) Stay away from salty foods like pretzels (buy unsalted), potato chips, olives and pickles.
3) In cooking, replace the salt with extra herbs and spices to pump up the flavor in soups, sauces, and entrees. Some good choices are garlic, lemon, basil, mint, oregano, thyme and parsley.
4) If you do use salt, add it in at the end of cooking or sue the salt shaker at the table instead. Cooking mutes salt’s flavor, so adding it in later means you’ll need less salt in the long run.
5) Watch out for processed meats, frozen foods, and canned items. They are usually loaded with sodium. Choose low-sodium or sodium-free varieties if available.
From THE COMPLETE BOOK OF FITNESS MIND*BODY*SPIRIT by the editors of Fitness Magazine with Karen Andres. Copyright 1999 by Roundtable Press, Inc., and Gruner + Jahr USA Publishing