Salt intake has a detrimental impact on Society

You've been trying to reduce the intake sodium — merely a pinch of table salt on your baked potato and a dash to your scrambled eggs. But a pinch and a smidgen can quickly tote up to detrimental levels of sodium, especially when many foods already contain more than enough sodium. According to the New Mayo clinic cookbook, “About 11 percent of the sodium in the average U.S. diet comes from adding salt or other sodium-containing condiments to foods while cooking or eating. But the majority of the sodium — 77 percent — comes from eating prepared or processed foods that contain the mineral. So even though you may limit the amount of salt you add to food, the food itself may already be high in salt”. Are you getting too much? Here's where salt sneaks into your diet:

Five ounces of Swiss cheese (250mg)

Chili’s Awesome Blossom (6,360 mg)

A large Mango Mantra Smoothie form Smoothie King (920mg)

Can of green beans (400mg)

Prego Heart Smart Traditional Italian Sauce - this has an American Heart Association logo on the label which means saturated fat and cholesterol are restricted, but not that it’s low in sodium. This sauce has 430 mg per half-cup.

Aunt Jemima Original Pancake and Waffle Mix - prepared as directed, the pancakes have about 200 mg of sodium each.

In fact, Chili’s Awesome Blossom contains 2.5 times the recommended amount of daily salt intake!

Nevertheless, salt is vital to keep our body healthy and to promote mental development.

  Today, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you all how salt intake has a large impact on American society. This issue will be addressed by asking ourselves three questions: How much salt does our body need? How much of it is on our table? And what are the risks we face when we consume too much salt?

Salt, also known as sodium chloride is essential to our body in helping with metabolism and maintaining maintain the right balance of fluids. It also helps in transmitting nerve impulses and is involved in the contraction and relaxation of muscles.

 Sodium and chloride ions present in salt are both required by our body. Sodium helps maintain acid-base level and controls the volume of fluid in our body. In the same way, chloride also helps to maintain blood volume and blood pressure.

So how much salt intake does our body need? According to the Salt Institute, ‘the National Academy of Science recommends a sodium intake of at least 500mg per day but less than 2,300 mg per day.’ However, this varies on a different group of people, depending on how much the body can tolerate salt, that is, how sensitive the body is in absorbing salt.

According to the Salt Institute, older people who are more sensitive to the electrolytic balance and marathon runners or football players that get dehydrated are required to take extra care in the amount of sodium they consume. Also for pregnant women, it is important to consume enough sodium to prevent stillborn births and low-birth weight infants.

Let’s recall the daily recommended sodium intake. A minimum of 500mg but less than 2,300mg per day. According to New York Times, the average American consumes 2,900 to 4,300 mgs of sodium a day. Americans’ salt intake has increased dramatically in recent decades. We now consume almost twice the recommended limit of salt each day – but not by choice. A large percentage of salt in our diet comes from processed and prepared foods. Where do we get all this sodium from?

Let’s look at a typical daily meal of an average college student.

Breakfast. A bowl of Cheerios (210mg of sodium) or a two Eggo NutriGrain waffles (420 mg of sodium) or a slice of Sara Lee Heart Healthy Multi-Grain bread (190 mg of sodium)

Lunch. A Kraft South Beach Diet Deli Ham & Turkey Wrap (1,430mg of sodium) or a Mexican Grilled chicken burrito from Chipotle (2,656 mg of sodium)

Dinner. A piece of Uno Chicago Grill classic deep dish pizza (4,470mg of sodium) or a Quizno’s Classic Italian (4,490mg of sodium) or a large double cheese burger combo from Burger King (1960mg of sodium) (Data from Women’s Health Magazine)

That is an average of 5,759mg of sodium a day! This equals to approximately 3 teaspoons of salt. Without realizing what is really going into our mouth, we are over consuming our daily sodium intake.

It is easy to think this is reasonable since our body needs these elements and since we have a philosophy in mind saying that more is always better than less! But when it comes to sodium, we have to think again.

According to USA Today, Salt “is the single most harmful element in the food supply, even worse than saturated fat and trans fat, or food additives and pesticides.” The Center for Science in the Public Interest reported that this “forgotten killer” is a major cause of high blood pressure in Americans and by cutting salt intake in half, it could save 150,000 lives a year. Salt reduction will also help prevent strokes, heart attacks, and other problems in people who don’t have clinical high blood pressure.

While it is important to meet our daily recommended sodium intake to prevent hyponatremia or to maintain healthy insulin sensitivity to prevent diabetes, it is also important to rein in excessive consumption that may lead to an increase in the risks of gastric cancer, hypertension, obesity, and high blood pressure which may lead to a stroke or a heart attack.

What can we do to keep an optimal level of salt intake? According to Women’s Health Magazine, instead of using salt to flavor to our meal, we can use other herbs or spices. And, ultimately, what does a low salt diet look like? First off, it should mean pretty much no processed food. A large part of salt intake in American society comes from processed food, atleast, that’s what I’d suggest.

 Your taste for salt is acquired, so it's reversible.  You should gradually decrease your      intake of salt and then substitute salt with no salt adds on. Finally you’ll reach a state    where you will be able to enjoy food without salt at all.

Salt intake has a mixture of both positive and negative impact on society but the negative impact can be minimized by applying small changes to our eating habits.

http://www.saltinstitute.org

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-02-10-salt-dangers_N.htm

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/nutrition/foods-to-reduce-salt-intake

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/health/05salt.html?ref=fitnessandnutrition

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/211383