Did you know the average American eats two to three times the recommended amount of salt, every day? How does this happen? Easy.
If you were to take an informal survey regarding what people watch more carefully: their cholesterol level, fat intake or sodium level, I’m sure you would find that most would admit they concentrate more on the two former than the latter. I, on the other hand, obsess about my sodium intake. When I trained for all of my marathons I carefully monitored my sodium intake, likewise when I was pregnant. Not because I have a medical condition that warrants such careful scrutiny, I simply found myself downing excessively salt-laden products unknowingly. When I discovered how much sodium was in my diet I overhauled what I ate.
Over indulging on salt–it can happen so easily. Do you like Fritos? Believe it or not, the salty snack contains only five-percent of your day’s salt. Meanwhile, a “healthy-looking” turkey and bacon sandwich on wheat bread from Arby’s contains nearly 100-percent. This is a trap I fell into all the time until I wised up and started checking nutritional stats on all products to see how much salt each contained. (I started about 8 years ago and continue the practice today.) The results surprised me… they may shock you as well.
That “healthy” bowl of soup I would tote to work: a can of Campbell’s Chunky pork loin—not so healthy after all. One serving will get you 82% of your day’s salt. Meanwhile, each serving of noodles in an Oriental Spicy Noodle bowl will get you 52%. But remember, one bowl contains two servings. But, who eats half a bowl of instant soup? Then there were the Banquet and Boston Market frozen meals that were so convenient to pop in the oven after working 14 hour days–both contain more than 50% of your daily sodium needs. Every serving of Hamburger Helper: 41%.
And don’t think having a “healthy” fruit-based dessert is a better choice than indulging in a piece of double chocolate cake– a serving of Banquet Peach Bake gets you 23% of your day’s salt. You can’t taste it either. Don’t believe me? Consider this: a quarter pounder with cheese from McDonalds contains five-times more salt, than a medium fry.
As I mentioned earlier, I overhauled my diet to cut down on high sodium food shortly after doing research about water retention (something I was concerned about while training for my first marathon). In addition, in my research I found that too much salt leads to blood pressure elevation and blood pressure elevation can take its toll in terms of heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease. It is a scientific fact that cutting your salt intake can significantly lower your risk of high blood pressure– and that’s a cheaper cure than drugs.
There are some people who are salt-resistant. These lucky few can pretty much eat all the salt they want and are unaffected by the sodium. I don’t happen to be one of them. Rather, I started to cut down by first ditching the saltshaker. Then I started looking for reduced sodium products at the grocery store