Newswise — Do you think you’re doing
enough to reduce sodium in your diet by not adding extra dashes from
the salt shaker to your dinner plate?
That will help, but it’s not
nearly enough, say a doctor and dietitian from the University of
Michigan Health System. The bigger problem, they say, is that salt
hides in a range of foods – including soup, cereal, frozen dinners
and canned vegetables – and the result can be higher blood pressure
in people with hypertension (high blood pressure).
“When you look across whole
populations, societies where people don’t eat much salt have lower
blood pressures than places where people eat a lot of salt,” says
Lee Green, M.D., MPH, associate professor of family medicine at the
U-M Medical School. “Salt convinces your body that your blood
pressure ought to be higher.”
Hypertension affects more than 50
million Americans, Green says, and is the number one disease issue
that primary care physicians see in their patients.
“Because hypertension is an
enormous contributor to strokes, heart failure and heart attacks,
that makes controlling it a great problem for patients and for
physicians,” Green says.
Many people would be surprised to
learn about the amount of salt in some pre-packaged foods, says Lynn
Glazewski, R.D., MPH, a dietitian with the U-M Health System. Some
types of healthy-seeming breakfast cereals, such as some varieties
of raisin bran, have more than 350 milligrams of sodium per cup.
Dietary guidelines say that people should consume no more than 2,400
milligrams a day.
Canned soup can have almost 1,000
milligrams of salt per one-cup serving, which is less than the
amount people often eat as a serving. Even some low-sodium soups
have about half that amount, which is still substantial, Glazewski
says. Some specialty soups have just 140 milligrams per cup, she
notes.
“If you don’t have time to make
homemade soup, it’s worth your while to check the labels of all the
products available to you and make the wisest choice,” she says.
When you’re searching for
vegetables, the best idea is to go to the produce section of the
grocery store, rather than the canned-food aisle, Glazewski says.
Many canned vegetables contain 300-400 milligrams of sodium for a
half-cup serving, she says, while fresh vegetables contain close to
zero.
For those who think of rice as a
healthy, wholesome food – well, it is, but only the natural kinds of
rice. Many popular packaged rice dishes include flavor packets, an
addition that can boost the sodium levels to about 750 milligrams.
Other big sources of sodium
include salad dressings, which can have 500 milligrams or more of
sodium, and prepared frozen meals, which can contain more than half
the recommended allotment of sodium in a single serving. Glazewski
suggests making your own dressing with oil and vinegar and looking
for lower-sodium frozen meals.
One thing to watch out for,
ironically, is the low-calorie section of the frozen food aisle, she
says. “If you’re going to choose a light product, you have to be
aware that some of the products that are lower in saturated fat and
lower in calories may have just as much sodium or more than a
comparable higher-fat, higher-calorie product,” Glazewski says.
In short, she says, look at the
label and learn to be a smart consumer. And both Green and Glazewski
note that looking at the label isn’t always possible, such as when
you’re dining at a restaurant.
“Restaurant food is quite heavily
salted, much more so than people realize,” Green says. “We need to
start insisting that restaurants tell us how much salt is in food,
and we need to insist that food be labeled so we can tell how much
we’re getting.”
Facts about hypertension and
sodium:
• Hypertension – or high blood
pressure – is a reading of 140/90 or higher.
• About one-third of American adults have high blood pressure.
• Tips for reducing salt in your diet include cutting back on
processed foods, looking for the lower-sodium versions of frozen
dinners and canned soups, adding herbs and spices to dishes instead
of salt, reducing intake of salty crackers and snack foods, and
eating fresh foods.
• Choose steamed or grilled dishes at restaurants; avoid soups,
stir-fry dishes, and foods with salty dressings or dipping sauces.
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