Sodium always tends to get a bad rap in people's diets. Too much sodium in the diet can lead to increased blood pressure and even long term cardiovascular problems. The American Heart Association suggests that every person consumes less than 1,500 mg of sodium per day. However, most people exceed that amount in just one meal. Processed foods, canned soups, and fast food always seem to be the culprits with an excessive amount of sodium in them. Now there's another food item to watch out for,
bread. Bread is the number one source of sodium in Americans' diets today. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even said that people get two times as much sodium from bread and rolls as they do from other snacks, like potato chips. Most people consume around 3,266 mg of sodium a day, which amounts to almost two teaspoons of salt.
Since it is impossible to fully take sodium out of your diet, some ways to reduce the amount of sodium you consume is to:
- One way to skip the bread in your meal is to substitute lettuce for the bun on your hamburger or on your sandwich.
- Cook meals at home so you can control the amount of salt that goes into your meal.
- Learn how to read the nutrition label. Some items that say they are low-fat or fat-free may be packed with sodium.
- Indulge on salty treats once or twice a week instead of everyday.
These tips and tricks are easy fixes to the large amount of sodium that you could be eating. Not only will lowering the amount of sodium in your diet help you feel better, it will also reduce you chances of heart attack or stroke in the future.
This is a huge issue for me and my family. I have a very strong family history of cardiovascular disease and hypertension, which makes it that much more important for me to avoid excess sodium. I’ve noticed also that the less processed foods I consume and the less fast food intake will lower my sodium intake drastically. It’s hard though, being a college student and not having the time to cook elaborate healthy meals at home. I tend to lean towards the fast alternative which is usually some processed meal of some kinds. I loved the alternatives you listed, I will definitely have to try those out.
ReplyDeleteI recently downloaded a sodium tracker application on my phone. I don't use it every single day, but after using the program just a few times I was able to realize how over consumption of sodium is VERY easy to do. There are tons of food items that average consumers would not believe are high in sodium because they may not taste " salty " . I think that many people would benefit from such applications in tracking sodium if they knew the related dangers, and how abundant sodium is in a variety of food items.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked how much sodium I was consuming. I actually got the idea to download a sodium tracker for Amanda. So it was cool that we both commented on this particular post, But after that app and also tracking my diet on another app. I was so shocked at what I was consuming, and I really felt overwhelmed by that. I really liked the great tips you gave, it helped ease my overwhelmed feeling.
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