By Dr. Phil Heit

Recently, I spent two weeks on a cruise ship while vacationing through Eastern Europe. After a week and a half of sailing from one port to another, I decided to head down to the fitness room for some serious aerobic exercise on the treadmill.

Upon entering the room, I noticed a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure cuff) staring at me from its perch at the end of a table. Always curious about my health, I inserted my arm in the puffy round cuff and pressed the blue start button to initiate the big squeeze.

“Oh no,” I muttered to myself as I peered at the reading. How could my blood pressure climb to such heights when it was normal before my cruise? Within seconds of looking at the small digital screen, the light bulb in my head went off. All of the delicious foods I
had been eating for nearly two weeks were replete with salt. We all know that salt and high blood pressure go hand in hand – hence the impact on my blood pressure during the trip.

Salt: The New Fat

By now, you have been swamped with information about the harmful effects of
fat. But, concern about salt content in food also is beginning to flood the newspapers,
airwaves and Internet. Nutritionists recommend that we limit our sodium to less than
2,300 mg per day (about the amount in a teaspoon) – but it’s alarming to note that
most adults consume an average of 3,500 mg per day. Of even greater concern is that
African Americans, middle-aged, senior citizens and those with hypertension are
advised to cap their consumption of salt at 1,500 mg per day.

Certainly, salt and its relationship to coronary heart disease and stroke are compelling.
Research in a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that reducing salt intake by 3 grams per
day (1,200 mg less than normal) would have the same effect on your health as a 50
percent reduction in tobacco use. In addition, $10 to $24 billion would be saved in
annual health care costs.

The Politics of Salt

So what’s the best way to reduce salt intake? Should we just hide the salt shaker
at dinnertime? In reality, taking the salt shaker away does very little when it comes
to actually solving the problem. More than 75 percent of the salt consumed in the
United States is contained in processed foods and restaurant/fast foods. Since
processed and restaurant foods pose such a large problem, many are putting pressure on government and public health industries to make institutional changes from the top down. For example, the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency has instituted a labeling system in which low sodium foods are given a green colored label while high sodium foods will be labeled in red. They have also encouraged a voluntary collaboration between food manufacturers resulting in a 20-30 percent salt reduction in most processed foods.

In the United States, the U.S. Institute of Medicine has advised the FDA to set
stricter federal standards for the amount of salt that food manufacturers, restaurants
and food service companies can add to their products – a national effort to reduce
the amount of salt that’s added to foods before they’re sold.

Dr. Philip Heit is Professor Emeritus of Physical Activity and Educational Services at The Ohio State University.

Tips, Tricks and Myths

• Flavor your food with basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary and garlic instead of salt.
• Sea salt doesn’t offer any real health benefits over regular, iodized salt. Aside from a few trace minerals, they’re essentially the same thing.
• Consume fresh vegetables instead of canned or frozen.
• Almost all frozen dinners are high in sodium unless otherwise labeled.
• When shopping, read the labels on processed foods as high amounts of sodium are used as flavor enhancers.
• Limit consuming foods that have visible salt such as pretzels, nuts and potato chips.
• Rinsing canned foods before consumption will help lower the sodium level.
• Limit smoked or cured meats such as salami, bologna and ham.

Those confusing labels…

There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to labels. Here’s a quick glossary.
• Sodium free: Less than 5 mg of sodium per serving
• Unsalted/no salt added: No salt has been added
• Low sodium: Less than 140 mg in a portion
• Reduced sodium: Less than 25% of the total sodium than the original food item.
• Light in sodium: 50% less sodium than the original food item

Common Denominator

Doctors suggest that people keep their sodium intake between 1,500 and 2,300 mg per day. That means
the following foods contain nearly an entire day’s recommended salt allowance.
• Big Mac: 1,090 mg
• Bacon, Egg and Cheese Sandwich: 1,410 mg
• Fish Sandwich: 1,200 mg
• Sausage Biscuit Sandwich: 1,190 mg
• Taco Salad with Salsa: 2,250 mg
• Bean Burrito: 1,080 mg
• Original Recipe Chicken Breast: 1,116 mg
• Hot Wings (6 pieces): 7,380 mg