Move Over Sugar, Salt is a Bigger Health Threat for All

Source: CDC

According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about 90 percent of children ages 6 to 18 in the United States eat too much sodium daily.  All of us, young and old, should keep our sodium intake to under 2,300 milligrams (mg) daily with some of us benefiting with only a mere 1,500 mg a day.  Currently, both children and adults are consuming over 3,200 mg of sodium daily, on average.

In general, as the sodium increases in your diet so does your blood pressure.   Currently, one in six children has an elevated blood pressure, which could pave the way to full-fledged high blood pressure as they age.  Since chronic high blood pressure increases your risk for heart disease and stroke, our kiddies are salting their way to poor health. 

While we are born with an innate desire for sugar, our taste for salt is learned through diet exposure, especially starting at a young age.  In other words, if you grew up with a heavy salt diet, your taste buds will be trained to hunt for this salty flavor in your meals and snacks.

You may have been born with a sweet tooth but you developed a salt tooth over time.

The top ten sources of sodium in the diets of children are from fast foods and commercially prepared foods:

Note:  Many of these above food sources are the same sodium high rollers in adults� diets.

To lower the sodium in your diet, do some comparison shopping by using the Nutrition Fact Panel on the food label when at the grocery store.  For example, when you are buying crackers, seek out the brand that has the least amount of sodium per serving.  When at fast food restaurants, don�t supersize seasoned processed meats, poultry, and fried foods and order more naturally low sodium fresh fruits and veggies instead.  

The chart below shows you how to swap out high sodium foods with lower sodium alternatives when dining out and food shopping:

Be well, Joan

Twitter:  @JoanSalgeBlake