I begin by admitting how much I love salt. At one point in my life, I was even salting pizza. But the things you can get away with when you are young, you find out you CANNOT really get away with after all!
In this country, we definitely try to get away with eating lots of salt. An average daily salt intake in the United States is 3400 mg. There is a lot of debate as to how harmful excessive salt really is. There is a possibility that the sodium/potassium ratio of your diet may be more important than your sodium intake. Overall, however, there is a general consensus that Americans eat too much salt (or sodium, the main ingredient in table salt) And there is also general consensus that there is a relationship between salt intake and high blood pressure.
Once you develop high blood pressure, limiting sodium intake is important. But even before that, it makes sense that limiting sodium helps limit the amount of fluid in your body, and therefore the amount of work your heart has to do to pump that fluid and the amount of work your kidneys have to do to filter that fluid.
So limiting sodium intake is part of eating healthy. Doing that in America, however, can have its challenges. You could move to another country….but according to The Washington Post, people consume too much salt in 181 out of 187 countries. If you do decide to move in order to restrict your salt intake, it appears you should head to Kenya, Cameroon, or Gabon. And hey, its warm too! I may consider this further………….
So what to do? Again, the answer seems to be to cut out processed food. If it is in a can or jar or box, and is processed in any way, it likely has too much sodium. Deli meats are especially bad. Hot dogs (are they really a food?) should really be a rare treat. Restaurant meals also have a lot of hidden sodium.
