BODY LANGUAGE – By Mary Ann Carlson
In the last article I wrote, the emphasis was on needing a certain amount of salt in our bodies to prevent dehydration and muscle cramping. So what is a healthy amount of sodium?
The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, recommend less than 2,300 mg a day – or 1,500 mg if you are over 57, have high blood pressure, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease. The average American gets about 3,400 mg of sodium a day. So, the problem most of us have is not getting too little, it’s getting way too much.
Why is too much salt bad for us? Well, the kidneys naturally balance the amount of sodium stored in our bodies. When sodium levels are low, your kidneys hold on to the sodium. When sodium levels are high, your kidneys flush out the excess in urine.
If, for some reason, your kidneys can’t eliminate enough sodium, it starts to accumulate in your blood. Because sodium attracts and holds water, your blood volume increases. Increased blood volume makes your heart work harder to move more blood through your blood vessels, which puts more pressure on your arteries. If this continues over time, it can lead to heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and congestive heart failure.
More than half of Americans have either high blood pressure or hypertension, according to the president of the American Heart Association. The executive director for Science in the Public Interest states, “Salt is the single most harmful element in our food supply, silently killing about 100,000 people each year.” The biggest problem is that salt is a natural preservative. It has been used in our food to ensure food safety for centuries.
So what can we do about it? Become aware of what we are eating. It’s amazing to me how much salt there is in condiments, such as catsup, mustard and soy sauce. Soy sauce, for example, has about 1,000 mg of sodium.
Processed and prepared foods are the main contributors to a high salt diet. These include bread, prepared pasta, meat and egg dishes, pizza, cold cuts and bacon, cheese, soups and fast foods.
Some people may think using sea salt is a healthier choice but, actually, sea salt and table salt contain the same amount of sodium chloride. The difference is that sea salt is produced through the evaporation of seawater, leaving more trace elements which some believe make it taste batter. Table salt is mined from underground, is more heavily processed and contains iodine, an essential nutrient that is lacking in sea salt. Sea salt and table salt are mined differently so they contain different trace elements. As far as the amount of sodium chloride in each, they are the same.
As far as salt levels, we need to start reading labels and adjusting our eating habits to counter the bombardment of sodium in our diets. The easiest place to start is by not salting our food at meal-time. Just one teaspoon of table sat has 2,325 mg of sodium. (That’s your recommended total for all day, right there!) Cooking with more herbs and less salt can still keep our food flavorful without running the risk of health issues. Cooking more and eating out less can also help.
If we don’t take it upon ourselves to reduce the amount of sodium in our diets, who will? We can no longer afford to take this health issue “with a grain of salt.”
Mary Ann Carlson owns the Pilates Studio of Jacksonville and can be reached at 541-890-7703. Starting March 2, she is offering a New Beginning Pilates Class on Friday mornings. She also has an additional Beginnning/Intermediate Class on Fridays and Intermediate Class on Tuesdays.