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Ye Old Sodium

By Frederick Corrigan

Put that salt shaker down!!!!

You’ve probably been in a restaurant and observed the people at a nearby table. Their waitress delivers their dinners, bids them “bon appetite” and before these folks pick up their forks, they grab the salt shaker and douse their food with salt.

What makes these people think that their food needs additional salt? Guess what, their food doesn’t need additional salt, this is just a bad habit.

Do we need Sodium, (SALT)?

YES, sodium is essential, if you want your body to function properly.

Sodium helps to maintain the right balance of fluids in our bodies.

Would you believe that sodium helps to transmit nerve impulses?

Sodium also influences the contraction and relaxation of muscles.

Our kidneys will regulate the amount of sodium that is kept in our bodies. The kidneys will conserve sodium when our sodium levels are low. Should you have a high level of sodium the kidneys will excrete the excess amount in urine.
Now, here is a possible problem with too much sodium.

If your kidneys can’t get rid of enough sodium, the excess sodium will start to accumulate in your blood. We know that sodium holds water, so now your blood volume will increase. This increase in your blood volume will make your heart work harder, which increases the pressure on your arteries. This can lead to high blood pressure, which puts you in danger of cardiovascular and kidney diseases.
Do you want either of these conditions to influence the rest of your life?

Let’s see what we can do to help ourselves and our families.

An adult should have between 1500 and 2400 milligrams (mg) of sodium a day. Naturally, the closer your stay to the 1500 mg, the better for your blood pressure.

Most medical reports indicate that we get about 12% of our sodium from natural sources. For example, drinking one cup of low-fat milk will give you about 107 mg of sodium.

Our greatest danger and the biggest culprit is the 77% of our sodium intake from prepared and processed foods.

Let’s take a look at some of these BAD FOODS!!!

Bob Evans Special Recipe Macaroni and Cheese: A one cup serving will give you 1220 mg of sodium and 330 calories.
Marie Callender’s Meat Lasagna: A one cup serving will give you 960 mg of sodium and 260 calories.

Chef Boyardee Mini Ravioli: They profess a whole serving of vegetables in every bowl. The label also reads that there are no preservatives and that Chef Boyardee is a wholesome, nutritious meal. A one cup serving will give you 950 mg of sodium and 250 calories. This begs the question, is one cup a wholesome meal?

Progresso Traditional Hearty Chicken and Rotini Soup: They feature 100 calories per serving, but they don’t highlight the 690 mg of sodium in a one cup serving.

Progresso High Fiber Hearty Vegetable and Noodles Soup: They feature 28% daily value of fiber and 90 calories. Once again, the one cup serving has 690 mg of sodium.

Bush’s Original Baked Beans Seasoned with Bacon and Brown Sugar: They feature 98% Fat Free and High Fiber. Now, we have a half-cup serving that will give you 140 calories and 550 mg of sodium. Is a half-cup serving a wholesome meal?

Now, you can’t have Beans without hot dogs!

Kayem Old Tyme Frankfurters with Natural Casings and made with Premium cuts of Beef and Pork. The serving size is one hot dog which will give you 160 calories and 490 mg of sodium. Soooo, Saturday night’s dinner of Hot Dogs and Beans will give you 600 calories and 2080 mg of sodium, if you have one cup of beans and 2 hot dogs. Are you full yet?

How about a nice Tuna Salad Sandwich on Arnold’s Multi Grain Sandwich Thins? There are 100 calories and 230mg of sodium in the two pieces of bread. The tuna fish will give you 60 calories and 140 mg of sodium. We need a little mayonnaise mixed into the tuna fish, so that’s 100 calories and 80mg of sodium. That brings the total calories to 260 and the total sodium to 450mg for our tuna salad sandwich.

Let’s have some spaghetti and pasta sauce. The Ragu Pasta Sauce has 70 calories and 480mg of sodium in one-half cup of sauce. The Prince Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat Blend Pasta has 210 calories and “NO” sodium. However, you’ll probably add salt to the water when you cook the pasta. One teaspoon of salt is 2,325mg of sodium.

Maybe we just need a little snack while we’re watching TV.

Let’s have some Reduced Fat Cheez-it Baked Snack Crackers. They have 40% less Fat than Regular Cheez-it Crackers. You will get 130 calories and 320mg of sodium, if you eat 29 crackers.

Maybe we want something a little sweet. How about a Kellogg’s Special K Fruit Crisps Strawberry Bar? This is 100 calories and 80mg of sodium for the two bar package.

You may not think that an Oat-Bran Bagel would taste salty. Taste alone may not reveal the sodium content. That bagel has 451mg of sodium.

We need to eat more fruits and vegetables, while consuming less process foods, including canned soups, luncheon meats, bacon and sausage to name a few.

The food processing companies are going to appeal to our senses. We are the one who need to take control of our sodium intake by reading the labels. Remember, this is where we get 77% of our sodium intake.

Most people increase their salt intake by 6% while using the salt shaker. Don’t pick it up!!

Lastly, we need to reduce our salt intake to improve the strain on our heart. We can learn to enjoy the taste of properly prepared food and not the need to taste salt. We can buy whole foods and cook them, rather than serving processed foods.

Try it!!! You just might live longer!!!

Contributor's Note

I'm not a Doctor, I just read labels so that I can be around to enjoy my wife, children and grandchildren.

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What an insight into American eating habits! Does everything have a brand name? Thank heavens we cook from fresh in the Mediterranean area.

The Spanish have recently been criticised for the amount of salt that they use in cooking but this can be balanced by the fact that few of them add salt to a meal - it is an insult to the cook.

Did you know that 'salt' is the root of 'salary' because the Roman Legions were paid in salt - hence - worth his salt

Yes, Arthur brand names are on all packaged foods. Thank you for visiting and for your informative comments.
Best wishes.
Frederick

Ah Frederick. You're right of course, but... My favorite snack food is buttered popcorn cooked in oil of course (especially at a movie theater) with lots of salt on it.

So long as you don't go to the movies more than once a month, you may continue this one bad habit. Drink lots of water!!! Grin!!
Thanks for your support, James.
Best wishes.
Frederick

Good ~ intel ~ I like to ocassionally rinse my digestive system with a sea salt solution ~ also helps to naturally boost energy.

JazLive Apr 2, 2010 13:51

Good ~ intel ~ I like to ocassionally rinse my digestive system with a sea salt solution ~ also helps to naturally boost energy. ~

Thank you for visiting and for your useful comments, Jan.
Best to you.
Frederick

Good intel Frederick, I haven't used a salt shaker for a number if years and don't eat very much prepared food, so maybe I'm short of sodium although I can't say I have noticed a problem because of that.

Thank you for supporting the regulation of salt usuage, Adrian. People need to get back to basic foods.
Best wishes.
Frederick

Helpful intel Frederick. Salt is also an important preserve for foods and has been so since around 2000 BC.

Thank you for stopping by and for your comments, Robert.
Best wishes.
Frederick

The amount of salt added to prepared foods differs from country to country. A few months ago, there was a news report saying that in Canada, the salt content in food was considerably higher than in the US. No reasons were given, except "Canadians like more salt." Since then, some companies, like the Campbell Soup Company for one, have voluntarily reduced the amount of salt in their foods. As for me, I cook most foods from scratch so I monitor my sodium intake as much as possible. Excellent intel.

The constant flow of information on the internet is hopefully helping people to make better food choices. Companies need to address these health issues.
Thank you for visiting and contributing to my intel.
Best wishes.
Frederick

I pretty good about this, there are only a few foods I tend to salt and they aren't ones I eat frequently. (an occasional "splurge") I try to avoid too much prepackaged stuff. Glad you pointed out that salt is necessary but we probably don't need to worry about getting enough!

Thank you for stopping by and for your kind comments, Christina.
Best wishes.
Frederick

Oh dear... Greek olives and Greek cheese, how I love the tartness and the salt! But it's good salt, right?! :)
Great, informative intel... thank you!

So long as we recognize our weakness,Diana, we can hopefully control them.
Thank you for visiting and you fine comments.
Best wishes.
Frederick

Fortunately, Frederick, my wife and I stopped putting salt into our food and always cook from raw ingredients, so we should be ok.
My wife does ,however, insist on a little salt and pepper on her hard boiled eggs.

Thank you for visiting and for your comments, Damien. We all need to have salt in our bodies and just recognize and control over use.
Best wishes.
Frederick

It is those ready cooked cheap dishes like Lasagna out of the Supermarket freezer which seem to be so dangerous and rich in bad salts.

I was just put on a diet without salt. I discovered that steamed fish with steamed potato pieces enhanced by fresh sweet Basil or Albahaca in Spanish is not a bad substitute for salt.

Thank you for visiting and for your comments, Gabriele.
One of the scary things, is that many parents feed mac and cheese and other processed dishes to their children. Granted, the kids love it, but they will pay later.
Best wishes.
Frederick

Since I don't salt my food, I was smug until your article mentioned Arnold’s Multi Grain Sandwich Thins. Then, I started looking at the labels of everything in the house.

Thank you for your visit and your comments, Marsha. I tried to touch a number of foods to make folks realize where our salt is coming from.
Best wishes.
Frederick

Thanks for the informative intel, Frederick. You are absolutely right about the excess salt in processed foods. I was shocked when I first found out that even hot chocolate drinks contain salt.

Isn't it amazing that all of a sudden, food manufacturers are talking about lowering the salt content by 20%. Guess what, that's not enough to make it healthy.
Thank you for your supportive comments,Elana.
Best wishes.
Frederick

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