To Reduce High Blood Pressure Cut Salt Intake
Posted on November 7, 2009
Filed Under Diet | Leave a Comment
If you have high blood pressure, then your doctor has probably told you that you need to cut back on salt. Your loved ones may even hide the salt shaker from you at dinner time! But skipping the salt shaker won’t do much good if you continue to eat a lot of processed food, or if you frequently eat out in restaurants. In fact, processed food accounts for more than 70 percent of the sodium in the typical American diet.
How Salt Affects Blood Pressure
Your body must maintain homeostasis – balance. When too much salt is eaten, the kidneys cannot process all of it, and the excess salt (sodium) ends up in the bloodstream. To balance out the salt, your body allows more water to enter your bloodstream. It is this extra water that increases your blood pressure (by adding to the volume of your blood).
Obscure Sources of Salt in the Diet
A study in the current issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion reports that 11.1 million fewer cases of high blood pressure would be prevented each year if Americans followed recommended levels of sodium intake. The maximum daily sodium recommendation is 2,300. However, the average American consumes 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day. If people could cut their sodium intake to recommended levels, health care costs would be reduced by as much as $18 billion.
Sodium is abundant in virtually all processed foods. Some foods with the highest sodium contents include soup, condiments, pickles, bacon, salsa, cheese, and cold cuts. Nearly all canned and processed foods have high sodium contents. Be sure to read labels if you’re trying to cut back on sodium. Even some “low sodium” foods have outrageous levels of sodium. Never trust marketing gimmicks on labels; always look at the facts.
Similarly, restaurant meals can have extremely high levels of salt. Sodium adds flavor and helps to preserve certain foods. Most restaurants use processed foods, and even those that use fresh ingredients may add an immoderate amount of salt to dishes. When you dine out, ask your server about low-sodium options. If your server seems puzzled by the question, ask to speak to the manager.
The optimal way to ward off too much sodium is to learn how to cook for yourself and avoid processed foods. Try to eat mostly whole or fresh foods – fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and fresh meat.
Note that sodium is not inherently unhealthy. Your body demands about 500 milligrams of salt each day to keep up healthy functioning – but it’s easy to get this by eating whole foods. Most people eat 10 times this! If you suffer from elevated blood pressure, you should try to hold your salt intake to about 1500 milligrams per day.
If you have elevated blood pressure, it’s equally important to lower your stress levels and exercise regularly. See these high blood pressure exercises to learn about simple exercises that will keep you in shape, lower stress levels, and reduce your blood pressure naturally. Be sure to talk to you doctor before starting any new exercise program – but don’t let this serve as an excuse to avoid exercise. If you make healthy choices, you can modify your blood pressure naturally.
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Blue Heron Health News specializes in natural health information guides. Our latest publication is a guide to lower blood pressure naturally. Visit the Uber Article Directory to get a totally unique version of this article for reprint.
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