Find Out How Salt Could Contribute to Your Early Death
The Dangers of Sodium
High blood pressure is responsible for countless deaths annually. Short of death, you could have a heart attack or kidney problems. And sodium is an ingredient of a high blood pressure diet as it is one of the major high blood pressure causes. So the purpose of this article is to help improve your understanding of food labels as they relate to sodium, the role sodium plays in your diet, and how to limit your sodium intake so you can minimize the health effects of high blood pressure.
Know the Contents of Your Food
A lot of the sodium that you, your friends, and family intake come from processed foods. To determine the sodium level in these foods, you might read the ingredients labels. Yet those labels are ofen indecipherable to the average person. You need a PhD to know what they mean. Well, here’s some advice – stay away from ingredients that have sodium in them. For instance, take disodium phosphate and monosodium glutamate (MSG). It’s obvious that it contains sodium. Miminize your use of such ingredients and foods.
In addition, the United States Food and Drug Administration, to help, created an interpretation guide for sodium in food. For example, “low sodium” equates to 140 milligrams or less of sodium per serving. Or, as another example, 5 milligrams or less of sodium per serving is “salt free” food. You’ll find the entire guide on the Internet. It’s helpful to bring it with you when food shopping for reference.
Further, highly processed foods often contain high levels of sodium, making them contributory to a high blood pressure diet. I can only imagine the thoughts going through your head now. You’re busy and have no time to cook. You rely on frozen dinners and canned goods to quickly whip something up for you and your family. But, to the chagrin of many, these foods can contain high levels of sodium.
The Infamous Salt Shaker – One of the More Prominent High Blood Pressure Causes
If you are like me, your first instinct, at dinner, is to grab the salt shaker. Making things worse, you might put your salt on items that already have sodium. So resist the “salt shaker” temptation. Perhaps you might even empty your salt shaker. Further, use natural herbs to add flavor to your food. Consider onions or thyme, for example. This may be a difficult task for some, but it needs to be done.
As you can see, sodium not only presents a high blood pressure health issue, but also is hard to avoid given our busy lives. If you look at your food labels, especially those of processed foods, you’ll start to see sodium everywhere. So remember to avoid ingredients with the word “sodium” in them as sodium can play a huge role in a high blood pressure diet. In addition, look to the FDA to assess sodium intake. Further, stay away from that salt shaker!
Continue your high blood pressure education and you could soon start lessening high blood pressure causes and feeling good about your health.
About the Author
You could save your life. Know your blood pressure numbers. Go to http://helpmybloodpressure.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-blood-pressure-numbers
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