Reducing Sodium For Better Health
Reducing sodium in our diets is a simple way to dramatically improve your health.
When I talk to the patients of my San Diego Chiropractic clinic about excess sodium in their diets I often get responses like “I never add salt to my food”. As a side note, I often ask to check my patients’ blood pressure and hear a retort similar to “my blood pressure is perfect – I take blood pressure medication”. The reason that I give these two examples is because they are related to each other.
Most of the sodium that we get is already in the food that we eat. Sodium is added to foods as a preservative, it accentuates the sweetness of cakes and cookies, it helps disguise metallic or chemical aftertastes in soft drinks and it helps reduces the perceived dryness in snack foods such as crackers and pretzels. Of course all of this sodium causes high blood pressure.
Estimates indicate that upwards of 70% of the sodium in American diets come from processed foods. Processed foods exist because they are convenient and sometimes for safety reasons. Below is a partial list of processed foods that are or can be harmful to your health and cause elevations in blood pressure.
- canned foods with large amounts of sodium, trans-fats or fat
- breads and pastas made with refined white flour instead of whole grains
- packaged snack foods such as chips and candies
- frozen fish sticks and frozen dinners are high in sodium
- packaged cakes, cookies and other sweets
- boxed meal mixes
- sugary breakfast cereals
- processed meats
The label below is from a processed food package. It is important to note the amount of sodium per serving as well as the number of servings per can. In this example, one serving contains 440mg of sodium which is already a bit high – but if you eat the entire contents of the container you will be taking in over 1600mg of sodium which is entirely too much in one meal to be compatible with normal blood pressure.
The point is this – in order to reduce your sodium intake and subsequently your blood pressure, you have to substitute processed foods for fresh, organic foods. While the preparation of your new meals will be a little more complex than opening a can or peeling the top off of a TV dinner, the health rewards will be well worth your efforts.
When you do eat processed foods, make sure that they have less than 400 mg sodium per serving and of course don’t add table salt to any of your meals. This sodium lowering strategy will lower your blood pressure and make you healthier.
Sincerely,
Dr. Steve Jones
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(619) 280-0554
