Avoid Foods With High Salt Content
Before you sink your teeth into a freshly baked pizza with extra
cheese, think twice: The delicious pizza contains plenty of salt that could
harm your heart!
There is no doubt
that salt adds to the taste of food. Unfortunately, high salt intake is related
to heart disease. Salt increases blood pressure and therefore the work of the
heart.
A survey found that
the daily salt intake in the United
States is much more than is currently
recommended. Current guidelines permit a maximum sodium consumption of 2.3 g
among normal people and 1.5 g inpatients at a high risk for heart disease like
African Americans, people with high blood pressure, diabetes or kidney disease.
Which foods are high
in salt content? The survey found that almost half the salt intake was from
foods like bread, cold cuts and cured meats, pizza, poultry, soups, sandwiches,
cheese, pasta mixed dishes, meat mixed dishes, and savorysnacks.
The problem of
high-salt containing food is not onlyrestricted to the United States.
The same foods are now commonly available inthe Indian market. Most of them are
ready-to-eat, thus providing a temptingalternative to cooking. Awareness should
be created among the general public tocontrol the intake of these foods and
stick to the healthy Indian diet beforeit is too late.
One way to control
the salt intake would thus be toimplement guidelines for food manufacturers and
restaurants to reduce the saltcontent of their foods. The impact of reducing
salt in these foods could behuge; it could prevent a large number of deaths due
to heart disease and resultin huge savings in healthcare-related
expenditure.
Another way to reduce
the intake of these high-saltcontaining foods is to educate the general public.
People should also be taughtto check food labels and select foods that contain
low sodium.
Control your salt
intake and you have less chancesof suffering from heart disease.
Reference:
1. http:www.theheart.org/article/1354981.do