Taking Salt In Your Food

by Dr. Harold Gunatillake

Do you know how much of salt you consume daily in your food, including from sauces, salad dressings, pickles, cheeses and restaurant food among others? There is much salt in your processed foods, canned soups canned tomato sauce, deli meats, smoked fish and dry fish, lunu miris and seeni sambol and all that. Some individuals further add more table salt at the dining table, quite a common habit we see. Do you know that one cup of self-rising wheat flour has heaps of sodium as baking soda and salt? This means that all baked goods you eat; including bread, pasta has lot of hidden salt.

Your body needs salt for your muscles, tissues, nerves and circulatory system. Sodium helps to sustain your blood pressure, blood volume and required in the body fluids-intra-and extra cellular to maintain electrolyte balance.

Your body needs only 1,500 mg per day and that is less than a teaspoon of salt.Most of us get more than 3,500 mg of sodium in salt per day- about one and a half teaspoons of salt. To limit your salt requirement, easiest way is to eat more home-cooked meals Why should you restrict your salt intake? The commonest cause of high blood pressure in a community is caused by eating too much of salt innocently without knowing the consequences. Your blood gets thicker, increases in volume within the arteries, and the heart has to pump with more effort to distribute oxygenated blood to the body. The dangers of having high blood pressure are stroke, kidney problems, heart failure and heart attacks. Remember that high blood pressure has no symptoms till late stages and it is called a silent killer-not wrong.

Salt have an impact on your brain function. According to a 2011 Canadian Study on 1,200 more sedentary adults, those taking a high sodium diets had a higher chance of cognitive decline such as perceiving, knowing or remembering than those who took less salt in their daily food.

Those individuals who participate in physical activity sweat out more salt and they could be exempted from salt restrictions.

Some say sea salt and kosher salt have less sodium chloride, and that is not true though there texture and taste may vary. Table salt and kosher salts are obtained from rock salt, whilst sea salt is obtained by evaporating seawater. Himalayan salt is a rock salt found in the Punjab region of Pakistan. Chemically it is similar to table salt.

Look at the nutritional facts labels and check the amount of salt in the product before you consider.

You need to add more lemon, balsamic vinegar and spice up your food when reducing salt in your food to maintain a favourable flavour.