How Much Salt is Too Much?

In this day and age, you’re probably well aware that you’re supposed to be mindful of how much salt you’re eating. But as it turns out, being truly aware of your salt intake takes much more effort than simply removing the saltshaker from your dinner table. The average American consumes two to three times as much salt as she or he should on a daily basis, and only 15% of that comes from the saltshaker. About 10% occurs naturally in foods, and a whopping 75% is put there by the food industry.
That’s why it’s important for consumers to know exactly what they’re getting themselves into each time they pop open a can of soup or sit down at a restaurant. Excessive salt intake leads to high blood pressure, and high blood pressure, which leads to cardiovascular disease, is both silent and deadly.

In all fairness, we do need some salt, usually referred to as sodium on food labels, to survive. Sodium performs several important functions in the body. First, it helps maintain body fluid concentration levels, since water is drawn to sodium. Second, it is essential for normal electrical conduction along our nerve pathways. And third, it assists in the bodies’ uptake of nutrients. All of this can be done with about half a gram of sodium a day.

The food industry adds salt to everything from breakfast cereals to cheeses. Why? Because we consumers have developed a taste for it. We tend to buy foods that are high in sodium and shun those that are not. Other reasons on top of this include the fact that salt is a relatively inexpensive additive, it has some preservative qualities, it adds texture to the food, and it covers up a few bad tastes that are byproducts of food processing itself.

Understanding the connection between sodium, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease is key. To put it simply, high blood pressure causes cardiovascular disease, and cardiovascular disease leads to heart attack or stroke.
But considering how common salt is in our food supply, that’s a tall order. Currently, the Food and Drug Administration’s “Generally Recognized as Safe” status on salt allows it to be added without controls and oversight to our food. That’s why in June 2006, the American Medical Association urged the FDA to revoke the status and begin regulating salt as a food additive. Of course, that would not be an inconsequential battle for the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, whose budget has been cut nearly in half over the past four years from $47 million to $25 million. If the recommendation were adopted, packaged-food companies would not only be required to stick to certain sodium levels for various categories of food, but also speed up the search for an alternative to salt as a preservative and flavor enhancer.
To give credit where credit is due, some food manufacturers are trying, and we, the consumers, are not exactly co-operating. For example, ConAgra’s versions of low sodium Healthy Choice chicken noodle soup and low sodium Hamburger Helper went down in defeat.
So what can we do to take more control of our own sodium intake? First, read the labels. Total intake per day of sodium should not exceed 2.3 grams, except for African Americans and the elderly, who should only consume 1.5 grams a day. Any food with a half a gram or more in a portion is probably worth avoiding. Second, watch the restaurants. A single meal often contains 4 grams of sodium. And think twice about that free bread on the table – it’s one of the worst offenders.2 Third, remove the salt shaker from your table at home. Why add insult to injury? Fourth, accept a little pain. Studies show we like the taste of salt and weaning ourselves off it will be noticeable at first. But studies also show that adjusting to the change happens quickly and cravings disappear rapidly. Making the small sacrifice is well worth it. Cutting your sodium intake in half can drop your blood pressure 5 points, and that decreases your risk of death from heart disease by 9% and from stroke by 14%.