Sling the salt

Ted_Hutchinson

Salt: the Forgotten Killer"
Sources of Sodium"

How Far Should Salt Intake Be Reduced?
But there are others who think 1.5g should be the target.
Hypertension: Less Salt, More Potassium
6 Tips For Cutting Back On Salt

What are some alternatives to salt?: answer

Pritikin Hypertension: Symptoms, Treatment a wide variety of primitive people who consumed diets with little or no added salt and whose blood pressure did not rise from the results of aging. They included Eskimos, the Masai of Africa, New Guinea Highlanders, and African Bushman. Among these populations, hypertension was virtually unknown.


How much salt (sodium) should I cut out of my diet?

The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, the scientific organization that sets the nation’s standards for recommended levels of nutrients, advises that adult Americans limit their consumption of sodium to 1,200 to 1,500 mg a day, depending on age. People aged 19 to 50 should consume 1,500 mg or less of sodium a day; those 51 to 70, 1,300 mg or less; and those over 70, 1,200 mg or less.
Landmark research by the National Institutes of Health compared the DASH diet with varying levels of sodium (3,300, 2,400, and 1,500mg a day) and found that the biggest reductions in blood pressure for everyone – people with hypertension as well as those with blood pressure readings as low as 120/80 – occurred in those individuals on the 1,500 mg-a-day diet.

oldandhappy

Pure Rock Salt or Pure Sea Salt has great health benefits if you care to study the difference. What is known often as Table Salt is the problem here and most people think therefore salt is a problem in general. Mrs. H

Elliesmum

It took me a while but now I do not add any salt to my food except for chips - which we have once in a blue moon. Stopped cooking with salt years ago, but I still added it to my food. Now I don't and I have got used to food without salt!

Sarahsaver

We never had much salt as kids anyway, and now I would find most things too salty if they are processed. I spent a month as a patient on a stroke unit, where they tell you 'cut out salt' yet you are served with salty food, and they even brought sachets of salt on the trolley with the dinners:eek:
What annoys me is if people salt their food without tasting it first. It's their health, their choice but if it's MY cooking I want it to be appreciated. We do not have salt on the table at home.

taplady

My DH has heart disease - 2 heart attacks and byepass surgery at 44! so we have to watch the salt we eat. I never put it in vegetables or cooking and havent missed it at all. As I cook from scratch mostly at least i know whats in it.
At work I have an issue with other staff as we have to do a certain amount of cooking for the people we care for. I never put salt in the veg but found out that other staff were adding it behind my back!:mad: just cant get it across to them how dangerous it is.Its up to them if they want to eat it but they shouldnt inflict it on others - me and our service users! The trouble is they cant "taste" real food without tons of salt in it.
I dont need loads of seasonings because I can taste the real flavour of the food!

dolly_day_dream

Wow this thread is just what I need right now. I am signed off of work because when I went for a pre-op check last week my blood pressure was way too high for them to operate:eek: I had no idea there was anything wrong and it came as a real shock. Right now I am trying to rest:rolleyes: and am taking the medication (4 tablets a day!) to try and get back to a level where the doc will let me back to work. As a vegan I don't buy in processed foods (very little available). I cook my own pulses and freeze them so no added salt there. I have previously added salt to my rice, pasta and boiled veg:o This week has been very hard getting used to the different taste. I know I will get there in the end. Like you say I used to have sugar in my tea and I cannot bear it now. As my meals generally consist of fresh veg with pulses or nuts is there anywhere else that salt might be lurking cos I would like to use my allowance on chips once a week

soba

I also have raised blood pressure, and need to cut down on my salt, which to an extent I've managed to do. However, I can't stand boiled pots with no salt in. Other veg is fine but not potatoes. Why is that?

recovering_spendaholic

I find that I have to put some salt into boiled potatoes, but I love Jacket potatoes just natural - I don't know why.. I have high blood pressure, controlled with medication, and try and watch my salt intake and not add salt to any food, but I am sort of doing a slimming world diet at the moment and have been buying lots of cooked meats - Wow! Tesco have now started putting the amount of salt per slice on their cooked meats and I am amazed.. I love their roast beef and was astonished to see that it has 0.7g of salt in one slice!! I regularly have a few slices as a snack. Their cooked chicken and ham has 0.6g in a slice and I can easily eat 4 - 6 slices with a salad. My oven is broken at the moment and new one is on order, so as soon as it arrives I will be cooking my own meat to use as cold meats and doing without until then!

Having said that, my Mum was a salt fiend - she used to put salt on her bread and butter if you used lurpak as she said it wasn't salty enough! She also ladled it into and onto her food and was like a little bird and actually had low blood pressure....

LizEstelle

oldandhappy wrote:

Pure Rock Salt or Pure Sea Salt has great health benefits if you care to study the difference. What is known often as Table Salt is the problem here and most people think therefore salt is a problem in general. Mrs. H

Sorry but this is one where the manufacturers have put one over on you. As I understand it, all of the 'fancy salts' contain virtually the same amount of NaCl. You can imagine things are more 'natural' or 'pure' if you want - but the chemical composition is what counts.

To Dr Fluffy I say: I understand there are mysteries attached to salt intake at the individual level but the case is statistically overwhelming on a national/global basis. The explosion of hypertension levels in the adult population appears to be down to one matter and one matter only - the steady, relentless, day-in day-out absorption by the system of excessive sodium through processed food.

Clearly, the salt producers have been going round to the food formulators saying that they've just sold a teensy bit more to the makers of Brand X and that all the punters are gonna get hooked on Brand X unless they too put more in. A nice, upping the ante, vicious circle.

To those who've said that they find it hard to cut back (e.g. on spuds) I say: it really IS only a matter of time before you get used to it. If you find it difficult, keep it as low as you can and definitely swith to a low-sodium alternative like Lo-Salt.

vizcacha

I spent ages phasing salt out of my diet only to then be told by the doc that because I have low blood pressure (something I found out recently) I need to eat more than I am!

There are defintely times I crave it but I thought that was just coz I got used to it!

I don't know - it's hard to know what's good for you nowadays....