Give a gift to yourself–cut back on the salt
(myrtlebeachonline.com) “In general, eating less salt is a good idea. The average American consumes about 1.5 teaspoons of salt, or 3,400 milligrams (mg) of sodium, every day. That’s a lot more than we actually need. But it turns out that salt affects people differently. How salt affects your blood pressure and health depends on your genes, your age and your medical conditions.
The white crystals we know as salt are made of sodium chloride, and it’s the sodium that causes most of the problems. Some people are very sensitive to sodium. Their blood pressure rises and falls as a direct result of how much salt they get. Others don’t seem to be affected at all. Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy test to determine who is salt-sensitive.
Hundreds of studies have looked at the connections between salt intake and blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. Overall, they show that cutting back on salt lowers blood pressure and reduces the chances of having a heart attack or stroke.
Some of the best evidence that eating less salt can lower blood pressure comes from the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension trials. The first DASH trial showed that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, whole grains, beans, nuts, fish and poultry lowered blood pressure, both in people with normal and high blood pressures. A follow-up trial compared a DASH diet with a control diet that was much like the average American diet. Each test diet also had three levels of sodium: high sodium, at 3,500 mg of sodium a day; moderate sodium, 2,300 mg; and low sodium, 1,100 mg.” (more…)
