Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Go easy on salt

Most of us end up consuming more salt than required

Cheese contains salt

Salt as a killer is a uniquely modern phenomenon. Societies that use salt sparingly have no hypertension. And even animals get hypertension when fed high-salt diets. Controlling salt intake is one the primary measures for preventing and treating hypertension. Current recommendations allow no more than 2400 mg of dietary sodium per day and around 6000 mg of common salt. Salt is all around us, and even the most health conscious person ends up consuming more salt than necessary or safe. But how does this happen?

The modern processed-food industry revolves around salt. And every time you buy a pack of processed something, you are probably buying salt in quantities the manufacturer is too shy to mention on the label. Biscuits contain salt, so do bread, cheese, pickles, cured meat, dried fish, jams, tomato ketchup, pizzas, samosas and, virtually, every other Indian snack.

And sodium chloride isn't the only source of dietary sodium. Even foods that do not contain common salt often contain baking soda, which is another rich source of sodium. This way, even sweet-baked foods have appreciable amounts of sodium. Some soft drinks contain sodium citrate. With all this salt stashed away in foods, maintaining a limit on how much we consume is not easy. But limits are necessary because our health depends on it. Avoiding processed foods, along with limiting salt at the table, is the most logical way to limit dietary sodium. But it is not always practical. A more practical approach is to increase intake of low salt foods and to keep a tab on the salt on the food labels.

Eat fruits and vegetables in plenty - the potassium in these foods counteracts the effect of sodium. Avoid fatty foods as these invariably depend on high amounts of salt for their edge. If you are cooking processed foods, add a sliced potato to the pot, which will leach out some of the excess sodium in the dish. Eat regular meals as much as possible because even small snacks contain a hefty chunk of the day's sodium intake.

RAJIV. M

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail