Low sodium diet - mds.CulinaryMedicine.org

A Low Sodium Diet

We eat too much salt. Simple but true. As a culture today, the developed world consumes a tremendous amount of sodium. It’s not just in the U.S., but the United Kingdom has had a campaign for about three years to convince people to reduce the amount of salt they consume. Most Asian diets are high in sodium as well, with almost every sauce, from soy sauce to fish sauce to hoisin, having added salt.

As a population it’s a major issue for policy makers to get folks to cut back from over 10,400 milligrams (mg) (that’s 10.4 grams) of sodium per day (about 4 1/2 teaspoons of salt) for men (7.3 grams, or ~1 tablespoon, for women) to the more reasonable 2400 mg. Tough to do, because there’s so much salt in the processed foods that Americans eat. A report by the Council on Science and Public Health estimates that such a lowering of salt intake might save 150,000 lives each year.

Questions About Sodium

Three Steps to a Low Sodium Diet

Step One Take the processed food out of your life. If you want Mac and Cheese, make Mac and Cheese. Cooking your own fresh food from scratch takes a little more time, but it tastes so much better and it’s so much better for you. If you’re used to frozen or…