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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – With the release of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans which recommends no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day and no more 1,500 milligrams for those over age 51, salt is in the crosshairs. The American Heart Association (AHA) issued a call to action earlier this year for the public, health professionals, the food industry, and the government to intensify efforts to reduce the amount of sodium (salt) that Americans eat.
AHA wants us to aim for 1,500 milligrams a day or less. This will be a hard goal to reach as the average American currently eat 3,400 milligrams of sodium each day; men eat slightly more and women slightly less than this average.
Let’s back up a minute and sort our sodium from salt. Table salt is made up of 2 minerals — sodium and chloride. One teaspoon of salt – weighing about 6,200 milligrams – contains 2,400 milligrams of sodium and the rest is chloride. Removing the salt shaker from the table will reduce but a fraction of the sodium most of us eat daily. Close to 80% of our sodium intake comes primarily from restaurant and processed foods, and salt used in cooking. Salting at the table and in cooking accounts for only 10%, with the remainder coming from the naturally occurring sodium in foods.
Some experts feel even modest reductions in daily sodium intake will have significant public health benefits. In a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers reported that reducing salt intake by just a half teaspoon a day (which would lower sodium intake by 1,200 milligrams) could prevent 100,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths a year. The effect would be even more dramatic for African-Americans who are more likely to be salt sensitive and have high blood pressure.
How are sodium and high blood pressure connected? The sodium in body fluids causes the body to hold water and the heart has to pump harder to handle the extra fluid. Sodium also appears to stiffen arteries making them less flexible. Blood pressure goes up in order to move blood through these less flexible vessels. When salt intake is lowered the extra fluid is reduced and the arteries become less stiff.
About 50 million American have high blood pressure. People with normal blood pressure at age 55 have a 90% chance of developing high blood pressure as they get older. You are more likely to have high blood pressure if you are overweight or African-American.
Because high blood pressure is the biggest contributing factor for stroke, it is no surprise that salt intake and stroke have been linked. A research study done in England pointed out that when daily salt intake is cut the incidence of heart disease and stroke goes down. Increased blood pressure also causes kidney damage.
High salt intakes may play a role in the development of stomach cancer by allowing the growth of helicobacter pylori bacteria which causes peptic ulcers and gastritis. People who suffer from these conditions are 2 to 6 times more likely to develop gastric cancers. A Japanese study reported that salt may cause irritation and inflammation of the stomach lining which can set the stage for further problems.
Too much salt is also bad for your bones. Salt reduction can benefit women at risk for osteoporosis. Calcium loss from the body is accelerated when you eat a high salt diet. Eating less salt cuts down on calcium loss.
But, not everyone is convinced that salt is that bad. Humans have always eaten salt. Salting was the earliest method of food preservation, and without it billions of people would have starved or died from eating rotten meat. We do eat more salt than we should today, but the salt issue is not black and white. Unlike the public health campaign telling us to stop smoking, the optimal amount of salt is not zero.
Sodium is an essential mineral needed by the body to support life. It helps balance body water levels, transmits nerve impulses, helps with digestion and the absorption of potassium, and carries carbon dioxide to the lungs to be removed from the body. Our genes dictate how each of us reacts to sodium. Some people are very sensitive to higher intakes, others are not. Some medical experts believe that cutting smoking and losing weight would be more effective at preventing health risks than a population wide lowering of salt intake.
Only time and more research will tease out the right answers. In the meantime, modest sodium reduction is probably wise and at the least it will do no harm.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of the nutrition counter series for Pocket Books with 12 current titles and sales of more than 8.5 million books. The books are widely available at your local or on-line bookseller.
Current titles include:
The Diabetes Counter, 4th Ed., 2011
The Protein Counter, 3rd Ed., 2011
The Calorie Counter, 5th Ed., 2010
The Ultimate Carbohydrate Counter, 3rd Ed., 2010
The Complete Food Counter, 3rd ed., 2009
The Fat Counter, 7th ed., 2009
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter, 2008
The Cholesterol Counter, 7th Ed., 2008
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to TheNutritionExperts
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