Salt of the Earth

I love salt. It is a constant struggle between my husband and me. He, quite literally, guards the salt shaker. I am constantly hearing him say “How do you know it needs salt? You haven’t even tasted it yet!” And to that I simply respond, “It always needs more”. I am getting better. I am trying to set a good example for my kids. Then I read this article from Prevention Magazine. It is called Stealth Salt: Doctors now worry your sodium intake could be endangering your health--even if you don't use the shaker. It made me realize that my husband guarding the salt shaker might not be enough to keep my sodium intake where it should be. Following the article is a list of 16 surprising sodium sources that is also available on the Prevention website:


Your salad dressing has a dirty little secret. (Your bran muffin and ham sandwich are in on it, too.) These foods--and, indeed, nearly everything you might eat in a day--are loaded with a mineral that some experts fear may be slowly killing you. It's sodium, and even if you don't have high blood pressure, you need to start thinking about it.

We know what you're thinking: Yawn. Well, wake up. Our national "salt tooth" is so bad that the American Medical Association recently asked the FDA to remove sodium from its list of food additives generally recognized as safe.

That's right. Saccharin can stay, but sodium's got to go. Call it the physicians' preemptive strike. "There's no way to tell which chronic health problems will result after years and years of a high-salt diet," explains Stephen Havas, MD, vice president of science, quality, and public health for the AMA. "We'd rather people not be put at risk at all."

Problem is, the stuff is everywhere. It's crammed into cheese slices and canned vegetables and sprinkled into cinnamon-raisin bagels and sandwich bread. You can consume a day's worth of the mineral with an order of mu shu pork with rice from your local Chinese restaurant, according to an analysis by the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest, in Washington, DC. As much as 80% of the sodium we get every day comes from these processed and prepared foods--not the salt shaker.

It's true that the occasional sodium-filled microwave dinner or slice of double-cheese pizza is nothing to call the EMTs about, especially if you're generally healthy. But as the number of made-from-scratch, at-home meals we consume has dwindled, we've all unwittingly become sodium junkies.

The most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that healthy adults get no more than 2,300 mg of sodium a day, the amount in about a teaspoon of salt. (If you are over age 50, are African American, or already have high blood pressure, your limit should be 1,500 mg.) Still, most of us scarf down close to 4,000 mg by day's end, according to the latest government surveys.

16 High-Sodium Foods to Avoid
Canned vegetable soup(1 cup): 940 mg
Bloody Mary mix (8 oz): 840 mg
Pasta sauce (1⁄2 cup): 756 mg
Reduced-calorie Caesar dressing (2 tablespoons): 620 mg
Panera Cranberry- Walnut bagel (1): 590 mg
Vegetarian baked beans (1⁄2 cup): 550 mg
Pancake mix (two 4-inch pancakes): 477 mg
Pizza Hut Pan Pizza (1 slice from large cheese pizza): 470 mg
Starbucks bran muffi n (1): 470 mg
Cottage cheese (1⁄2 cup): 456 mg
Canned green beans (1⁄2 cup): 390 mg
Instant chocolate pudding (1⁄2 cup): 380 mg
Chocolate fudge cake mix (1⁄12 cake): 350 mg
American cheese singles (1): 250 mg
Hearty white bread (1 slice): 250 mg
Low-sodium vegetable juice (8 oz): 140 mg