Sodium Intake: Ways to Reduce It and Daily Intake
Sodium may have a bad reputation, but it is necessary for the healthy functioning of the body. This element, which is actually a metal, helps to regulate blood pressure, supports the nervous and muscular systems and also controls your body’s blood volume. Sodium is also an electrolyte that helps control the amount of water in your body. It’s not salt but is a component of table salt and other salts such as baking soda and sodium nitrate. However, if a person takes in too much sodium, many of their bodily systems can be thrown off. How much sodium per day should a person get?
How Much Sodium Is Too Much?
Health and diet experts claim that an average adult shouldn’t eat more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day. This is a little more than a third of a teaspoon. The same experts claim that people should aim for no more than 1500 mgs a day. Unfortunately, most American adults eat well over 3000 mgs of sodium every day. This can be deleterious to their health. Not only this, but you don’t have to keep reaching for your salt shaker to get too much sodium. Foods high in sodium tend to be prepackaged, processed or served up in fast food restaurants without any additional salt. This leads to people underestimating how much sodium they eat every day.
The Low Sodium Diet
Some people are put on a low sodium diet by their physician when they’re at risk of a health problem that’s caused by too much sodium. These conditions range from heart disease, hypertension and kidney disease. Too much sodium causes fluid retention, which stresses the heart and causes blood pressure to rise to unhealthy levels.
If you’re on a low sodium diet, you need to make sure that your sodium intake doesn’t rise above 2000 mgs per day. Foods with low sodium are often fresh foods, especially fruits and vegetables. They usually aren’t processed or have minimal processing. However, people on low sodium diets should still be mindful of foods that are higher in sodium but unprocessed. These include celery, salmon, Swiss chard, shrimp and scallops.
Another good practice is to simply remove the salt shaker from the dining table. You can cook with little or no salt and use herbs and spices to improve the flavor of your food. It’s also a good idea to read the labels of foods you buy in the supermarket, and choose those that are no or low sodium.
How to Reduce Sodium Intake
There are other ways to reduce sodium intake besides the practices mentioned above. If you’re worried that foods labeled low-sodium are tasteless, you can mix them with regular foods at first. You can also wash high sodium foods before cooking or eating them. Poultry is often injected with a saline, or saltwater solution, so people who want to reduce their sodium intake should choose birds that are unseasoned.
One last trick, meanwhile, is to enjoy foods that are high in potassium, another element needed by the body. Potassium actually counters too much sodium in the diet.
Looking for easy and simple ways to decrease your sodium intake? Try Foodie Fit’s Las Vegas meal prep delivery services. With countless healthy options that caters to every dietary restriction, your body (and taste buds) will thank you.
