Salt content in foods

celticbhoy27

Apologies if this has already been spoken about (I'm sure it has). Had my bp checked recently and it was on the high side. TBH wasn't a huge surprise. I love savoury foods and would put salt on everything. Anyway after my bp reading I made a conscious decision to reduce my salt intake. 6g of salt is the rda. Looking at the packaging of foods has been an eye opener. It's criminal how much salt is put into foods. One slice of brown bread (lidl version) contains over 1gram. Packet of Chile con Carne mix from Knorr - just under 8grams(thats just the bloody mix before you add the meat etc). While everyone counts calories in things salt seems to be going unnoticed in our diets??

FoodC

That's why people should eat the most natural food prepared by themselves.
What I mean
- fresh veggies and fruits - not packaged, not canned.
- homemade wholewheat bread
- homemade salads
- eggs/meat/fish from small known farm
- if someone wants to eat ham- you can do this by yourself- just buy meat, marinate it and then you can bake it. Sliced meat is exactly as ham.
- boiled at home groats
- legumes from a good source
etc etc

Here is a good article about eating the most natural food - slow food- food pleasure

celticbhoy27

celticbhoy27 wrote: »

Apologies if this has already been spoken about (I'm sure it has). Had my bp checked recently and it was on the high side. TBH wasn't a huge surprise. I love savoury foods and would put salt on everything. Anyway after my bp reading I made a conscious decision to reduce my salt intake. 6g of salt is the rda. Looking at the packaging of foods has been an eye opener. It's criminal how much salt is put into foods. One slice of brown bread (lidl version) contains over 1gram. Packet of Chile con Carne mix from Knorr - just under 8grams(thats just the bloody mix before you add the meat etc). While everyone counts calories in things salt seems to be going unnoticed in our diets??

I generally avoid shop bought sauces for all my cooking, not for the salt content but for various reasons like sugar content as well as sustainability.

I suggest you start making sauces from scratch so you know what goes into them.

I made a stir fry last night with a spicy sauce from scratch. Instead of a blue dragon sauce costing a euro this cost half that and was absolutely delicious.

bladespin

Sodium content has long been a thing but now scientists are starting to wonder if it's as harmful as we think, Sugar would be much more our enemy IMO.

Large bottle small glass

OP your crap diet is the problem not the salt.

If you eat properly it is difficult to have too much salt in your diet.

https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2014/05/13/salt-is-good-for-you/

celticbhoy27

Large bottle small glass wrote: »

OP your crap diet is the problem not the salt.

If you eat properly it is difficult to have too much salt in your diet.

https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2014/05/13/salt-is-good-for-you/

Cheers for the link and the passive aggressive way of putting it across. I certainly wouldn't call my diet crap nor have I alluded to such. I'm conscious of what I put in my body. Don't smoke, rarely take a drink or have fast food and run 10-15km 4 or 5 times a week. I'll reduce my salt intake and monitor my BP. Once again cheers for the link it's an interesting read

_Brian

Learn to cook your own foods from ingredients.

Your first example of bread is an easy one. We bake bread maybe 3-4 times a week with nothing more than a pinch of salt per loaf. Both adults working and two kids at school so it’s not like we have masses of time.

It’s a mindset change for sure but the food will taste better, by more nutritious and better for your health.

We never ever have salt on the table for meals, nothing needs salt to eat it. You should easily be able to wean yourself off it.

Large bottle small glass

celticbhoy27 wrote: »

Cheers for the link and the passive aggressive way of putting it across. I certainly wouldn't call my diet crap nor have I alluded to such. I'm conscious of what I put in my body. Don't smoke, rarely take a drink or have fast food and run 10-15km 4 or 5 times a week. I'll reduce my salt intake and monitor my BP. Once again cheers for the link it's an interesting read

"Looking at the packaging of foods has been an eye opener"

I was blunt.

If you are eating properly, other than dairy products, bacon etc there should be very little packaging being opened which contains salt.

Reaching for salt as the go to reason for high BP isn't wise. How are stress levels, body fat, sleep, mental health, adequate sun exposure etc etc. Do you purposely get calm every day?

Eat clean, use nice salt and enjoy your food

https://sigmanutrition.com/saltscience/

celticbhoy27

Large bottle small glass wrote: »

"Looking at the packaging of foods has been an eye opener"

I was blunt.

You came across as a bit of a blunt alright :-D

_Brian

_Brian wrote: »

Learn to cook your own foods from ingredients.

Your first example of bread is an easy one. We bake bread maybe 3-4 times a week with nothing more than a pinch of salt per loaf. Both adults working and two kids at school so it’s not like we have masses of time.

It’s a mindset change for sure but the food will taste better, by more nutritious and better for your health.

We never ever have salt on the table for meals, nothing needs salt to eat it. You should easily be able to wean yourself off it.

When I first started cooking for my ex I'd ask her how is it, she'd say it's nice but not salty. About the only thing she ate that wasn't salty was chocolate. Guess which of us was diagnosed with high blood pressure.

Over the years she adjusted.

Funnily enough I went through a stage of terrible night cramps and after reviewing my diet the doctor said I wasn't taking in enough salt. Like everything theres a happy medium, but when all your food needs to taste salty, there's a problem lurking.

c.p.w.g.w

There was a meta analysis done recently and it found you only increased your risk of cardiovascular disease if you consumed more than 5g of sodium which is actually 12.5g of salt.

It's also important to remember sodium, potassium & magnesium play a very important role in regulating of the nervous system and circular system too.

Too little magnesium or potassium may actually be the cause of high blood pressure not salt