{"id":6928,"date":"2009-03-30T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2009-03-30T13:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=6928"},"modified":"2009-03-27T14:44:22","modified_gmt":"2009-03-27T19:44:22","slug":"70-of-us-adults-eat-twice-as-much-salt-that-they-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/03\/70-of-us-adults-eat-twice-as-much-salt-that-they-need\/","title":{"rendered":"Majority of Adults Eat Twice the Salt They Need"},"content":{"rendered":"

WebMD wrote a very interesting article on its website discussing the problem our country has with consuming too much salt\/sodium in our diets. The Center of Disease Control found that 70 percent of Americans are consuming 2.3 times the healthy amount of salt on a daily basis.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Why is this bad?
\n<\/strong>A high sodium diet<\/a> is associated with high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke, which sadly can lead to death.<\/p>\n

How does this happen?<\/strong>
\nWhen you eat salt, your blood pressure increases.\u00a0 When you consistently consume high amounts of salt, your blood pressure remains high and dramatically increases your risk of stroke and heart disease<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The shocking news.<\/strong>
\nA major contributor to this increase in salt consumption is not due to sprinkling salt from the shaker (obviously this adds to it), but studies show that most salt from our diet is from processed and manufactured foods. Examples include tomato sauce, soups, condiments, canned foods, prepared mixes, etc. Other contributors of high-sodium chemicals in our diet<\/a> are baking soda, baking powder, and MSG (others on food labels\/ingredient list include disodium phosphate, sodium alginate, sodium benzoate, etc.).<\/p>\n

The American Heart Association<\/a> (AHA) recommends healthy American adults should eat less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day. This is about 1 teaspoon of sodium chloride (table salt). To illustrate, the following are sources of sodium in the diet.<\/p>\n