Salt and High Blood Pressure

Overview

If you have high blood pressure, your doctor may have told you to “watch the salt.” In essence, this means to eat less salt. For some people, it could mean eating a lot less commercially processed foods, which tend to be high in sodium.

Recommended Intake

According to the US Government, American adults should consume 2300 milligrams of sodium daily. That is equivalent to roughly one teaspoon of salt. People with high blood pressure are generally advised to keep their sodium intake even lower, to about 1500 milligrams. But it is easy to consume a lot more sodium and not even know it. That is because salt and other sodium containing products are widely used in cooking and preserving food.

Dining Out
Fast food places and other restaurants are notorious for the high levels of sodium in most of the foods they serve. That makes it very difficult to control your salt intake when dining out. Thus, your best bet is to prepare your own meals and snacks from scratch.

Shopping 

You will need to read the labels on packaged foods to be sure that you are not getting too much sodium. The ingredients list will list salt along with any other sodium-containing compound in the food. 

The Nutrition Panel is more specific. It tells how much sodium is in each serving of the food and shows the Daily Value (DV) for specific nutrients - in this case, sodium, This DV is given as a percent of the total recommended intake.

Tracking Your Intake

You can keep track of your total sodium intake by paying attention to the milligrams of sodium per serving or to the percentage shown per serving. If the package contains 4 servings, you will need to multiply the percent sodium per person by 4 to get the total percentage of the DV you will be getting if you eat the entire package. The same goes for calculating the total milligrams of sodium. A good rule of thumb is to avoid foods that contain more than 5 to 7 percent of the DV per serving.

Other Related Health Issues

There are many other things besides sodium that may cause you to develop high blood pressure, including obesity, stress, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain prescription drugs. Unfortunately, not everyone will have success by merely cutting back on the salt. If non-drug strategies do not work, you doctor is likely to put you on prescription drugs.  

Summary

If you have high blood pressure, pay attention to what you eat. Keeping your salt intake to about 1500 milligrams of sodium per day might help, particularly if you are salt-sensitive. For others, 2300 milligrams of sodium should be adequate.

Reduce Your Blood Pressure with A Low-Salt Diet

Overview
Eating too much salt, or more specifically sodium, can lead to high blood pressure and other serious health problems. For this reason, health experts recommend that adults in the US limit the amount of sodium they consume to about 2300 milligrams. But that's easier said than done, since much of the foods that Americans eat are highly processed and contain large amounts of salt.

3 Good Reasons to Limit Your Salt Intake

1. Prevent high blood pressure
2. Reduce your risk of having a stroke or other cardiovascular event
3. Avoid costly prescription drugs and the potential side effects that these drugs may have

How to Reduce Your Salt Intake
Prepare meals from scratch. When you prepare your own meals, you get to control just how much salt goes in and therefore, how much salt you consume.

Read food labels. Many commercially processed foods have large amounts of added in order to preserve the food. You can learn more about what's in the foods you buy by reading the label. Avoid foods that contain large amounts of sodium. A good cut-off point would be 7 percent of daily value for sodium per serving.

Eat out less frequently. When you eat out, you have little or no control over how much salt goes into the foods you eat. So, your best bet is to cut back on how often you eat out and be selective when you do.

Try the DASH diet. A number of studies show that the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet is a safe and effective way to reduce blood pressure, without prescription drugs. This diet focuses on reducing the intake of foods that are high in sodium and encourages consumption of a diet that is rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, fish, nuts and seeds.

Try the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet is also a healthy alternative to the standard, high-sodium American diet.

Summary
If you have high blood pressure, you might want to consider cutting back on the amount of salt you consume daily. The DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet are smart alternatives to the high salt.high sodium diet that most Americans consume.

Note: Always consult your doctor and a registered dietitian when making major changes to your diet in the face of any chronic disease that might require prescription drugs.