Salt and the SAD (Standard American Diet)

How Much Salt Is Too Much?
Government guidelines call for healthy adults to get no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, which is the equivalent of about a teaspoon of table salt. People with high blood pressure, African-Americans, and middle-aged or older adults should get no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day.

Unfortunately, the average American eats much more than that, especially if they eat a lot of processed foods or if they eat out a lot, Consumer Reports Associate Health Editor Jamie Hirsh  says.  In fact, the average person in the U.S. consumes 3,500 milligrams of sodium a day!  That’s equivalent to almost 9 grams of salt, or nearly 2 teaspoonfuls—way more than the 2,300 milligrams per day suggested by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

But the majority of excess salt, or 77%, isn’t spooned into your food—it comes from processed foods.

The FDA recently announced a plan to gradually scale back on salt in processed foods, which may be the end of the line for super salty products.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for excess sodium and adjust your intake accordingly.

Salt Levels Much Higher Here
This shouldn't really be that surprising, but, fast food in Canada and the US contains much higher levels of sodium than in the United Kingdom and France.

McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets, for example, have two and a half times as much sodium—600 milligrams per serving—as their overseas counterparts! Since the 1960's too much dietary salt has been linked to high blood pressure and other adverse health conditions and yet we continue to increase food sources (processed foods) with high levels of dietary salt. 

Salt levels vary substantially in the fast foods sold by six major companies in various countries, according to a study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. As part of the study, researchers in Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the UK, and the US looked at salt data from more than 2,000 items offered by Domino’s Pizza, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Subway, and Burger King (known as Hungry Jack’s in Australia).  They found that the fast food chains in the United States and Canada had much higher levels than the same chains in other countries. 

Hidden Salt
Bread tops the list of salt sources in the American diet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Potato chips, pretzels, and popcorn— which we think of as the saltiest foods in our diet—are only number 10,” said CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD.

It isn’t that bread is saltier than snack foods, but that we eat a lot of it. The CDC says bread and rolls are responsible for about 7 percent of the salt in the average American diet. Next on the list are cold cuts and other cured meats, pizza, poultry, soups, fast food hamburgers and other sandwiches, cheese, spaghetti and other pasta dishes, meatloaf and other meat dishes, and snacks such as potato chips and pretzels.

Researchers from Consumer Reports analyzed 37 processed foods and identified some surprising sources of hidden sodium.

Among the least expected findings:

• A 1/2-cup serving of a low-fat cottage cheese had twice as much sodium (360 milligrams) as a 1-ounce serving of regular potato chips (180 milligrams).
• A Premium Caesar Salad with grilled chicken from McDonald's had more than twice the salt (890 milligrams) as a large order of McDonald's fries (350 milligrams). And that's without the dressing.
• A half-cup serving of Prego's Heart Smart Traditional Italian Sauce had 430 milligrams of sodium, slightly less than what the USDA allows per serving in foods labeled "healthy."
• Breakfast foods were an unexpected source of hidden salt. A popular whole-grain bagel had 440 milligrams of sodium, a best-selling pancake mix had 200 milligrams per pancake, and raisin-bran cereals had between 230 milligrams and 350 milligrams per cup serving. A maple and brown sugar-flavored instant oatmeal had more than three times as much sodium as its original flavored version.

"One of the big surprises is that foods that you would think would be really salty, like salted nuts, have less sodium than many processed or packaged foods that don't taste salty at all," said Consumer Reports Associate Health Editor Jamie Hirsh. "Restaurant foods are a huge source of sodium," she says. "The amount of salt in some of these foods would just blow your mind. I saw a single entree offered by a national chain restaurant that had over 5,000 milligrams of sodium. That doesn't mean you can't get low-salt meals at restaurants, but you have to work at it."

The investigation found that low-fat processed foods are often higher in salt than their full-fat counterparts.

"You have to read the labels, and those labels should be made as easy to understand as possible," she says.  For example, few people eat only a half a cup of pasta sauce during a meal, someone could easily consume 1,000 to 1,500 milligrams of sodium in a single sitting.

Shaking the Salt Habit
So what are some of the best ways to keep the salt in your family's diet at reasonable levels?

• Cook it yourself. It is much easier to control the salt in the foods your family eats if you cook it at home and replace some salt with spices and other flavorings like citrus juices and flavored vinegars. And use sodium-free broth as a base for homemade soups.
• Read the labels. When you purchase processed foods, compare products to find lower-sodium varieties. Some very similar products have very different sodium levels. For example, pure maple syrup has almost no sodium, but most commercial "pancake" syrups have a lot.
• Understand the claims. The federal government requires that products labeled "very low in sodium" have no more than 35 milligrams of sodium per serving, and "reduced sodium" products must have at least 25% less sodium per serving than the full-sodium version of the same food. A product labeled "healthy" can have no more than 480 milligrams of sodium per serving.
• Know the sodium heavyweights. Soy sauce has about 1,160 milligrams of sodium per tablespoon, and regular chicken bouillon has about 1,100 milligrams per packet, according to the report. Many frozen processed dinners are also loaded with sodium, as are cured meats, most cold cuts, and pickles and olives.

American Heart Association Chief Science Officer Rose Marie Robertson, MD, says most people who lower their salt intake quickly find that foods that previously tasted OK suddenly taste too salty.

"If you reduce the salt by even a modest amount, you will find that you are tasting the food more instead of the salt," she says. "This is a very simple thing that would be beneficial to most people. High blood pressure is an important risk factor for heart failure and stroke, and reducing salt is an easy way for salt-sensitive people to lower their risk."

"The food and beverage industry is committed to helping consumers meet the government's Dietary Guidelines recommendations -- including that for sodium," says Scott W. Openshaw, a spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers Association. "Many food companies have reformulated products or reduced the use of sodium in processed foods. Today consumers have available to them a broad range of foods containing no sodium or low sodium, or with no added salt. It is also important to note that food companies have been very successful at making incremental reductions in salt levels in food products over time that are silent to the consumer."

The bottom line with regard to processed foods is that the GMA (Grocery Manufacturers Association) will continue to produce foods that consumers will buy.  If we switch our purchases to healthier foods they will follow suit and produce more foods to meet that need.  It is truly up to us as consumers to buy foods that are better for us and speak with our wallets when demanding changes in the food industry. 

Sources:
“Salt Levels in Fast Food Vary Significantly Between Countries,” Canadian Medical Association Journal, 4/16/12

"CDC: Bread Beats Out Chips as Biggest Salt Source," Associated Press 2/7/12

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20081201/salt-lurks-in-unsuspected-foods?page=2