Read the Ingredients

Unfortunately, given its prevalence, a good amount of the sodium you digest comes from processed foods. A good habit to develop, before buying such food, is to read the ingredients label. Unfortunately, those labels, with their multisyllabic words, seem like they aren?t written in English. You feel as if you need a chemistry degree to understand them. Well, to help, remember that foods that contain ingredients with the word ?sodium? in them can be bad news. For example, take disodium phosphate and monosodium glutamate (MSG). The word ?sodium? is visible. Miminize your use of such ingredients and foods.

Also, the US FDA , to aid people?s dietary choices, developed sodium guidelines. For example, ?low sodium? equates to 140 milligrams or less of sodium per serving. Or, as another example, 5 milligrams or less of sodium per serving is ?salt free? food. Google FDA sodium for the entire guide. If necessary, bring it with you to the grocery store to allow for quick and easy interpretation when you shop.

Further, highly processed foods often contain high levels of sodium, making them contributory to a high blood pressure diet. I can only imagine the thoughts going through your head now. You?re busy and have no time to cook. You rely on frozen dinners and canned goods to quickly whip something up for you and your family. Unfortunately, a good amount of these foods are laced with sodium.

The Infamous Salt Shaker ? One of the More Prominent High Blood Pressure Causes

Finally, like most people, you probably grab for the salt shaker at the center of your dining room table to add some quick flavor to your sometimes bland food. And, to compound the matter, you may be adding salt to processed food that already contains high levels of sodium. So resist the ?salt shaker? temptation. Perhaps you might even empty your salt shaker. Further, use natural herbs to add flavor to your food. Consider onions or thyme, for example. This may be hard to do, but it?s in your body?s best interest.

As you can see, sodium not only presents a high blood pressure health issue, but also is hard to avoid given our busy lives. If you look at your food labels, especially those of processed foods, you?ll start to see sodium everywhere. So remember to avoid ingredients with the word ?sodium? in them as sodium can play a huge role in a high blood pressure diet. Also, use the Food and Drug Administration guidelines to monitor your sodium use. And put down that salt shaker!

Take these small, proactive steps and you are on your way to eliminating some high blood pressure causes and earning better health.

Originally posted 2009-11-03 06:28:15. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Related posts:

1. Discover the Truth About the Connection Between Salt and High Blood Pressure
2. Hypertension Diet: A Simple Technique On How You Can Lower Blood Pressure And Achieve A Balanced Life
3. The Best High Blood Pressure Fruits And Vegetables Diet

Salt is a very important element in our diet and has been in use for many thousands of years as both a preservative and to give added taste to our food. Indeed, in spite of the fact that many people in the West take it for granted, in a significant number of countries it is a major economic commodity and many readers will no doubt remember the important role played by salt in bringing British rule in India to and end in the middle of the last century.

Unfortunately however salt can also be a major contributory factor when it comes to the problem of high blood pressure.

Salt is a compound composed of sodium and chloride and when we are considering high blood pressure it is the quantity of sodium we eat that needs to be watched.

Initially it may seem that controlling your salt intake is merely a question of monitoring the quantity of salt which you put into your food while you are cooking and which you add to your food at the table. But, the true problem rests in the fact that most of the salt in our diet is found in the processed foods which most of us purchase and eat every day.

To ensure that you minimize your risk of high blood pressure you should keep your intake of salt under the government’s recommended daily consumption figure of 2,400 milligrams and here are just a few tips to help you do just that:

? Do not put salt on the|Remove salt from your} table. As long as you are getting a properly balanced diet your food will contain enough salt without any need to add more while eating, so simply remove the salt from your table.

? Learn how to to read food labels. Food labeling laws and most foods now carry nutritional information including the quantity of sodium which the food in question contains. You need to read the label very carefully though as often the sodium figure shown will apply to the whole pack or tin and sometimes it will apply to a single serving.

? Buy sodium free or low sodium products. An increasing range of foods today come in sodium free or low sodium options and, where possible, you should choose these over the regular product.

? Purchase low salt snacks. The majority of us like to snack but try to stick to things such as vegetables and fruit and, if you cannot live without your crisps, purchase varieties which are low in sodium or salt free.}

Originally posted 2009-12-12 06:46:31. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Related posts:

1. High Blood Pressure And Salt Is It Essential
2. What if you Could Extend your Life With a High Blood Pressure Diet?
3. Diet to Reduce High Blood Pressure- a Natural Hypertension Treatment With No Medication

Sodium Chloride (the chemical name for Salt, the culinary cooking condiment not the International Treaty on Weapons limitation) is an essential element in the life of human beings. Most people think of Salt purely in terms of that little white food seasoning found in shakers on virtually very food table the world over.

Salt was of crucial importance in Ancient times as part of the economic transactions over slaves, hence the phrase Not worth his Salt. Wars have been fought over Salt supplies and certainly the capture of a national Salt supply has certainly played an important part in the nature of military campaigns.

Salt has inspired literature and many of the more semi philosophical sayings of today (To be taken with a pinch of salt, Salt of the Earth etc) come from a fascination with Salt.

References to salt can be found in one of the worlds oldest published reference books, the Chinese book The Peng-Tzao-Kan-Mu. For an ancient text and one that almost dates prehistory the book describes in almost eerie detail two processes of extracting salt that are very much in use still today.

The actual requirement for the average Western Adult male is surprisingly small at 250 mg of sodium yet we still seem so addicted with the substance that the average consumption is almost 700 percent greater. So it comes as no surprise that Salt as a single substance is not only vitally important to our well being but also as one single substance probably causes us more harm than any other single substance (along with sugar).

With an approach to the consumption of Salt that almost borders an epidemic in that our consumption far outstrips our need as we consume on average some 3500 mg per day. This is still more than 7 times the amount actually required and goes some way to emphasise our dependency on this white granular substance.

So if this substance tastes so good how can it actually be so bad for us? Well as the Chinese have said over the past 2500 years or so, too much Salt hardens the pulse i.e. it makes the arteries harden and this can lead to High Blood Pressure. The connection between excessive consumption of Salt and Hypertension has been well documented over the years and is as reliable as one could ever expect.

Does not everyone need to consume salt in order to survive? Salt is one of those substances that you could almost connect with virtually all of our external and internal bodily functions. With regards to our metabolism, Sodium helps assist the cells in our intestines in absorbing food and lastly, with sodium, the muscles in your body would not be able to contract and therefore we would not be able to move.

So the sad aspect to the whole subject is that it is very much a case of too much of a good thing will cause you harm.

It would appear that in this case the overall approach has got to be moderation in all things.

Originally posted 2009-12-17 06:50:02. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Related posts:

1. Discover the Truth About the Connection Between Salt and High Blood Pressure
2. High Blood Pressure, Why is There So Much Medicine?
3. What if you Could Extend your Life With a High Blood Pressure Diet?