Simply Salt

Advice from the Mayo Clinic website:

Healthy adults need only between 1,500 and 2,400 milligrams (mg) of sodium a day. However, most Americans consume more than double that amount - due in large part to a heavy diet of processed foods.

To reduce sodium in your diet:

• Eat fewer processed foods such as potato chips, frozen dinners and cured meats.

• Choose foods labeled "low sodium" or "reduced sodium."

• Don't add salt to your food. Instead, use herbs and spices to flavor foods.

• Eat more unprocessed, fresh foods, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, lean meats, poultry, fish and unprocessed grains.

he first episode of Star Trek aired was the one about the salt sucking monster that uses a pleasing form to lure its victims into its sucker-death-grip. Figuring out how to gage the amount of sodium in the food you eat is a little like foiling that sci-fi salt-monster -- it may not look salty, but it probably is.

Last March while visiting my health service provider due to a nasty cold it was noted that my blood pressure was on the high side -- about 135/90. Blood pressure had never been an issue for me before, usually coming in at about 120/70 -- so this was unusual. Because I had been taking cold medicine I was asked to come back in a week.

Granted, I was in the midst of a major lifestyle shift with my return to college for the first time in may years. Being back in school, and approaching midterms, was not conducive to keeping blood pressure low. I waited a week. My cold was better, I hadn't been taking any medications and my blood pressure was even higher--! 140/93!

Yikes. Over the next bunch of weeks it climbed even higher -- topping off at 145/94.

Too high.

That's when I started educating myself about what to do about it. The first step was to reduce my sodium intake. Duh. (that's also when I decided to create this lens to organize the links that I was finding and to share what I was discovering).

It turns out that for the first several weeks of trying to reduce sodium, I was doing a lot of the wrong things.

Because I was a student on a meal-plan I had to reevaluate what I was eating in the cafeteria. This proved more than a little tricky. Things that I was eating everyday like beans or soup were loaded with sodium. So were the cold-cuts and cheese I was eating on my sandwiches -- not to mention the bread!

One of the things that saved my butt was picking up the Pocket Guide to Low Sodium Foods. It has lots of practical advice as well as extensive listings for many brand name foods.

One of the things I learned was that low-fat often means higher-sodium. The makers of food have to get that flavor from somewhere, and it seems that it's one or the other (or a lot of times both) when it comes to fat/sodium content in processed foods.

Sweet things (in general) contain less sodium.

Avoid bread, bread crumbs, tomato-based sauces, and chinese food.

If you're eating a sandwich use one piece of bread instead of two. If you're getting fish and chips get batter rather than bread crumbs (and leave some of the batter in the basket). Order salad instead of soup and dress it with oil and balsamic vinegar for some snap.

Choose organic options. They are often lower in sodium. Organic blue-corn chips and organic salsa can hit the snack spot when you're looking for a slightly salty snacky crunch. Also, peach or mango salsa is a pretty low sodium option and can be used as a condiment to replace ketchup.

Pay attention to serving sizes. They are your friend.

Eat plenty of fruit.

They do make no salt pickles, bread, and peanut butter, but they're not always easy to find.

Dark chocolate is very low in sodium. Some dark chocolates have no sodium. Again, watch the serving size.

I love cheese, but cheese is crazy salty. Not all cheeses are created equally saltily. Brie is a lower sodium option.

Soy yogurt has a lot less sodium than regular yogurt -- and regular yogurt has less sodium than low fat.

These are some of the things that I've learned over these 8 months. Shopping takes longer because I am reading every label of every item that goes into my cart. Sodium varies greatly from brand to brand and item to item. Be sure to check what's available.

The bottom line is that now my blood pressure is about 115/70. Reading labels, eating lots of fruit, and paying attention to portion size has kept my salt-monster at bay. Where's your salt-monster lurking?