Islamabad, Sep 1 (Newswire): Table salt, kosher salt, sea salt, sel de gris, fine grained, course ground, rock salt, herbed salt, garlic salt—the varieties are endless.
Someone could open a salt store as big as a Starbucks and be able to fill all the shelves. We love salt and while it is essential to our bodies, overdosing on this popular flavor enhancer can be detrimental to our health, and there's the rub.
While you can find a salt shaker on every home and restaurant table, in almost every packaged product at the supermarket, and in 90 percent of recipes (desserts included), Americans tend to overconsume on the small white granules.
Salt helps to maintain the water content in blood, balances blood's acids and bases, and is essential for the movement of electrical charges in the nerves that move our muscles. But too much of a good thing can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease. In addition, a diet high in salt content is often associated with weight gain.
The National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association recommends a diet containing no more than 2.4 grams (approximately 1 teaspoon) of sodium per day.
On the average, American men consume 10.4 grams of salt, while American women average a salt intake of 7.3 grams daily. These numbers continue to rise, with 75 to 80 percent of all salt consumed coming from processed food.
The First Lady has spoken out about the need to limit salt in her campaign against obesity, and some manufacturers have gotten on the bandwagon, announcing cuts in sodium levels in their processed foods.
Kraft pledged a 10 percent reduction, which translates into the elimination of over 10 million pounds of salt in over 1,000 processed food items.
Additionally, a panel from the Institute of Medicine recommended that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) regulate the amount of sodium used in processed food, citing decades of recommendations that have not been heeded by the public.
Given the amount of processed food purchased in this country, the belief is that the best way to reduce salt consumption is by regulating the companies preparing the food.
Now the salt industry is pushing back. Cargill, one of the nation's largest producers of salt, has hired food luminary Alton Brown to stump for sodium.
The most recent ad, called Salt 101, has Brown trying to convince us that we need to have "plenty of salt in your kitchen at all times."
And while we do "need" it, we need it in lesser amounts than we are currently consuming and the food industry is loathe to lower or eliminate salt in its products, because of the flavor-enhancing capabilities.
The answer could just be in cooking your own fresh food rather than relying on packaged ingredients. Doing so would eliminate the overuse of sodium, and overall would be healthier for you.
Someone could open a salt store as big as a Starbucks and be able to fill all the shelves. We love salt and while it is essential to our bodies, overdosing on this popular flavor enhancer can be detrimental to our health, and there's the rub.
While you can find a salt shaker on every home and restaurant table, in almost every packaged product at the supermarket, and in 90 percent of recipes (desserts included), Americans tend to overconsume on the small white granules.
Salt helps to maintain the water content in blood, balances blood's acids and bases, and is essential for the movement of electrical charges in the nerves that move our muscles. But too much of a good thing can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease. In addition, a diet high in salt content is often associated with weight gain.
The National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association recommends a diet containing no more than 2.4 grams (approximately 1 teaspoon) of sodium per day.
On the average, American men consume 10.4 grams of salt, while American women average a salt intake of 7.3 grams daily. These numbers continue to rise, with 75 to 80 percent of all salt consumed coming from processed food.
The First Lady has spoken out about the need to limit salt in her campaign against obesity, and some manufacturers have gotten on the bandwagon, announcing cuts in sodium levels in their processed foods.
Kraft pledged a 10 percent reduction, which translates into the elimination of over 10 million pounds of salt in over 1,000 processed food items.
Additionally, a panel from the Institute of Medicine recommended that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) regulate the amount of sodium used in processed food, citing decades of recommendations that have not been heeded by the public.
Given the amount of processed food purchased in this country, the belief is that the best way to reduce salt consumption is by regulating the companies preparing the food.
Now the salt industry is pushing back. Cargill, one of the nation's largest producers of salt, has hired food luminary Alton Brown to stump for sodium.
The most recent ad, called Salt 101, has Brown trying to convince us that we need to have "plenty of salt in your kitchen at all times."
And while we do "need" it, we need it in lesser amounts than we are currently consuming and the food industry is loathe to lower or eliminate salt in its products, because of the flavor-enhancing capabilities.
The answer could just be in cooking your own fresh food rather than relying on packaged ingredients. Doing so would eliminate the overuse of sodium, and overall would be healthier for you.
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