Find Out The Truth About The Connection Between Salt And High Blood Pressure

By Author: Donald Saunders
Total Articles: 84
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Do not allow yourself to be caught out as a result of a failure to understand the link between sodium and high blood pressure.

Salt is an extremely valuable element in our diet and has been used for many thousands of years as a preservative and to add taste to our food. Indeed, in spite of the fact that most people in the West take it for granted, in a significant number of countries it is a major economic commodity and many readers will probably remember the important part played by salt in bringing British rule in India to and end in the middle of the twentieth century.

Unfortunately however salt is also a major factor when we look at the problem of high blood pressure.

Salt is a compound composed of chloride and sodium and when it comes to high blood pressure it is the quantity of sodium we consume that must be watched.

Initially it could seem that controlling your intake of salt is just a matter of limiting the quantity of salt which you put into food when cooking and which you put on your food at the table. But, the true problem lies in the fact that most of the sodium in our diet is found in ...
... the processed foods which most of us buy and consume every day.

So as to ensure that you minimize your risk of high blood pressure you must keep your intake of sodium under the government's recommended daily consumption figure of 2,400 milligrams and here are a few tips to help you do just that:

� Do not put salt on the|Remove salt from your} table. If you are eating a properly balanced diet your food will contain sufficient salt without any requirement to add more while eating, so simply remove the salt from your table.

� Learn to read food labels when shopping. Food labeling laws and most foods now carry nutritional information which includes the quantity of sodium which the food in question contains. You will have to read the label very carefully as sometime the sodium figure shown will apply to the whole of the pack or tin and occasionally it will only apply to an individual serving.

� Select low sodium of sodiumfree products. A growing number of foods nowadays come in low sodium or sodium free options and, where you can, you should buy these over the regular product.

� Choose low salt snacks. Most of us like to snack but you should try to stick to things such as vegetables and fruit and, if you cannot live without crisps, then eat varieties which are low in sodium or salt free.}