Megan Murphy: Trimming the salt is tough but necessary, even for those who think they aren’t at risk Health For Him

Posted on February - 08 - 2011

Megan Murphy: Trimming the salt is tough but necessary, even for those who think they aren’t at risk

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A change is coming to your taste buds.

America’s seemingly insatiable taste for salty foods has got to stop. At least, that’s the message sent last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture when it unveiled the 2010 Dietary Guidelines.

The previous Dietary Guidelines, the 2005 version, recommended that Americans curtail their sodium to under 2,300 milligrams daily. Although they did suggest that certain groups take in lower than that amount, the recommendation wasn’t so specific.

While the 2010 guidelines still recommend 2,300 milligrams of sodium for many Americans, this version specifically states that Americans who are 51 and older, of African-American descent or who have diabetes, high blood pressure or chronic kidney disease should take in less than 1,500 milligrams per day. According to the USDA, together these groups account for about half of the United States population.

The average American currently consumes 3,400 milligrams of sodium daily, significantly more than the old recommendations. And this number is an average for the entire population.

Looking at the data sorted by age and gender, findings show that many subgroups of the American population consume considerably higher amounts of sodium. Men ages 30-39 consume the most sodium, averaging about 4,600 milligrams per day. The USDA estimates that fewer than 15 percent of Americans meet the current guidelines of 2,300 milligrams or less. None of the data for any age group, male or female, show consumption less than 1,500 milligrams. It’s not even close.

Sodium is an essential mineral in human bodies. It helps with muscle contractions, nerve transmissions and maintenance of acid-base balance. But our bodies need only about 500 milligrams a day.

Multitudes of studies have been done showing a relationship between increasing sodium in the diet and elevations of blood pressure in the body. While sodium is not the only reason

blood pressure goes up, and while some people’s blood pressure does not seem to be affected at all by high dietary sodium, the data from these scientific investigations shows again and again, that rising sodium in the diet often leads to rising blood pressure in the body.

This is particularly true among the specific groups targeted by the USDA in these recommendations. Large studies among all groups of people show that even in the lower-risk groups of the population, even in those without any blood pressure problems, lowering sodium in the diet can lower blood pressure readings. And keeping blood pressure in the lower-normal range can decrease risk of chronic heart problems, stroke and kidney disease.

But knowing why you need to lower sodium, or understanding that you should lower sodium in the diet doesn’t automatically make it happen.

Wilmetta Neely, clinical dietitian at Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto notes that the first thing her patients ask her when she talks to them about lowering sodium is: “What can I use that tastes like salt?” Neely suggests spice mixtures like Mrs. Dash, chili powder, oregano, pepper and splashes of lemon juice to help take the place of salt when preparing food at home.

But she also notes that Americans have gotten so accustomed to a salty flavor that we need to gradually cut back, using less and less over time, so that we can enjoy our food but begin taking in less sodium, too. It takes about two weeks of really working at cutting back on salt for our taste buds to adapt, Neely says.

But it’s not just the salt shaker that needs adjusting. Registered dietitian Leslie Schilling, owner of Schilling Nutrition Therapy in East Memphis notes that people who say they never salt their food and don’t have to worry about sodium intake need to beware. The largest amount of sodium in the American diet comes not from the salt shaker, but from processed foods.

Data from the 2005-06 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey back her up. The data shows that about 77 percent of our sodium comes from processed food in our diets.

Do you use ketchup or barbecue sauce? Condiments contribute 4.4 percent of the sodium in our diets. Pick up a frozen pizza or call for pizza delivery? Pizza contributes 6.3 percent of the sodium in our diets. If you use cold cuts for a turkey sandwich, note that cold cuts contribute 4.5 percent of the sodium in our diets, and yeast breads chip in 7.3 percent.

Schilling says one of the most important steps Americans can take to lower sodium intake is to consume less processed and convenience foods, and decrease meals eaten out or prepared commercially.

Planning is key, packing lunch the night before so you can grab and go the next day and not be tempted to hit the drive-through.

Maria Sun, registered dietitian and consultant with Guardian Community Living for intellectually disabled clients, does home visits and makes recommendations for her clients’ diets. She finds that a lot of people “don’t cook from scratch” anymore, and rely on canned goods. While often cheaper, canned foods are generally higher in sodium than fresh or frozen foods. Sun is now recommending that her clients use sodium-free canned vegetables, or switch to frozen.

Another option she suggests are dried peas and beans. While it is necessary to rehydrate them, making their preparation time longer, they are both cheap and very low in sodium.

Sun, who is also an assistant professor of nutrition at Southwest Tennessee Community College, recalls a student who followed a vegan diet in which she used a lot of frozen soy products and also ate out a lot. For a class assignment, Sun’s student kept a record of her food intake for three days, then figured her average intake of key nutrients using a computer-based program. She was shocked to find that she consumed thousands more milligrams of sodium than she needed.

By following a vegan diet, she assumed her food intake was healthful, but the processed foods were pushing her sodium intake far over safe limits.

As part of the dietary guideline recommendations, the USDA is pushing for food companies to reduce the sodium in the foods they produce. The report states “an immediate, deliberate reduction in the sodium content of foods in the marketplace is necessary to allow consumers to reduce sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams or 1,500 milligrams per day now.”

The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies concurs, recommending that efforts from both manufacturers and restaurant/food service operators to reduce sodium in processed foods and menu items should be voluntarily accelerated.

Organizations that rely on at least some public health dollars have been feeling some pressure about this for several years now. Registered dietitian Dianne Polly, vice president of compliance at Memphis’ MIFA, says their Meals on Wheels program has had to reduce the sodium of the meals prepared. It no longer includes salt as a condiment, and is preparing foods with less sodium. It also has dropped a lot of baked goods, since these include significant amounts of sodium, for example, serving a fresh apple instead of apple cobbler. Polly notes there were complaints at first that the meals didn’t taste as good, but as people’s taste buds adjusted, the complaints significantly decreased.

Companies are getting on the bandwagon already. Cheese-making company Sargento says it has invented a process to make cheese with 25 percent less sodium that doesn’t significantly change the taste or texture, which is sometimes a problem with lower-sodium foods.

Del Monte reports that by 2015, it will cut sodium by 20 percent across its entire line of vegetables, tomato and broth products. And Campbell’s has reformulated many of its popular varieties of soup to contain 25-45 percent less sodium.

There are other companies working on developing new ingredients that can take the place of sodium, still leaving a salty taste. Ajinomoto, a Japanese company that makes salt, MSG and other seasonings, says it has developed a new ingredient system that can reduce the sodium content in broths and snack seasonings by about one third with no difference in flavor.

Cutting the salt

The truth is, if Americans can move away from their reliance on convenience foods and get back to some basics, it will be much easier to lower the sodium in our diets.

Actually, some of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines address this. One of the guidelines states that half of our plate should be fruits and vegetables, and another that we should avoid oversized portions.

Portion size is key. Check out the labels of foods you buy and note the portion size referred to. For instance, look at a canned soup label and most of the time the portion size will be 1 cup. The can usually contains 2 cups. If you consume the entire can, or 2 servings, you are doubling the amount of sodium.

The Progresso Reduced Sodium Chicken Noodle label states the sodium content is 470 milligrams, which doesn’t sound too bad, but the serving size is 1 cup, or half the can. Consuming the whole can, as many people do, doubles the sodium to 940 milligrams, or almost two-thirds of the 1,500 milligrams recommended for many of us.

Keep higher-sodium processed foods as a small part of your diet, not the main part. Fill up on vegetables seasoned with spices or a little handful of chopped nuts. Add splashes of orange or lemon juice to vegetables and even meats to take the place of some of the saltier condiments you might normally use.

Try a squeeze of lime into a low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth-based soup to make up for the lower sodium content.

Eat half a sandwich that has lunch meat in it, instead of a whole one, and add a piece of fruit or two instead of chips. Cook a whole chicken or a turkey breast, pull the meat from the bones and use that in your sandwich instead of processed lunch meat.

Learn to appreciate the real taste of the food you are eating. At first it might be hard, but the more you practice, the better you will be at it.

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Posted on February - 08 - 2011