To eat healthily it is necessary for us to know what our food contains. With the growth of processed foods and inclusion of cheap ingredients added to foods over the last couple of decades in order to improve taste and boost sales, you may well find that you are consuming a few things that you are unaware of. The most common mineral that is overconsumed in the diet is sodium aka salt. It is hidden in foods that we often think are healthy, meaning that these foods should not necessarily be avoided, but they should definately be reduced.
Too much salt in the diet causes blood pressure to rise, which in turn is a key factor in heart disease, stroke and related Cardiovascular diseases. It also causes dehydration and fluid retention.
Salt can be found in foods such as bacon, sausages, butter, processed meats, bread and tinned foods. Next time you pick up some sandwich meat or a loaf of bread check the label and you may be surprised. Listed as sodium on many foods, it is difficult for the lay person to calculate whether an identified food is high in salt.
To convert sodium to salt just multiply by 2.5. e.g 1g sodium = 2.5 grams of salt.
With the government recommending an upper intake of salt of 6g's per day (just a teaspoon), the average person can be consuming double this easily.
TIP : START TO READ YOUR LABELS
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