DIET AND FITNESS:
How Much Is Too Much Salt?
(Reduce Salt to Lower Your Blood Pressure)
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September 30, 2007, last updated February 16, 2012
By Susan M. Callahan, Health Editor and Featured Columnist
In our health conscious world, we often hear that we need to
lower our salt intake. Too much salt ---sodium-- increases your
risk of developing high blood pressure. This is in turn increases
your risk of heart disease and stroke. Doctors often recommend
to patients exhibiting the first signs of so-called, pre-high blood
pressure syndrome, or pre-hypertensive syndrome, to limit their
salt intake to as little as possible.
But how low should you go? What is the daily recommended
stopping point?
It depends on whom you ask. The American Heart Association,
caps our daily salt intake at 1500 milligrams(1.5 grams). This
new salt limit, announced on January 11, 2010 by the American
Heart Association, cuts the previous limit of 2200 milligrams by
over 30%. Others, such as The University of Connecticut’s
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, caps the limit at 3
grams.
To give you an idea of how much 1.5 to 3 grams is, a teaspoon
holds about 4 grams of salt (4000 milligrams). That's twice as
much salt as you should eat every day. So, aim for 1/2 a
teaspoon -- or less.
Most Americans consume between 6 and 18 grams of salt each
day. That’s between 3 and 7 times more than the recommended
limits.
What’s a gram? Pick up any food --- say a can of Diet Sprite --
and you will find that the salt intake is not listed in “grams” but in
“mg”, ---milligrams. To convert mgs to grams, multiply by 1000.
A 11.27 ounce can of Diet Sprite Zero contains 35 mgs of salt.
Since you would need to consume 1000 mgs to equal 1 gram, if
you consume the can of Sprite, you would have 2265 mgs left to
“spend” in the day’s salt budget.
It’s easy to go over your daily salt budget. The body really only
needs about 200 mgs of salt per day. Yet, as we've seen, a single
teaspoon of salt contains 4000 mgs. Processed foods often
contain massive amounts of salt. A single tablespoon of soy
sauce, added often to Chinese take-out food, has 1,030 mgs of
sodium.
So, you may be asking "how much salt is in my food"?
The only way to be sure what you’re ingesting is to read, read,
read the labels. Here is a list of milligrams of sodium found in
common foods (See an expanded list):
Learn more about the connection between foods and conditions
such as high bood pressure, diabetes, arthritis and more: Foods
That Reduce Blood Pressure /Ideal Breakfast for Diabetics /Ideal
Breakfast to Fight Arthritis / Foods That Actually Lower Blood
Sugar / Ideal Breakfast for Heart Health / Ideal Breakfast for
Alzheimer's / Ideal Breakfast to Prevent Stroke / Top 10 Foods
That Fight Depression / FoodsThat Shrink Your Waist /
Why Your Waist Size Matters / Normal Waist Size / / Sugar-The
Disease Connection / Ideal Weight for Women / How to Lose
Weight After Menopause/ Why Fast Walkers Live Longer -New
Study
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