I used to have a love-hate relationship with salt: I loved to sprinkle salt on pretty much everything I ate and my wife daughter and hated me for it. Although I need to clarify that I really don’t sprinkle salt on my food anymore because my significant others (see above) keep salt away from the dinner table. In fact I’m not even sure we have salt in our home. Which is fine with me because I was getting kind of tired of my daughter hitting me over the knuckles with a spoon every time I reached for the salt-shaker.
This gets me to thinking that (a) I never really knew how much salt – if any – I should have using on my food and (b) I was blissfully unaware about my sodium intake. According to the2011 International Food Information Council (IFIC) Sodium Survey, I am not the only person with similar salt issues.
Salty Statistics
I guess I’m not the only one out there who’s not worth his salt (pardon the pun). But you can’t argue with the statistics: a startling 59 percent of Americans say they’re not concerned with their sodium intake, and a whopping 70 percent of Americans don’t know how much sodium they need each day.
According to a study by the International Food Information Council, the2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans pretty much spelled out how much sodium an individual needs in his/her diet. I accomplished quite a bit in 2010, but unfortunately, reading the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans was not part of my agenda. Which makes me wonder not so much about the validity of the DGA but the method in which that information is disseminated to the general population.
For the record
According to the Mayo Clinic (mayoclinic.com) your body does need some sodium to function properly because it helps maintain the right balance of fluids in your body, aids in transmitting nerve impulses and influences the contraction and relaxation of muscles. Ok, but having said that the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams a day – that equates to a simple “pinch” of salt. And that’s not even accurate because my idea and your idea of what constitutes a “pinch may be world’s apart. What’s more important though, is how much salt we get in everything we eat and prepare. If you measure how much sodium is in everything we ingest throughout the day or how much sale we toss into the pot while cooking we’d quickly find that we easily exceed 2300 mg of sodium a day.
And for the record, the older we get the less salt we should consume. (only 1,500 mg if you’re age 51 or older), or if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease.
More Interest in Sugar than Salt?
When it comes to sodium awareness, according to the IFIC, consumers just aren’t that interested in learning about how much salt they need in their diets. Conversely, nearly 50 percent of consumers felt sugar and calorie intake were more important in terms of what makes for a healthy diet. I guess that counts for something, but when you consider that four-in-10 Americans believe the taste and/or quality of their meals will suffer due to the absence of salt it just makes you wonder.
A Healthy Diet
A lot of factors go into what makes for a healthy diet. On a positive note, most individuals understand that more veggies and fruit are good things and salt and sugar are bad. But getting the general population to translate those sentiments into sounds habits for daily living is apparently easier said than done.