Shake your salt habit tolower heart disease risk
Put down those pretzels! You can lower your risk of high blood
pressure, stroke, heart attack and kidney failure by decreasing
your salt intake. In fact, reducing dietary sodium by 25% to 30%
has been shown to cut your risk of developing heart disease and
stroke
by 25%.*
Follow recommended guidelines
The American Heart Association recommends that healthy
adults eat less than 2,300 milligrams (mg) of sodium – about
1 teaspoon of salt – a day.
Cutting down on salt isn't as distasteful as you might think. A study in which volunteers ate a low-, normal- or high-sodium diet (1,200 mg, 2,300 mg and 3,500 mg, respectively) found that the volunteers were willing to continue on the normal sodium diet, even after the study.**
To get started, Jaime David, M.D., a physician with Premier Healthcare, recommends cutting 50 mg a week – about the amount in a can of soda.
Eat fewer processed foods
Most of us eat more salt than we realize from salt-laden restaurant
meals and processed, prepackaged foods. An analysis by the
consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)
found that packaged roasted carved turkey can contain as much
as 5,410 mg of sodium per serving, and half of a pepperoni pizza
might contain as much as 1,350 mg.
Do you like eating out? Many restaurant dishes have more than one or two days' worth of salt, according to CSPI.
"When you eat out, always choose the option for grilled, broiled or steamed entrees and always trim the fat from meat or chicken," Dr. David says. "Also, ask for low-salt dishes and sauce or dressing on the side."
Read food labels
Read the label to check sodium content. Look for foods that list 5% or less
of the Daily Value for sodium on the Nutrition Facts panel. Use the following
guidelines to look for no- or low-sodium versions of your favorite foods:
Sodium Free = contains 5 mg or less of sodium per serving.
Very Low Sodium = contains 35 mg or less of sodium per serving.
Low Sodium = contains 140 mg or less of sodium per serving.
Reduced Sodium = Usual sodium content reduced by 25% (but can still be high in sodium).
No Added Salt, Unsalted = No salt added during processing (but may still contain sodium).
If you'd like to learn more ways to eat healthy, talk to your doctor.
| * | Source: British Medical Journal, April 28, 2007. |
| ** | Source: Journal of the American Dietetic Association, September 2007. |
The American Heart Association recommends that healthy adults eat less than 2,300 milligrams (mg) of sodium – about 1 teaspoon of salt – a day.
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