<p>I usually frequent the nutrition section of a bodybuilding forum, but they tore me to shreds. Guess this topic isn’t manly enough. Please humor me, parent cafe?</p>
<p>I have noticed that there’s a general disdain for monitoring salt consumption; this is understandable because of salt’s secondary role in weight loss and bodybuilding, and also because the scientific data on salt is so overwhelmingly proflific and contradictory. I have borderline hyptertension and even my own doctor never once stressed the importance of salt reduction (okay he mentioned following a “healthy diet” but it seems that reducing salt intake would be the salient aspect of a healthy diet for an otherwise healthy teenager with high blood pressure, yet he never said so explicitly).</p>
<p>But the latest research seem to have finally reached a consensus that reconciles the earlier uncertainties: most people aren’t susceptible to cardiovascular harm from salt, but a significant minority, those who are “salt sensitive”, have much to gain or lose from alterring the amount of salt in their diet. The kicker here is that it is currently unfeasible to test for this condition, and even high blood pressure is not necessarily a prerequisite to suffering the cardiovascular detriments of eating too much salt.</p>
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<p>Supposedly, a quarter of the population has this untestable condition - statistics that no one can just blissfully ignore - so I was just wondering:</p>
<li>How reliable are these reports? I don’t know much about reading in between the lines of medical literature.</li>
<li>MY GOD!! I actually tracked my salt consumption in a typical day and it was around 3 or 4 times the recommended amount. For a busy teenager who lifts 4-5 times a week, how am I supposed to get under my daily recommended amounts of sodium? It seems almost impossible (3500 calorie diet, by the way).</li>
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<p>Not true. If you’re concerned, speak to the chef/dietitian at the school. If it’s that important to you - you will find a way. It may take some added efforts on your part, but it can be done. :)</p>
<p>Like my father, I have low blood pressure, and I do cardio 90 mins a day 5 x a week which tends to sweat out the sodium, so I’ve never worried about salt intake. But, I’ve found that processed foods of all kinds generally have salt and so if you stop eating them (or at least greatly cut back) then you can really reduce the sodium in your diet. Things I do to eat better and which naturally reduce sodium: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Make my own salad dressing. Olive Oil, different kinds of vinegar, clove of pressed garlic, cracked pepper and sea salt (but you could leave it out).</p></li>
<li><p>Make my own pasta sauce… cook chopped onions and garlic in olive oil, throw in some chopped tomatoes (I do use canned but I check to make sure there is no added sodium or any other ingredients), some fresh basil, cracked pepper, oregano… cook and then blend it and return to the pan. I don’t generally salt my pasta while it boils either. </p></li>
<li><p>Buy healthy cereals that don’t use additives. Same for bread. </p></li>
<li><p>Avoid ketchup; use salsa instead.</p></li>
<li><p>Make my own soups or get the kind that are low sodium. Canned soup is often the worst.</p></li>
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<p>Thanks! I worked up to it from being almost completely sedentary three years ago, well aside from walking and just being active in my work. Started swimming with a masters team (coached) and built up to 5 mornings a week from 5:30 -7 a.m. of very grueling practices. I also lift weights a couple times a week because swimming doesn’t help your bones stay dense since it’s non-weight bearing. I find that the fitter I became through exercise the more I did not want to eat processed foods or drinks and the better whole foods like fruits, vegetables, and beans sounded. It’s been a revelation of sorts.</p>
<p>I think most people have no idea how much salt they eat, or how much they should eat.</p>
<p>I know I have too high a penchant/tolerance for salt. I make my own granola, and am always surprised at how much salt I want to add to the batch before it tastes “right” to me.
Am trying to cut back.</p>
<p>I don’t add salt to anything but a baked potato (but that’s all I put on – no sour cream, cheese, bacon bits, etc.) and maybe watermelon. It’s scary when you read labels how much salt is in everything. I do things like make chicken nuggets for the kids to put on salad instead of using the Tyson frozen ones.</p>
<p>Even though I’m overweight, I’ve been blessed with low/normal blood pressure.</p>
<p>I don’t pay any attention to salt at all, I do cook with salt and occasionally salt my food. I thought of this thread when I decided steamed green beans needed a dash of salt. I’ve had the same low blood pressure since I was 18. I exercise three times a week. I rarely eat fast food (only on road trips) and eat almost nothing processed. I can’t eat canned soup because it’s unbearably salty - it makes me want to gag.</p>
<p>I used to have serious high blood pressure and was told by my doctor I needed to virtually eliminate salt in my diet. I went cold turkey and don’t add salt to anything now. But when first giving it up, I was surprised by how often I wanted to reach for the salt. We eat relatively few canned foods (I love to make homemade soup), but if I am buying something for cooking, such as chicken broth, I get the fat-free low sodium version. Giving up the salt in my cooking did require a change in taste expectations. For example, I used to toss raw broccolli or cauliflower with a generous portion of olive oil and Kosher salt and then bake it. Now I use only 2 tsp of olive oil per person eating, supplement with Pam to coat, and skip the salt altogether. </p>
<p>My blood pressure is now normal to low with no more need for medication. I made a lot of other changes, so I can’t say what role giving up salt played but I honestly don’t miss it anymore.</p>
<p>Back in the good old days salt was used to conserve meat and added in high quantities to everything else. Mankind survived.</p>
<p>I think listening to my body is a good indicator of how much food is good for me. At times everything tastes salty and at other times I add salt to pretty much anything I eat. Monitoring my daily salt consumption is about the last thing I will do.</p>
<p>Sure mankind survived - and how long did the average person live?</p>
<p>With a family history of high blood pressure, I grew up on low salt diet, and am in a university study in a low sodium group. When I first started the study, I was very surprised to find so many foods high in sodium. I have cut way back on cheese, soup, and bread, lowered my milk consumption, use less pasta sauce and frozen prepared foods. I recently had another sodium test but have not received the results yet.</p>
<p>Hey analyst, I’m glad to hear that your blood pressure issues were resolved, at least in part, by a low-salt diet. My doctor never emphasized this with me!</p>
<p>Anyways, the point of the NIH study was that EVERYONE should limit salt intake because a quarter of the population is salt sensitive, and you probably won’t know if you are - it’s not directly correlated with high blood pressure.</p>
<p>As a current medical student, and future physician, I’ll be completely honest - our lectures on hypertension during our 3rd year Internal Medicine clinical clerkship discussed sodium’s impact on blood pressure, and the basic gist was that it’s important to bring up with African American patients because they’re much more likely to be salt-sensitive (there is some suggestion that it provided a survival advantage for Africans being transported in slave ships), but for most other ethnic groups, it’s unlikely to matter.</p>
<p>From this, my personal approach has (and will continue to be), I’ll suggest it when a person is first diagnosed with hypertension, along with other lifestyle modifications, but, I’m not going to expect a whole lot of gain from it. In my brief experience, it’s easier to get patients to exercise than to really maintain a diet with only 2.4 grams of salt. Simply put, it requires such a tremendous level of personal control/willpower and discipline to read labels and such that it’s unfeasible for 90% of patients. Further, and this is one of the issues in trying to get people to control their blood pressure in the first place - no one ever feels bad when they have high blood pressure. It really is a silent killer because unless you take measurements, you don’t know you have it. It’s very common for patients to stop taking medications when they can’t feel a difference, and the salt restriction is difficult to do to begin with, so it’s rare that it’ll last (if it matters in the first place). At least with exercise, most people will feel much better when they get in a regular routine, so that’s an important reinforcer…</p>
<p>The Cochrane Review is a great resource because they look for all the high quality studies on a research question and synthesize the findings into easily understood recommendations. As an independent entity they also have fairly minimal bias in their interpretations.</p>