How Salt and Sodium impact your Blood Pressure
One of the key lifestyle changes in high blood pressure is eating food in low salt and sodium. Doctors will recommend Reduce salt and sodium in your daily diet. On a daily basis an average human being consumes more salt or sodium as needed by body. If you really pay attention to daily diet starting from breakfast to dinner and including snacks between breaks you will be surprised to know that you are taking more salt and sodium then recommended 2.4 grams of slat or less. How many times do we read labels on packaged food, you will be surprised how much nuts, mixed nuts, chips and other packaged foods are packed with sodium.
Start paying attention to the food you eat. Cut down your frequent trips to restaurants and snack shops or choose wisely food low in salt and sodium. While shopping pay attention to food labels, don’t buy food which is high in sodium. Adding fresh vegetables and fruits in your daily diet will reduce dependence on salt.
Top Five Tips for Reducing Sodium and Salt
1. Avoid buying canned food, which are high in sodium.
2. Wash canned food to reduce some sodium.
3. Buy fresh vegetables, fruits, and poultry
4. Avoid or cut back on frozen items such as pizza, packaged food.
5. Use seasoning with low sodium.
How to read Food label
It is important to read food label on food items especially on packaged food items. Also understand what one serving means on package food item. If you see food label showing sodium free or less sodium on food label still you should check total sodium preserving. The common terms used to popularize food item for less sodium are “sodium free” , “low sodium”, “unsalted” or “low in sodium’. Apart from reading sodium level food label also provides information on calories, total fat and cholesterol.
First read the number of servings in package. Let’s say you bought a can of beans. It has four servings. Each serving is ½ cup.
Next you read how much is sodium per serving and what is daily percentage. Based on this you will know how much sodium you are taking per serving.
Important things to read are “Number Of Servings”, “Amount Per Serving”, “Percent Daily Value”, “Nutrients”. Make this as habit whenever you go to buy packaged foods. This will help you to Reduce Salt and Sodium
Blood Pressure Reading 