Should you be watching your sodium intake?

Yes!

According to the World Health Organization, hypertension is the leading risk factor for death in the world and according to Blood Pressure Canada, it's the leading risk factor for death in Canada, causing most of the strokes and heart disease. High sodium intake has also been linked to increased severity and frequency of asthma, osteoporosis, stomach cancer, kidney stones and worsening of symptoms and signs of congestive heart failure.

Excess dietary sodium is said to be the cause of hypertension in at least one million Canadians. In Canada today, 46% of women and 38% of men over 60 years of age are taking anti-hypertensive medications.

The average Canadian consumed 3100-3500 mg sodium a day. On average, men consume more sodium than women: 4000 mg/day compared to 2700mg/day (19-30 year olds).

Health Canada and the US National Academy of Sciences (Institute of Medicine) have determined that an adequate intake (an intake you should aim for) is 1200-1500 mg/day of sodium. The research shows that lowering sodium intake to this level could reduce the incidence of stroke and heart disease by as much as 30%.

As the Director of the Canadian Stroke Network points out: “if we discovered that a food additive was causing 30% of all cancers, something would be done right away”.

An intake of 1500mg/day allows for sodium loss in sweat for those that are moderately physically active. Very active people may require a sodium intake that’s a bit higher.

Sodium recommendation by age are:

Age	Sodium Intake per Day (mg)
0-6 months	120
7-12 months	370
1-3 years	1000
4-8 years	1200
9-50 years	1500
50-70 years	1300
>70 years	1200

Tips to help you reduce your sodium intake:

• Read labels. Nutrition Facts table lists the amount of sodium (in milligrams) per one serving of the food. You can also refer to the % Daily Value which compares the amount of sodium in one serving of your product to 2400 milligrams. Generally, foods low in sodium have a % Daily Value of 5% or less.
• Pay attention to serving size. Sodium numbers on a nutrition label are for the serving indicated!
• Use herbs and spices instead of salt when cooking - try garlic, lemon juice, onion, vinegar and herbs. Remove the salt shaker from the table to break the habit of salting food at the table.
• Limit your intake of processed meats such as bologna, ham, sausage, hot dogs, bacon, deli meats, and smoked salmon.
• Limit your use of salty condiments such as bouillon cubes, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce or bbq sauce.
• Rely less on convenience foods such as canned soups, frozen dinners and packaged rice and pasta mixes.
• Choose lower sodium products.
• Be assertive when dining out. Request that salt not be added and order sauces and dressings on the side so you can control the amount you use.
• Rinse canned food when possible (like canned vegetable, beans, tuna). Research done at Duke University has shown that rinsing vegetables for 1 minute reduced sodium content by 41% and rinsing tuna 1 minute reduced sodium by 76%.

Sources:

Press Releases - Reductions needed in the sodium added to foods http://ww2.heartandstroke.ca/Page.asp?PageID=1613&ContentID=27085&ContentTypeID=1 Oct 25 2007

Sodium Policy – Blood Pressure Canada & Collaborating Organizations ttp://www.dietitians.ca/news/highlights_positions.asp Oct 25 2007

http://www.lesliebeck.com/page.php?id=2437&type=art

Brody, Jane. The Good Food Book: Living the High-Carbohydrate Way. Bantam: 1987.