Tips for eating less sodium and improving your health

YOUR body needs sodium, and most of us get it by adding salt to our meals. But the prevalence of hypertension, also known as the silent killer or high blood pressure, in the population means many of us are taking in more sodium than necessary and exposing ourselves to serious health issues.

Eating too much salt can make it harder for your kidneys to process fluid, which then builds up in your system and increases your blood pressure. Over time, excessive salt intake can lead to high blood pressure, which stiffens and narrows the blood vessels, and can lead to death. Further, diets high in salt are associated with an increased risk of heart attacks, heart failure, stroke, kidney disease, and blindness.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) has expressed concern at the statistics for hypertension among Jamaicans – some one in three Jamaicans are hypertensive – 35.8 per cent women and 31.7 per cent men, according to the Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey for 2016/17. Additionally, the MOHW says four out of every 10 Jamaicans with hypertension are unaware of their status – 60 per cent men and 26 per cent women; and even more of a concern, more and more Jamaicans aged 15 to 74 years old are developing hypertension.

The Jamaica Stroke Alliance says one of the ways to reduce stroke is to control high blood pressure.

“This is one of the most important things you can do to reduce your stroke risk as more than half of all strokes are linked to hypertension,” the group says. “Knowing your blood pressure and controlling it with lifestyle changes or medication will reduce your risk of stroke.”

Further, nutritional therapist Elysia Gardner says the key to controlling hypertension is to eat less sodium, and this is more achievable than you’d think, through diet changes.

“You have to change your mindset, basically, to pay attention to labels, cutting out processed foods, and just basically watching the salt content in everything. Your food doesn’t have to be tasteless, and soon it will become a habit to watch what you eat,” she said.

Gardner said women should pay attention to the amount of salt they’re consuming, especially during pregnancy.

“Too much salt will make you retain water, which will cause you to look and feel bloated. Spikes in blood pressure are also not a good indication in pregnancy,” Gardner said. “The more sodium you take in, the higher your blood pressure will be.”

She said high blood pressure may also increase your stroke risk and according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the lifetime risk of stroke for women between the ages of 55 and 75 in the United States is one in five. Stroke kills twice as many women as breast cancer does, making stroke the third-leading cause of death for women there.

Below Gardner offers more tips for limiting salt intake:

•Know the source of your dietary salt. The largest amounts come from ready-made meals and pre-prepared foods, including bread, processed meats like bacon, sausages and deli meats, and even your favourite breakfast cereals.

• Avoid having too much over salted cured meats like ham, pig tails, salted mackerel, corned beef or corned pork, which are all loved by Jamaicans. Instead, many times you can get low sodium versions.

• Drain the liquid from canned vegetables like chick peas and meats like tinned sausages, and rinse before consuming.

• Read your labels! Spend the extra five minutes in the store to look at the sodium content in what you purchase. The sodium content should be less than or equal to the calories per serving, for reference.

• Stop over seasoning your foods – allow the natural flavours to come though. You don’t need powdered seasoning plus salted soy sauce plus fresh seasonings and then added salt to flavour your food. That’s too much, and sometimes the taste of all these seasonings overpower the taste of the food.

• Sometimes it’s better to add salt afterwards for taste – like in the case of scrambled eggs – after you’ve cooked them, instead of during. If you have added garlic salt, for example, you may not need additional table salt.

• Stop requesting additional salt on your fast food items, like your fries, which would already have had added salt.