Salt Is Too Much With Us

Salt, a condiment so valued for so long that the word "salary" shares the same root, is too much with us, late and soon. The Washington Post reports on research conducted by Consumer Reports, finding large
amounts of sodium in a wide variety of packaged foods that don’t taste salty. A cup of Kellogg’s Raisin Brain
cereal contains 350 milligrams of sodium, for examplem and a half-cup of Friendship 1
percent low-fat cottage cheese has 360 milligrams of sodium. A
single Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain White Bagel has 440 milligrams of
sodium.  The researchers learned that many low-fat foods also happened to be high-salt foods, suggesting that salt is being used to replace some of the flavor lost when fat is removed.
Why do we care? Because, the Post reports, a high-sodium diet can increase the risk of high blood pressure (which
can lead to heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease) and also increase
the risk of asthma, kidney stones, osteoporosis and stomach cancer. The American Medical Association has claimed that a
50 percent reduction in Americans’ dietary sodium intake could save
150,000 lives a year.
To learn more about how to reduce the amount of salt you eat, read this.