Get The Truth About The Link Between Salt And High Blood Pressure

Salt is a very valuable part of our diet and we have used it for thousands of years to add taste to our food and as a preservative. Indeed, although many people in the West simply take it for granted, in very many countries it is a very important economic commodity and many older readers will no doubt remember the part played by salt in bringing British rule in India to and end in the middle of the last century.

Unfortunately however salt is also a significant contributory factor when it comes to the problem of high blood pressure.

Salt is in fact a compound composed of chloride and sodium and when it comes to hypertension it is the amount of sodium which we consume which we need to watch.

It might seem that controlling your salt intake is just a matter of restricting the quantity of salt which you add to food when cooking and which you add to your food at the table. However, the real problem lies in the fact that the majority of the salt which we consume is found in the processed foods which most of us buy every day.

To ensure that you minimize the risk of high blood pressure you have to keep your salt intake under the recommended daily sodium intake figure of 2,400 milligrams and here are some tips to help you do just that:

Remove salt from your table. If you diet is correctly balanced your food will contain enough salt and you do not need to add more while you are eating, so remove the salt from the table.

Learn to read food labels. Food labeling laws are much improved these days and the majority of foods carry nutritional information which includes the quantity of sodium which the food contains. You need to read the labels with care though as frequently the sodium figure given will apply to the whole pack or tin and sometimes it will apply to an individual serving.

Buy low sodium or sodium free foods. A lot of foods today come in sodium free or low sodium options and, wherever possible, you ought to choose these instead of the regular product.

Pick low salt snacks. Most of us enjoy snacking but try to stick to things like vegetable and fruit and, if you feel that you cannot live without those crisps then choose varieties that are low in sodium or salt free.

Monitoring your salt consumption is of course just one thing to do when you watch what you eat and create a diet that is good for your blood pressure.