your heart❤️🩹on salt
Salt is one of the most commonly over utilized nutrients in our country.
While salt is certainly important for the body's homeostasis, in excess it causes imbalances of our cardiovascular system, leading to long-term effects of hypertension, such as coronary artery disease, heart failure, kidney disease, strokes, and other vascular diseases.
It has also been shown to contribute to kidney stones, gastric cancer, osteoporosis, and immune dysfunction.
In the short-term, our day-to-day salt intake can affect our overall wellbeing. Excess salt can make you feel bloated, sluggish, fatigued, and irritable.
It can also affect your sleep at night, as salt-fluid balance plays a vital role in body temperature regulation, which is key in experiencing restful sleep.
5 FACTS ABOUT DIETARY SODIUM
*Sodium=the part of salt that plays a role in health outcomes *
➡️ The estimated average sodium intake in the US is ~3600mg/day, which far exceeds the recommended max by the American Heart Association of 2300mg/day, with an ideal goal closer to 1500mg/day.
➡️ Foods that are highest in sodium include restaurant prepared foods and processed/prepackaged foods. Limiting these can be a great strategy to reduce sodium intake!
➡️ About 50% of dietary sodium intake in the US comes from burgers, deli meat sandwiches, tacos, rice, pastas, meats, poultry, seafood, and soups.
➡️ Adapting a whole food (not processed), plant predominant (food mostly from plants) eating pattern, can decrease sodium intake to the range of 1500mg-2300mg/day.
➡️ Some people are sensitive to dietary salt intake. This is called “salt sensitivity”. A person who is “salt sensitive” demonstrates large rises in blood pressure with increased salt intake and large falls in blood pressure with decreased salt intake.
People who experience little or no change in blood pressure with dietary salt intake changes may be “salt resistant.”
If you are living with high blood pressure, this may be something to discuss with your doctor.
Print and post in your home or download to your device to remind yourself how to swap out salt for a healthier heart!