The Good Food Campaign

You know that feeling when you’ve eaten too much, especially when it’s a steak or something else similar off the grill, or a pepperoni laden pizza?

Sometimes it’s not so much because of the amount you have eaten, but it’s because of all those seasonings on the meat.

You see, when you have a lot of extra salt, your body compensates by retaining water. Your body is always striving to make a balance between the amount of salt and water in your body. Although not enough salt inhibits your capability to sweat, which is not good in hot climes, too much salt would indeed effectively poison you, so your body retains water to compensate.

Your kidneys filter out the salt, and you pass it out the body in your urine, but, as with the way your liver metabolizes alcohol, your kidneys can only process and remove the excess salt at a certain rate.

The best way to help your body rid itself of this excess is simply to cut back on the amount of salt you eat for the next couple of days.

Remember that many processed foods contain a lot of salt. It’s a good idea to rinse excess salt from such foods if it is feasible. Canned goods are often sold in brine, and rinsing them with cold water before consumption can drastically cut salt intake.

Finally, if you’re used to having a lot of salt on your food, try cutting back a little at a time. You will be surprised to find that after a while your palate adjusts and you find you actually want a lot less salt in your food that perhaps you currently do.

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Reducing your sodium intake need not be difficult. Try these tips:

1. Buy fresh, whole foods, and not processed foods, as much as you can.
2. Quit using the salt shaker.
3. reduce the amount of salt used in cooking.
4. If you must used canned vegetables, rinse them thoroughly before eating.
5. Cut out TV dinners, fast food, and other junk
6. Read food labels for sodium content = that includes salt, and other sodium products.

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A new study has shown that if Americans reduced their salt intake by half a

teaspoon each day, it would result in 6% fewer new cases of heart disease, and 3% fewer deaths. Although it’s been known for some time that increased sodium intake is a leading cause of hypertension leading to heart disease, salt consumption is up about 50% since the 1970s.

The average American eats 10-12 grams of salt daily, or up to 4,800 milligrams of sodium. The recommended maximum level is about half of this.

One major problem with reducing salt consumption is the amount of processed food products that Americans eat, that contain high levels of salt and Monosodium Glutamate, rather than the salt shaker on the dining room table.

It’s another reason to eat less processed food, and more fresh food cooked at home.

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