The dangers of salt

Salt may add some extra flavour to your dinner but the additive could also be responsible for skyrocketing blood pressure rates and other related illnesses.
Even if you don't keep a saltshaker on your supper table or use it when you're cooking, some of the prepackaged or canned items you eat everyday - like soup or frozen dinners - have high amounts of sodium and the American Medical Association has called for warning labels on salty foods.
"The hidden salts are the biggest culprit in people's salt intake and therefore the bad effects on the kidney, heart and brain," blood pressure specialist Dr. Ivor Teitelbaum explained.
Canned soups often contain a lot of salt. You're only supposed to be consuming about a teaspoon of the flavour enhancer a day but some soups contain that much in a single serving.
But there are a number of other foods, ones that are supposed to be good for you, that also have high sodium contents.
Take a bag of chips and a box of bran flakes and raisin cereal. If asked which one had the most salt, you'd probably choose the chips.
If you did, you'd be wrong.
The chips have 180 milligrams while the cereal has 350 mg - your daily recommended intake is between 1,500 and 2,400 mg.
Thirty salted peanuts and two slices of rye bread offers another startling comparison. The bread has twice the salt - 460 mg.
The best way to know exactly what you're eating is to become a label reader, especially if you already have high blood pressure.
"If people lower their salt intake and exercise, it's actually equivalent to removing one drug," Teitelbaum said.
One good tip for keeping your sodium levels in check is to make bananas and other potassium-rich foods a part of your daily diet. Potassium can help to cancel out some of the bad effects of salt.
Too much sodium can raise your blood pressure because salt attracts water into your veins, increasing the pressure inside.
Article from the Toronto Star