Washington (SmartAboutHealth) - Just recently the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put out a report which revealed that Americans simply use too much salt in their diet. This has sparked the question of how can Americans rid of some of this salt intake.
Currently, the recommendation is that people should not consume more than 2,300 milligrams of salt each day.
This is being far exceeded by many Americans though across the country.
A new CDC report has found that the average American consumes 3,436 milligrams of salt each day.
This shows that Americans are going above and beyond what they should be taking in, in regards to salt.
That number of 2,300 milligrams daily recommended is high in many cases as well.
In the study, nearly 70% were not supposed to have more than 1,500 milligrams of salt daily due to high blood pressure and such.
So how can Americans cut some salt out of their diets and imrpove theihr health?
For starters, when you go out to eat or order out, it is always best to ask that your food is prepared without any salt being used.
On top of that, it is also safer to consume more foods such as fruits and vegetables rather than mainly salty foods.
Checking the sodum content on food labels is another way to stay educated as well.
The study has been published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
April 13th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Fascinating. So you’re saying Americans can lower the salt in their diet by eating less salt? That really is smart about health.
How did we ever survive without the interwebs?
April 13th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
The CDC report deals only with blood pressure, not overall health outcomes. It is also highly exagerrated and based on opinion rather than controlled trials. If you go to the very same CDC website, you will see that our US cardiovascular disease death rates have continually dropped dramatically over the last 30 years, despite out current salt consumption. Salt is not a problem.
By focusing on salt as a magic bullet, CDC is misguiding the population and directing attention away from the much more important issue of eating far more fruits and vegetables - the real issue for improving overall health outcomes in the general population.