Tag Archives: Food - Page 2

Sugar and spice, and salt is not very nice Part II

Posted by on February 21, 2013 Comments Off on Sugar and spice, and salt is not very nice Part II

Last time we looked at the danger of dietary sodium, likely to shorten the lives of a million Americans. If knowledge is power, then here is some power for you:

Let’s start simple, with the major sources of dietary sodium from the CDC.
CDC Sources of Sodium

Unless we make our own bread (a fun thing to do with a bread maker, not as much fun by hand), we have little control over the amount of salt in bread. We can look for low-sodium alternatives or we can wait for government action. By the way, the government has been regulating bread for a long time, in Europe before the founding of this country and since the 17th century by colonies/states such as Massachusetts. Since 1941 the US government has been mandating nutritional additives to bread, including folic acid, iron, and other nutrients. Regulating sodium content is not even a stretch.

Take a look at this graphic from the CDC–sodium can be reduced by half in nearly identical sandwiches with a bit of care in choosing ingredients:

Low Sodium Sandwich

Reducing sodium in our diets is one of those simple things we can do to improve our health. Doing the easy thing is sometimes better than the difficult. 2 Kings 5:13

Here is some further reading on dietary sodium:

UCSF Low Sodium Guidelines
CDC Sodium Tip Sheet
Medline Plus: Dietary Sodium

Sugar and spice, and salt is not very nice Part I

Posted by on February 19, 2013 Comments Off on Sugar and spice, and salt is not very nice Part I

“No matter how we look at it, the story is the same – there will be huge benefits in reducing sodium,” said Pam Coxson, PhD, a UCSF mathematician and the lead author on the paper who performed one of the three analyses published in Hypertension.

The quotation is an understatement–the studies claim that hundreds of thousands of lives can be saved by less salt. What are the facts?

Let’s start with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

About 90% of Americans eat more sodium than is recommended for a healthy diet. Too much sodium increases a person’s risk for high blood pressure. High blood pressure often leads to heart disease and stroke. More than 800,000 people die each year from heart disease, stroke and other vascular diseases, costing the nation $273 billion health care dollars in 2010.

The key point is the relationship of sodium to hypertension and cardiovascular events:

About 45 percent of these cardiovascular deaths are attributable to high blood pressure, and numerous medical studies have already demonstrated how reducing dietary salt – the primary source of sodium – can lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke.

The study’s three analyses came up with varying numbers of saved lives, ranging from 250,000 to 1,200,000 over the next decade by reduced sodium intake–they averaged 280,000 to 500,000. We have long known that certain populations are more salt-sensitive and should radically reduce intake. The CDC list below tells that story, but we all should reduce sodium, not merely by not picking up the salt shaker, but by eating more fresh foods and looking at the labels on the processed foods we eat. Salt-sensitive populations

We can all benefit by a reduction in sodium, long before we become part of a vulnerable population. Next time, let’s look at some strategies we can use while waiting for food companies to offer lower sodium alternatives and government action in this domain.

Helpful links for more information about dietary sodium

Snacks: the 4th meal of the day

Posted by on January 21, 2013 Comments Off on Snacks: the 4th meal of the day

Let’s say a woman consumes 1500 calories a day to maintain weight and a man consumes 2000. It varies from individual to individual according to your rate of metabolism, your physical activity, your body build, and other variables. More than that–you gain weight.

To lose a pound requires taking in 3500 calories less–or about 500 calories daily to lose a pound in a week.

According the chart below from The Hartman Group, Americans eat 2.3 snacks daily, with chips and soft drinks the most popular.

Consider the math: the chips in the vending machine run 160 calories each. An 8-ounce soft drink can has 97 calories. The calories for that one snack are 160 + 97 = 257. If that is an average snack and there are 2.3 average snacks per day, the total snack calories are: 2.3 x 257 = 591

Of course no one eats an average snack–sometimes we eat less; most of the time we probably eat more to compensate for those in the averages who are not snacking at all.

If you are maintaining weight, cutting out snacks is likely to help you lose a pound a week–assuming you continue to maintain current activity levels while dieting.

If you are gaining weight at a rate of a pound a week, the other three meals may not be the problem.

Clearly, the fourth meal daily can help you lose or gain a pound or more weekly.

snacking-in-america-large