Dear Dr. Garner,

My husband is getting out of hand with his use of salt. He seems to shake it onto everything he eats.

I am very worried about his health. He is 67 years old, has high blood pressure and a family history of heart attacks.

He reads your column regularly. Please let him know that he is doing himself a lot of harm.

Too Much Salt in

Sheepshead Bay

 

Dear Too Much Salt,

Salt may be the most deadly part of our diet. Our normal daily requirement is only about a teaspoon, or 2,300 milligrams, but many people exceed that.

While we have control over the salt we put into the food we cook, we do not have control when visiting restaurants or eating processed food. These foods are usually overloaded with salt.

Salt is an acquired taste. When we first taste it as a child, it is unpleasant, but we learn to like it.

By the same token, when we start avoiding it, the body begins to develop a dislike for it, and the food begins to taste too salty.

Let’s review some of the medical information regarding salt.

Salt in the blood causes the volume of blood to increase. This makes the heart work harder and raises the blood pressure, causing increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Reducing salt intake moderately can cause a 10-point drop in blood pressure, which is often enough to prevent a stroke or heart attack.

You can determine the salt content of foods in the grocery store by reading nutrition labels. Instead of salt, the labels, as you see highlighted above, say “sodium.” This is the same thing.

You will be surprised when you start looking at the salt content of the food you eat. For example, a container of Cheerios cereal has more salt than a bag of potato chips. Some salt levels in soup and other processed foods are astronomical.

Frozen foods are also a major culprit in the excessive salt we consume.

Most middle-age and older citizens should be consuming fewer than 1,500 milligrams per day.

Here are some tips that might help cut down on salt intake:

• Make recipes from scratch to avoid much of the salt in your diet.

• Use natural seasoning, such as parsley, pepper and oregano.

• If you buy processed foods (meats, soups), select ones that are the lowest in sodium.

• Products labeled “sodium-free,” or ones with less than 100 milligrams per serving, are safest.

• In a restaurant, ask the chef to prepare your food without salt and to use other spices when possible.

• Avoid adding salt to your food. Try to remove the salt shaker from your table. The shaking is often a habit.

• Choose low-sodium snacks like fruit and vegetables. Avoid salty snacks, such as pretzels and potato chips. Buy salt-free versions.

• Try some of the salt-free substitutes in your supermarket’s spice section. Just make sure that if you have any kidney problems that your doctor reviews the ingredients, as many substitutes have large amounts of potassium.

I hope your husband understands that there is a relationship between dying, strokes and heart attacks, and the amount of salt he consumes.

I suggest people keep a diary of the salt they consume over the course of a month. The goal should be a daily intake of salt between 1,500 milligrams and 2,400 milligrams (as close to or fewer than 1,500 milligrams as possible in the middle-age and elderly group).

It may be tough at first, but the improvement may be life saving.[hr] Dr. Steven Garner is a Fidelis Care provider who is affiliated with New York Methodist Hospital, Park Slope. He also hosts “Ask the Doctor” on The NET, Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Channel 97 Time Warner and Channel 30 Cablevision.