The U.S. is about to release its new dietary guidelines — here are tricks to help you follow them
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comHow much sodium? Decoding nutrition labels
Seeded on Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:48 PM EST (msnbc.com)
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1600 mg of salt means nothing to me and I imagine to a lot of other people too. Just how much is that in cups, ounces or teaspoons?
It's hard to convert milligrams to teaspoons (the easiest "visual" comparison, probably) because milligrams measure mass and teaspoons measure volume. I've heard one teaspoon containing amounts ranging from 2,300mg (this seems to be the most "accepted" answer) to 6,000mg.
1 milligram is equivalent to approximately 0.0000352739619 ounces, which means nothing to me, and probably nothing to you, either.
Also, the expert opinions on how much sodium you should consume differ widely. The American Heart Association recommends 1,500mg daily, but I've heard amounts as low as 400mg (which, personally, I think is too low, but I've had low blood pressure all my life, so I had free range to eat as much salt as I could stand). There are also debates on the recommended daily allowances (RDAs) of vitamins and minerals in general because the amounts listed are generally only enough to prevent gross deficiencies, not attain optimal health.
It's all such a mess. Personally, I think if you want to be healthy, don't eat anything your grandmother (or great-grandmother, depending on your age) wouldn't recognize as food. Avoid processed foods, eat organic if possible, and exercise. It's not that complicated. We seem to have an obsession in this country with making things harder than they should be.
Charlotte - salt or NACL is 39% sodium by weight, it takes 2.56cc of NACL ( volumn) to get 1000mg ( or 1 gram) of sodium - this equals about 1/2 tsp .
Fast food restaurants prepare most of their foods with salt to enhance flavor so it is easy to exceed the daily recommendation ( sometimes by 2-3 grams or 2000-3000mg). Also, look at labels of can goods they are packed with sodium! When you read the amount of sodium that is in canned good - YOU MUST calculate how many servings sizes that the manufactors say are in them. Some say 7 servings in a can the size of canned cream - THAT IS NOT REALISTIC - and a bit of misadvertizing!
Thank you. Now I have some sort of an idea of how much I am getting in my diet.
Read "FoodSmart" book by Diana Hunter.
Food ingredients and labels defined in depth.
Get foodsmart and stay healthy. I am.
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Read "FoodSmart" book by Diana Hunter.
Food ingredients and labels defined in depth.
Get foodsmart and stay healthy. I am.
I would love to know WHY there is so much salt in so many products??? If the makers of canned and frozen foods would use just half as much it would be so much better for all of us!
Because it is cheap. Also because these products contain a lot of the flavor enhancer MSG which is cheaper than using quality ingredients.
Buy organic FRESH veggies and everything you can, stay away from processed foods when able, also try to live on 50 grams of fat (animal) per day. There are quantities of good food on the market that have NO fat content!!!! You are in charge of the amount of salt you use, what could be better!!!
Be careful of flavor enhancers, they can be dangerous to your health. Check them out on line to find out if they are or are not good for you!!!
After I cut out all fast food and high-sodium foods, I was able to taste milder foods that would otherwise taste like absolutely nothing (they still do for my family).
I can taste subtle differences in many foods now that I couldn't in the past. It is kind of like when smokers quit.
On an unrelated note, it is annoying that there are so many advertisements already.
First, organic is a scam. They don't use "all natural fertilizer" and contrary to popular belief, they do, in fact, use pesticides. And, it has been proven over and over again that not only do organic foods NOT contain more nutrients (why would they?) some of the old school pesticides they use are actually far more harmful to the environment than what is used on your standard crops. Yes, yes, I know...bring it on..I'm an idiot, I don't love the environment, etc. etc. How dare I speak against the almighty organic movement, right? In the end, you'll believe whatever you want, but the stats are there if you care to take the time to find them.
Second, sodium is added as a preservative mainly and for flavor secondarily. Truth is, none of these people truly know for sure what is required for "optimal" health. It's a crap shoot at best, just take a look at history and compare. You'll see they don't know a whole lot more now that they did then. Besides, everyone's body chemistry is different. For some, they could eat sodium until they burst with no real adverse effects, for others, a small amount could be detrimental. I have an idea. Eat moderately, exercise, get plenty of sleep and know and listen to your body. It's very good at letting you know what is and is not good for you. It's an incredible machine designed to handle a lot of abuse. If it's not running optimally, you'll know. There you go, the magic key. The rest is genetics.
Thanks for a post that truly does address this obsession with "organics." I have found some of these so-called 'organics' to be inferior in quality and taste.
I've found the complete opposite in quality and taste; a fuller, less watery, taste in fruit. This shows that there is a huge difference between what is called an "organic" item.
There was a news piece a few years back about Whole Foods labeling their "365" brand organic when things came from China. The FDA outsourced the checking procedure to a company that could not verify who inspected the farms. Is it organic? Well, for China's standards it was.
"We seem to have an obsession in this country with making things harder than they should be."
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Yes, and we want a quick fix to everything. Surely there is a pill that I can take for a couple of days, or an exercise program that I can watch on TV for a week that will burn off 20 pounds. Right?
Everyone should look into obtaining a writing by David Meinz called "Eating by the Book. Not a diet but a new way of eating and living the good life. Throw away your bathroom scales and use a tape measure to measure areas that fat has turned to muscle. Muscle weighs more, but WOW do you have a beautiful body, to say nothing of having healthy internal organs. I challenge all to give it a try. Punch him up on line and watch the videos, you will be pleasantly surprised as I was!!!!!!
Any prepared food has a lot of sodium... one bowl of soup anywhere has at least 1500mg sodium.... look in your pantry and you will find even the REDUCED sodium cans have 2500mg per serving. Almost anything at Red Robin, TGIF, Burger King, Applebees and of course Mickey D's will put you over the mark in one sitting. Some of their entrees have a FEW days worth of salt.....BUT... look at your cereals, snacks and what you thought was healthy... That powder on the raisins in Raisin Bran and other "healthy" cereals is not sugar..... look at the sodium levels....
I remember hearing that my grandmother had served my grandfather some broth one time, and the package said that it had .97g of sodium, and the label was in small print. I'm all for personal responsibility, but this is deceptive labeling. It looked like they were saying 97mg of sodium until you looked really closely and realized it was ***970*** milligrams of sodium per serving.
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Glad things have improved in the 20 years since.
I remember hearing that my grandmother had served my grandfather some broth one time, and the package said that it had .97g of sodium, and the label was in small print. I'm all for personal responsibility, but this is deceptive labeling. It looked like they were saying 97mg of sodium until you looked really closely and realized it was ***970*** milligrams of sodium per serving.
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Glad things have improved in the 20 years since.
Sorry for the double post...NewsVine didn't bother to inform me that my password was wrong.
I remember when TV dinners came unsalted and French fries came unsalted at Tops drive in(they were in a little cardboard "boat" with a squiggly paper thing that you could break open and sprinkle salt from.
Food today is too salty and is saltier than it used to be 50 years ago. I think the more people eat of it the more they get used to it and expect more. But 50 years ago every adult seems to have been expected to smoke cigarettes. So I guess it is sort of a tradeoff healthwise. What some are calling a low sodium diet is a moderate sodium diet.
If your family has a history of strokes you should go on a permanent non-sodium diet. You get an adequate of daily sodium even when you focus on a non-sodium diet. Excessive sodium is the largest cause of health problems. Dairy products are loaded, canned soups and meals in a can are over the top. Read the labels on every thing you want to buy. You will see that you will have a choice to buy low and non-sodium food products.
Uhh, no... it's not.
"The most important thing there — and that's why it's in bold — is calories," said Keith-Thomas Ayoob, an associate clinical professor of pediatrics and registered dietitian at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "That will determine whether someone gains or loses weight. Your body doesn't really care whether the calories come from sugar or fat when it comes to controlling weight."
Wow, how sad that a so-called nutrition expert would pawn off such bad advice on unsuspecting consumers. "You're body doesn't care if the calories come from sugar or fat?" Really, Keith?
So I guess all those studies showing a causal link between hyperinsulinemia (caused by a spike of SUGAR in the bloodstream) and obesity, diabetes & metabolic syndrome are all bogus, eh Keith? Or, how about studies that show that consumption of FAT increases the release of the appetite-suppressing hormone LEPTIN, thereby signaling the brain that one has had enough to eat as a feeling satiety is produced. Also, never mind those recent studies which show that overconsumption of fructose (SUGAR) leads to elevated levels of uric acid in the bloodstream, which in turn which can lead to insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, etc...etc...
Folks, despite what some so-called experts want you to believe - a calorie is NOT a calorie. Forget about counting calories, fat grams, etc...and focus on WHAT you eat, not how much. If the majority (shoot for 80%+) of your energy intake comes from natural, high fiber foods (fruits, vegetables, salads, beans, nuts, seeds + high quality fat like avocados, olives), you will stabilize your blood sugar (and energy) levels, avoid hypoglycemic (from short-term insulin overload) hunger-induced binges, and even find it hard to "overeat" because: a) the high-fiber foods bulk up your stomach, creating satiety, and b) over time, on this type of diet, you will more easily listen to your body's subtle cues that you are full.
The one solid piece of advice in all these new recommendations is to cut back on the salt...once your salt intake is reduced to reasonable levels, it's amazing how much better you can taste the healthy natural foods that your body craves. Easiest, surest way to reduce your salt intake? Minimize processed foods and restaurant foods.
Lots of good books out there...one I strongly recommend discusses nutrient density and is by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, "Eat To Live"...or his newest one "Eat For Health". (and no, I am not Dr. Joel...lol)