Cooking | Health | Nutrition | Weight Gain | Weight Loss | Women | Baby | Social Planning | SITEMAP

Salt and Hypertension

Salt-sensitivity is attributable to factors such as: Females, elderly, abdominal obesity, diabetics, race, family history of hypertension.

Higher the salt intake, higher is the blood pressure for 'salt-sensitive' persons. Salt sensitivity is very difficult to measure even under hospital environment, it involves intravenous saline infusion.

How to determine the sodium?

Most of the prepared foods lists salt as sodium. The common table salt is actually Sodium Chloride consisting of approximately 40% sodium and 60% Chloride. If you multiply amount of sodium by 2.5, it will give you equivalent of table salt. It is suggested that salt intake be limited to less than 1 teaspoon per day. 1 teaspoon of table salt contains 2,325 mg of sodium.

Salt substitutes

The buds on the tongue that actually taste the salt are same as the ones that taste sourness. Therefore, lime juice, citric acid, and lemon pepper (without MSG) make excellent salt substitutes.
You should avoid salt substitutes that contain potassium. Potassium may be harmful to kidneys, or people taking diuretic medications.