Have you ever measured your daily intake of salt? Before you assume you don't eat too much salt, take a good look at what you're buying at the grocery store, what you eat out, as well as how you use salt at home. What you eat and how much you eat has a significant effect on your blood pressure. The current recommendation is to consume less than 2,400 mg of sodium per day. Salt's chemical name is sodium chloride, and it's the sodium in salt that can be so detrimental to your health.

The daily average American diet contains 5,000 - 10,000 mg of sodium. But don't blame your salt shaker! It is estimated that only 7% of the excess salt in the average diet comes from the salt shaker. That leaves 93% of the excess salt in our diet to come from all the processed, boxed, canned/packaged and convenience foods we eat on a daily basis. Almost everyone eats some types of processed food during a normal day. Even people who make all their meals from scratch will usually buy foods that are too high in salt when preparing their meal.

Eating less salt is critical, not just to lower high blood pressure but to keep it from rising in the first place. Blood pressure ordinarily goes up as you get older, but you can curb the rise by eating a lower-salt diet. Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a very serious health problem and if left unchecked, it can, and often does, lead to many serious long-term health problems. If you think you could recognize high blood pressure if you had it, you are wrong! Most people with high blood pressure have no symptoms, so you can't assume that your blood pressure is normal if you haven't had it tested.

Getting Started: First, start checking labels for sodium content. When at the grocery store, choose foods that are advertising less salt on the label. Be sure to look out for any ingredient with the word sodium in it, such as - monosodium glutamate (MSG), sodium hydroxide, sodium nitrite. These mean it is likely the food has a high sodium content. Eat only fresh or frozen vegetables as part of a low sodium diet.

What a label really means when it says:

• Low Sodium - the food has 140 milligrams or less of sodium per serving.
  
  
• Very Low Sodium - the food has 35 milligrams or less of sodium per serving.
  
  
• Salt Free - the food has 5 milligrams of less of sodium per serving.
  
  
• Light in Sodium -the food has at least 50% less sodium that the original food product.
  
  
• Reduced Sodium - the food has at least 25% less sodium that the original product.

Eating Out: Life in the fast-food lane can be detrimental, as well. We tend to eat the same foods every week to ten days. So the next time you go to one of your ‘usual' places to eat, ask for a nutritional analysis (if they don't have one, print off an analysis from their website when you get home). Pay attention to how much salt is in the meal you usually purchase. Chances are it provides close to or more than an entire day's recommendation of salt. For example, one McDonald's Crispy Chicken sandwich alone has 1,180 milligrams of sodium!

Keep It Simple - The DASH Way: One of the major breakthroughs in the treatment of hypertension has been the DASH diet (DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). This diet has a lot of fruits and vegetables, whole-wheat grains and nonfat/low-fat dairy products. The reason why the DASH diet is so successful in lowering blood pressure is not solely because of the reduction in salt, but because it contains increased amounts of potassium and calcium. Both are important regulators in naturally lowering blood pressure.

Salt Substitutes: Check with your doctor first, if you are wondering if it is a good idea to replace the salt in your shaker with a salt substitute (the answer is maybe). While salt substitutes are a great way for healthy people to cut back on sodium while adding potassium, there could be serious consequences for people who take certain medications or who have been diagnosed with certain chronic conditions that compromise their ability to regulate potassium levels. That's because too much potassium can trigger a heart attack. Ironically, those who need to cut back on sodium the most are also those most likely to be taking medications or to have conditions that make salt substitutes potentially dangerous.

Eating less salt is very important to your health, even if you don't have high blood pressure! Whether you are 8 or 80, it is beneficial for everyone to begin paying closer attention to the excess salt in the foods eaten most often. The most important step you should take to achieve a lower blood pressure is to see your SFM doctor.

Ask your Sound Family Medicine physician if he/she thinks you would benefit from a nutrition consult for management of high blood pressure. Many insurance companies will cover up to 90% of the cost of the 'Physician Prescribed Medical Nutrition Therapy' consultation. Also, check your employee benefits plan at work. Some plans cover up to $500 for counseling by a Registered Dietitian per year. Healthy Eating!

Brooke Douglas, RD, CD www.NutritionAuthority.com