By Martha Crofts
Fast food and pre-prepared foods may be the quickest solution for growling stomachs of busy college students, but they are also often the highest in sodium content.
Some health officials are worried consumers are ignoring aspects of their diet like sodium while the emphasis by the Food and Drug Administration lately has been just on obesity.
“We are not doing anything on the issue [sodium intake] right now,” said Devin Koontz, spokesperson for the FDA Denver District Office. “We [the FDA] are focusing on obesity, especially with the new trans-fatty acid label requirements that came out recently.”
Koontz said he was aware, however, of the connection between sodium intake and hypertension, or high blood pressure.
Sodium is linked to high blood pressure that can then affect the heart and kidneys and lead to heart disease or stroke.
Since sodium intake effects are hard to determine in each person, the recommendations to cut sodium in half recently by health officials are probably because of the potential to lead to these chronic diseases, said Diana McGuire, BYU associate teaching professor of Dietetics.
McGuire said not everyone is “salt sensitive,” but most evidence shows that most people can benefit from a salt restricted diet.
Fresh vegetables, fruit and even meat that you can control how much salt is added is the best, she said.
The National Academy of Sciences” Dietary Reference Intakes simply states to “limit daily intake of salt.” The World Health Association states 6 grams a day as an upper limit.
“I estimate most people eat approximately 5,000 milligrams, or 5 grams, [of sodium] a day,” McGuire said. “We could probably cut that in half and still find our food plenty flavorful.”
She said most sources of sodium come in fast food and pre-prepared foods.
Part of cutting sodium can come by looking at labels, she said, and part is just trying to use a healthier eating plan.
She suggests for students to eat foods that are not as pre-prepared, to not automatically salt food without tasting it, to experiment with other herbs and spices besides salt and to not use salty foods as snack foods (instead replace them with more fruits and vegetables.)
A diet plan for those already with hypertension exists, she said.
The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet is lower in sodium and higher in other minerals like calcium, magnesium and potassium that are helpful for blood pressure. This is done through increased dairy, fruits and vegetables.
This DASH diet recommends only 2,400 milligrams or less of sodium daily.
