Rapid Fat Loss Diets

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Facts on High Blood Pressure Sodium Intake

By Michael Byrd

Excessive sodium intake can bring about high blood pressure so put that salt shaker down at once! We always get this advice from health professionals. This advice is good but only if you follow it.

Sodium is an essential mineral so you can't live without it. However, too much sodium intake can do more harm than good. We only need a little amount of salt to survive. However, most Americans get much more than they should. Let us see if we can solve this high blood pressure sodium intake problem.

Sodium helps to normalize the water balance in your body. This is exactly why your body needs sodium. However, excessive sodium intake can cause water retention in your body which eventually leads to an increase in blood volume and edema. The increase in blood volume can put stress on the circulatory system which then can lead to high blood pressure. Certainly there are other reasons for high blood pressure but apart or combined with other factors it is still a cause.

So how much sodium does our body exactly need? The American Heart Association recommended that we should get no more than 2,300 milligrams or a teaspoon of salt a day. But for most adults, as much as 1,100 up to 3,300 milligrams daily is assumed to be safe even though we only need around 500 up to 1,000 milligrams of salt daily in order to function well.

So how much salt are we getting right now? It is said that a regular American consumes between 6,000 up to 15,000 milligrams of sodium in a day and it can even get as much as 28,000 milligrams. This is exactly the reason why we need to take closer look at our sodium intake.

So how come we are getting more than enough sodium in our diets? This is because sodium can be found in almost every food that we eat. We can get it from packaged, processed and restaurant foods where sodium has been added. Every now and then we need to keep track of our total sodium intake since the numbers can add up real quick. We can do this only if we know how to read food labels.

When eating breakfast, lunch, dinners as well as all the snacks in between try to have some fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, whole grains and everything else that has no salt added. That way you are able to reduce your sodium intake gradually. If you wish to reduce your salt and high blood pressure sodium intake then it is best that you begin with baby steps.

Stop using prepared foods and start making them yourself. What's more you can buy fresh products instead of canned goods. Drink loads of water instead of soda and if you just cannot avoid eating packaged foods then see to it that you buy only those with low sodium labels.

Just follow these suggestions together with the other means of lowering blood pressure such as exercising regularly, having more omega 3 fish oil in your diet, and reducing stress and you'll surely see your blood pressure drop down naturally. - 17273

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