Your High Blood Pressure Diet Has To Be Low In Sodium

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Your High Blood Pressure Diet Has To Be Low In Sodium

Friday, February 22nd, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

Salt is an extremely valuable element in our diet and has been in use for many thousands of years as a preservative and to give added taste to our food. Indeed, despite the fact that most people in the West take salt for granted, in a large number of countries it is a major trading commodity and many people will no doubt remember the important part played by salt in ending British rule in India in the middle of the twentieth century.

Unfortunately however salt can also be a major factor when we look at the problem of high blood pressure.

Salt is a compound composed of chloride and sodium and when we are considering hypertension it is the connection between sodium and high blood pressure that is of concern and the amount of sodium that we eat needs to be watched.

At first sight it may seem that controlling your intake of salt is merely a question of limiting the amount of salt that you put into your food while you are cooking and that you put on your food at the table. But, the true problem lies in the fact that the majority of the salt in our diet is contained in the processed foods which nearly all of us buy and eat every day.

In order to ensure that you minimize your risk of hypertension you must keep your intake of salt under the government’s recommended daily consumption figure of 2,400 milligrams and here are a few tips to help you to put together a high blood pressure diet:

1. Do not put salt on the table. As long as you are enjoying a correctly balanced diet your food will have enough salt without any need to add more when eating, so remove the salt from your table.

2. Learn how to read food labels. Food labeling laws markedly in recent years and most foods now carry nutritional information which includes the amount of sodium which the food contains. You must read the label carefully though as frequently the sodium figure given will apply to the whole of the pack or tin and occasionally it will only apply to an individual serving. Food labeling can help considerably in locating foods that lower blood pressure.

3. Purchase sodium free or low sodium products. An increasing range of foods nowadays come in sodium free or low sodium options and, where you can, you should choose these over the regular product.

4. Purchase low salt snacks. Most of us like to snack but try to stick to things like vegetables and fruit and, if you cannot live without your crisps, pick out varieties that are low in sodium or salt free.

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