We asked experts for easy and clever ways to cut down on salt without making your food basic.
So you're salty...
Most of us are. Sodium, the chemical element in salt, is literally everywhere — including our bodies. It's an essential nutrient, which we must replenish like any other vitamin or mineral. We need sodium to survive, so there is no such thing as a sodium-free diet. That would kill you.
But perhaps you're TOO salty.
The recommended daily sodium intake is between 1,500 - 2,300 mg (that's between about 2/3 a teaspoon and 1 teaspoon, FYI), depending on your age and risk factors (we'll help you find out how much you should aim for in a bit). But most Americans go way over that recommendation.
According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the average sodium intake for all Americans is around 3,500 mg — that's more than 1,000 mg of excess sodium every single day.
What happens when you have too much sodium?
Potentially, a lot of bad stuff. "Your body always tries to maintain a certain concentration of sodium in the body," Emily Callahan, R.D., National Program Lead of the American Heart Association's (AHA) Sodium Reduction Initiative, tells BuzzFeed Life. "Extra sodium in the bloodstream pulls more water into blood vessels and increases the total volume of blood inside, which raises your blood pressure."
Consuming excess amounts of sodium can lead to hypertension (long-term high blood pressure), which is a major risk factor for heart disease, the number one killer worldwide.
Not to mention sodium can make you bloated AF.
"When you eat too much salt, your body will retain more water and become bloated from the excess water weight you're now carrying around," Callahan explains. And we're not just talking about post-meal belly bloat — excess sodium can cause puffiness in your fingers, toes, and face. Not cute.
Warner Bros. / Via damnstraightneednotapply.com
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