Aug

Salt is bad for your health

When it comes to seasoning food, there’s no shortage of salt options.

But when it comes to health, it doesn’t matter if it was mined in Kansas, solar-evaporated from the Mediterranean Sea or hand-harvested in French marshes. Salt is salt, the experts say, and it’s bad for your health. Chances are you’re eating way too much of it.

If you think setting down the shaker will make a difference, take that advice with a grain of salt. Most salt comes from processed foods and restaurants.

Here’s what’s known. For good health, most people need less than a quarter-teaspoon a day of salt - a natural mineral known as sodium chloride. Of course, except for medically supervised diets, it’s almost impossible to consume that little.

In fact, many foods exceed that amount per serving. Most Americans consume as much as 2 teaspoons of salt a day, far above the recommended half-teaspoon for healthy adults, according to the Institute of Medicine.

That’s a serious problem. Though the mechanism behind it isn’t fully understood, high-salt diets can cause high blood pressure, a risk factor for heart and kidney disease and stroke.

Here’s the rule: If it tastes good, it has either sugar, salt, or fat in it. If it tastes really good, it has either sugar&salt, salt&fat, or fat&sugar. If it is unbelievably, outstandingly good, it has salt and sugar and fat in it. This rule is as infallable as gravity.