Before you reach for the salt shaker to “add taste” to your dinner, let’s turn to our friends at the Mayo Clinic to find out the ways sodium sneaks into our diet. The average person gets about 3,400 mg of sodium per day — much more than the recommended 2,300 mg a day — or 1,500 mg if you’re age 51 or older, or if you are African American, or if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease.
Here are the main sources of sodium in a typical diet:
• Processed and prepared foods. The vast majority of sodium in the typical diet comes from foods that are processed and prepared. These foods are typically high in salt, which is a combination of sodium and chloride, and in additives that contain sodium. Processed foods include bread, prepared dinners like pasta, meat and egg dishes, pizza, cold cuts and bacon, cheese, soups, and fast foods.
• Natural sources. Some foods naturally contain sodium. These include all vegetables and dairy products such as milk, meat and shellfish. While they don’t have an abundance of sodium, eang these foods does add to your overall sodium intake. For example, 1 cup (237 milliliters) of low-fat milk has about 107 mg of sodium.
• In the kitchen and at the table. Many recipes call for salt, and many people also salt their food at the table. Condiments may also contain sodium. One tablespoon (15 milliliters) of soy sauce, for example, has about 1,000 mg of sodium.
So how can you tell which foods are high in sodium? Read food labels. The Nutrition Facts label found on most packaged and processed foods lists the amount of sodium in each serving. It also lists whether the ingredients include salt or sodium-containing compounds, such as; monosodium glutamate (MSG), baking soda, baking powder, disodium phosphate, sodium alginate, and sodium nitrate or nitrite.
