The Truth about Salt that may Shock You: Go Asian for Your Heart

February is American’s National Heart Month, which attracts nation-wide attention to heart health once again. For the occasion, CDC just published its 61 volume of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on February 7^th, in which they investigated on American’s consumption of salt. As you may know, excessive consumption of salt raises blood pressure especially in sodium sensitive population: a threat for a healthy heart.

CDC’s report analyzed data from the 2007–2008 What We Eat in America, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), in which approximately 7100 people within various ethnic groups had participated. These data were collected from across the country by administering 24-hour recalls, and then are analyzed using USDA’s Food and Nutrition Database. Although the result of 24-hour diet recall is not as accurate, it gave us a decent grasp of our average salt intake level. Also, since salts added at table were excluded in the survey, the total intake is subjected to underestimation.

Following are the key findings and recommendations from the CDC report. Be prepared for one or more “wow moments”:

1. Many Americans eat too much salt, and you are very likely to be one of them. Recommended daily sodium consumption is <2,300 mg, and is 1,500 mg for groups that are more sodium sensitive. However, American’s average dietary sodium intake is 3,266 mg/day, and about 90% of us consume way more sodium than recommended.
2. 44% of the sodium consumed is coming from 10 main categories of foods, and surprisingly, bread is at the top of the list.                                                                                  The 10 main categories are: bread and rolls, cold cuts/cured meats, pizza, poultry, soups, sandwiches, cheese, pasta mixed dishes, meat mixed dishes, and savory snacks.
3. More than 85% of dietary sodium from foods and drinks comes from stores or restaurants rather than home cooked foods.
4. Reducing the sodium content of the 10 leading sources by one fourth would reduce total dietary sodium by more than 10%.

How come breads and rolls contribute the most toward our sodium intake? You may ask. In fact, there is quite high but not extremely high amount of sodium (about 150mg per serving) in most commercial breads, however, since we eat so much of them on a daily basis, small quantities added up.

To cut back on your sodium intake from breads, you can certainly make your own bread with less salt added, which is nevertheless quite time consuming. In comparison to bread, however, rice contains way less sodium (about 1mg per serving) and is way easier to prepare!

So why not go Asian for your heart?

Here are the tricks:

• Pick up a rice cooker in Wal-Mart or Chinatown for as cheap as $12.
• Put rice in the cooking pot.
• Rinse rice with water to get rid of any bad pieces or empty bran that’s floating on the surface.
• Add water to the pot to cover the rice.
• Plug in your rice cooker and hit start!