Salt... The Lowdown! -Mayo-clinic

Hello Everyone... Sorry it's been so long since I made an entry here. Life has been pretty busy these past few weeks... In any event, I wanted to do todays topic on Salt... How bad is it... and what we should do about it. :) The Mayo-Clinic has the following to say... Enjoy!





Sodium: Are you getting too much?
( http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sodium/NU00284 )
Find out how much sodium you really need, what high-sodium foods to avoid, and ways to prepare and serve foods without adding salt or sodium.By Mayo Clinic staff
You've been trying to eat less sodium — just a pinch of table salt on your baked potato and a dash to your scrambled eggs.

The main sources of sodium in the average U.S. diet.
But a pinch and a dash can quickly add up to unhealthy levels of sodium, especially when many foods already contain more than enough sodium. About 11 percent of the sodium in the average U.S. diet comes from adding salt or other sodium-containing condiments to foods while cooking or eating. But the majority of the sodium — 77 percent — comes from eating prepared or processed foods that contain the mineral. So even though you may limit the amount of salt you add to food, the food itself may already be high in sodium.
Are you getting too much? Here's where sodium sneaks into your diet and ways you can shake the habit.
Sodium: Essential in small amounts
Your body needs some sodium to function properly.
Sodium:

• Helps maintain the right balance of fluids in your body
• Helps transmit nerve impulses
• Influences the contraction and relaxation of muscles

Your kidneys regulate the amount of sodium kept in your body. When sodium levels are low, your kidneys conserve sodium. When levels are high, they excrete the excess amount in urine.
If your kidneys can't eliminate enough sodium, the sodium starts to accumulate in your blood. Because sodium attracts and holds water, your blood volume increases. Increased blood volume, in turn, makes your heart work harder to move more blood through your blood vessels, increasing pressure in your arteries. Certain diseases such as congestive heart failure, cirrhosis and chronic kidney disease can lead to an inability to regulate sodium.
Some people are more sensitive to the effects of sodium than are others. People who are sodium sensitive retain sodium more easily, leading to excess fluid retention and increased blood pressure. If you're in that group, extra sodium in your diet increases your chance of developing high blood pressure, a condition that can lead to cardiovascular and kidney diseases.



Three main sources of sodium
The average U.S. diet has three main sources of sodium:
Processed and prepared foods. Most sodium in a person's diet comes from eating processed and prepared foods, such as canned vegetables, soups, luncheon meats and frozen foods. Food manufacturers use salt or other sodium-containing compounds to preserve food and to improve the taste and texture of food.
Sodium-containing condiments. One teaspoon (5 milliliters) of table salt has 2,325 mg of sodium, and 1 tablespoon (15 milliliters) of soy sauce has about 900 to 1,000 mg of sodium. Adding these or other sodium-laden condiments to your meals — either while cooking or at the table — raises the sodium count of food.
Natural sources of sodium. Sodium naturally occurs in some foods, such as meat, poultry, dairy products and vegetables. For example, 1 cup (237 milliliters) of low-fat milk has about 107 mg of sodium.
Be a savvy shopper: Find the sodium
Taste alone may not tell you which foods are high in sodium. For example, you may not think a bagel tastes salty, but a 4-inch (10-centimeter) oat-bran bagel has 451 mg of sodium.
So how do you identify foods high in sodium? The best way to determine sodium content is to read food labels. The Nutrition Facts label tells you how much sodium is in each serving. It also lists whether salt or sodium-containing compounds are ingredients. Examples of these compounds include:
Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
Baking soda
Baking powder
Disodium phosphate
Sodium alginate
Sodium nitrate or nitrite

How to cut sodium
You may or may not be particularly sensitive to the effects of sodium. And because there's no way to know who might develop high blood pressure as a result of a high-sodium diet, choose and prepare foods with less sodium.

You can cut sodium several ways:
Eat more fresh foods and fewer processed foods. Most fresh fruits and vegetables are naturally low in sodium. Also, fresh meat is lower in sodium than luncheon meat, bacon, hot dogs, sausage and ham are. Buy fresh and frozen poultry or meat that hasn't been injected with a sodium-containing solution. Look on the label or ask your butcher.
Opt for low-sodium products. If you do buy processed foods, select those that have reduced sodium.
Remove salt from recipes whenever possible. You can leave out the salt in many recipes, including casseroles, stews and other main dishes. Baked goods are an exception. Leaving out the salt could affect the quality as well as the taste of the food.
Limit your use of sodium-laden condiments. Salad dressings, sauces, dips, ketchup, mustard and relish all contain sodium.
Use herbs, spices and other flavorings to enhance foods. Learn how to use fresh or dried herbs, spices, zest from citrus fruit, and fruit juices to jazz up your meals.
Use salt substitutes wisely. Some salt substitutes or light salts contain a mixture of table salt (sodium chloride) and other compounds. To achieve that familiar salty taste, you may use too much of the substitute and actually not use less sodium. In addition, many salt substitutes contain potassium chloride. Though dietary potassium can lessen some of the harm of excess sodium, too much supplemental potassium can be harmful if you have kidney problems or if you're taking medications for congestive heart failure or high blood pressure that cause potassium retention.

Your taste for salt is acquired, so it's reversible.(I LOVE THIS STATEMENT!) To unlearn this salty savoring, decrease your use of salt gradually and your taste buds will adjust. Most people find that after a few weeks of cutting salt, they no longer miss it. Start by using no more than 1/4 teaspoon (1 milliliter) of added salt daily, and then gradually reduce to no salt add-ons. As you use less salt, your preference for it lessens, allowing you to enjoy the taste of food itself.


As Many of you read above, nitrate is a common word so I thought I would give just a tid-bit about them. We'll leave the extras on it for another entry. :)

What are Nitrates and Why Are They Bad!?
( http://journalofhealthyliving.com/what-are-nitrates-and-why-are-they-bad.htm )
Nitrates, and nitrites like sodium nitrite, are additives. They were added processed foods, usually meats like cold cuts and hot dogs, to fight botulism. The unfortunate part is that they can form nitrosamines in our intestines once they are digested. Nitrosamines are bad because they might be carcinogenic.
Does that mean you should avoid processed foods like cold cuts and hot dogs? (or anything with nitrates or nitrites) No, because a diet rich in vitamin C will prevent nitrosamines from forming. It’s that very reason that foods with nitrites find themselves packed with lots of vitamin C derivatives such as ascorbate or sodium erythrobate.

Why our Body needs Fat... + article from Harvard Med

Why Our Bodies Need Fats

Why do we need fat in our diet?Fat provides needed energy. It is difficult to eat the large amounts of food in a very low fat diet to get all the energy you need.Fat is needed to prevent essential fatty acid deficiency.Fat is needed so your body can absorb the fat soluble vitamins A, S, E, K, and prevent deficiencies of these vitamins.Fat provides flavor and texture to help prevent food from being bland and dry.Fat helps food to stay in the stomach longer, giving a greater sense of satisfaction and preventing hunger soon after meals.Fat may help your body produce endorphins (natural substances in the brain that produce pleasurable feelings).Diets too low in fat (less than 20 - 25%) may trigger cravings.
What does fat do for our body? Provides back-up energy if blood sugar supplies run out (after 4-6 hours without food).Provides insulation under the skin from the cold and the heat.Protects organs and bones from shock and provides support for organs.Fat surrounds and insulates nerve fibers to help transmit nerve impulses.Fat is part of every cell membrane in the body. It helps transport nutrients and metabolites across cell membranes.Your body uses fat to make a variety of other building blocks needed for everything from hormones to immune function.
What happens when we don't have enough fat in our diet?Dry, scaly skinHair lossLow body weightCold intoleranceBruisingPoor growthLower resistance to infectionPoor wound healingLoss of menstruation

Info provided by: http://www.eatingdisordersonline.com/nutritional/fats.php

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Harvard University, Tufts University
Counting calories, not fat or carbs, matters most, study says
EmailLinkComments (1) Posted by Elizabeth Cooney February 25, 2009 05:00 PM
In the long run, it's the calories -- not the fat nor protein nor carbs -- that matter, according to a new study comparing diets.
Weight-conscious Americans snap up the latest diets, from the low-fat Dean Ornish approach, to the high-protein Atkins plan, to the compromise called South Beach. But scientific studies evaluating the diets' effectiveness have had mixed results, though, frustrating consumers who struggle to shed pounds.
A team led by Dr. Frank M. Sacks of the Harvard School of Public Health designed a clinical trial that randomly assigned 811 men and women to eat one of four reduced-calorie, heart-healthy diets with different levels of fat, protein, and carbohydrates for two years. The dieters were asked to exercise for a total of 90 minutes each week and they were invited to attend regular group sessions, in addition to receiving periodic individual counseling.
"What we found is that the most important thing for people to lose weight is to choose a heart-healthy diet and to keep the amounts down," Sacks, lead author of the article appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine,said in an interview. "It's not so important whether they eat higher carbohydrates or higher protein or lower carbohydrates or lower protein. What really matters is just plain, simple old quantity: how much people eat."
All the diets worked the same when measured by lost pounds and reduced waist circumference, regardless of the nutrients they emphasized. The 80 percent of participants who stuck with the diets until the end lost an average of 13 pounds in the first six months and kept about 9 pounds off after two years. Dieters who had the best record of attending counseling sessions lost 22 pounds. Waistlines shrank by about 2 inches throughout all groups.
In the end it was the calories they didn't eat that made the difference. All four diets cut out 750 calories a day, the researchers said, prescribing a minimum intake of 1,200 calories per day.
"It's just the calories that count," Sacks said. "It does really make sense [if] how you gain weight is by eating more calories than you burn, you lose weight by eating less."
Cholesterol, blood pressure, and triglyceride levels also improved modestly across the groups.
"These results show that, as long as people follow a heart-healthy, reduced-calories diet, there is more than one nutritional approach to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight," Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, said in a statement. The institute funded the study.
The participants, who were classified as overweight or obese based on body mass index scores from 25 to 49, agreed to eat diets high in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. They recorded what they ate or drank in a web-based program that tracked their progress.
Most participants had trouble meeting their assigned targets for fat, protein, or carbohydrate, the study authors noted. That was especially true for the high-protein and low-fat groups, but the differences between what the four groups ate were bigger than in previous studies, so still large enough to draw conclusions, they said.
"The further diet is from a person's customary intake, the harder it is to stick with it in the long term," Sacks said, adding that the study's conclusion that calories matter most will make it easier to follow than more restrictive diets.
Susan B. Roberts, a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, was troubled by the limited success participants had in staying on the diets. If they ate similar amounts of protein, she said, it's not surprising that their weight loss was similar.
"I think these large studies that fail to cause much change in diet and produce minimal weight loss don't really help us move forward because they don't tell us what does work," she said in an e-mail interview. "There are four generally recognized ways to reduce hunger and increase satiety based on detailed clinical studies - high protein, high fiber, high volume (i.e., low energy density) and also low glycemic index carbs. What I would really like to see is more focus on these factors rather than just fat, carbs and protein."
An editorial also appearing in the Journal said focusing on diet components might be less important than the behavior of the dieters and the environment around them.
"Even these highly motivated, intelligent participants who were coached by expert professionals could not achieve weight losses needed to reverse the obesity epidemic," Martijn B. Katan of the Institute of Health Sciences at VU University in Amsterdam writes. "We do not need another diet trial; we need a change of paradigm."