The Salt Experiment

We have heard many times that Americans have too much salt in their diet.  Though approximately 1500 mg is needed each day for bodily function, too much of a good thing can cause other problems.  I never paid much attention to all the talk because I think I eat less salt than most people since I rarely use or consume processed foods and never eat canned vegetables.  Salt is likely used by food manufacturers not to make you unhealthy but rather to extend food shelf life.  If you look back to days of crossing the Atlantic in sail boats, the trip was long and in order to extend the shelf life of meat and fish, it was dried and salted.
Hearing the news of the recent reduction in the daily recommended needed, I got wondering exactly how much salt do I eat? And more importantly, how much am I feeding my family.
So I am setting out to do an experiment.  I will assume that 3/4 tsp a day is about what we should each eat.  I cook and salt our food with kosher salt.  I will place 3/4 tsp for each of us in separate bowls.  I am going to label the bowls.  If we want to salt our food, we will use our individual bowls.  When I cook something the 3 of us will eat, I will take 1/3 from each bowl.   If we are eating something that has salt listed on the label, I will record that as well.  I am very curious to find out how this works out.
Here is an interesting fact.  On my package of Morton Course Kosher Salt, I found a 1/4 tsp of Salt has 480mg of sodium.  I wanted to find out if all salts were created equally and in researching Table Salt, found 1/4 tsp has 600mg of sodium.  Making a change to Kosher Salt can reduce your intake right off the bat.
When cooking, try salting your food after it's cooked.  We all want to taste salt, so if it is salted to hit your tongue first, you'll need less.
As a test, I salted very lightly, the bottom slice of bread for a turkey breast and tomato sandwich so it would hit my tongue rather than the roof of my mouth and what a difference.  I tasted the salt first.
If you are on a low salt diet it doesn't mean a no-flavor diet.  Try flavoring with non salt flavorings like spices, herbs, ginger, garlic,and pepper to name a few.

I am finding that we eat very little salt.  I decided to continue this process for a 7 day period.  This way I can better account for weekends vs. week days when we are home for more meals.

I am proud to say that after a week, we each consumed under 3/4 tsp of Kosher Salt per person for the entire week.  I didn't bake which I normally do, that would be about 1 tsp for a recipe and then of course that is divided by 3.  Therefore, the main source of sodium we are getting is coming from things like Wheat Bread, Cheese, Ketchup and Mustard, Salty Chips or Store bought Cookies that are in our diet.  I drink Hot Chocolate in my coffee and surprisingly there is sodium in it.  I am getting approximately 1/3 (based on 1500mg sodium a day) of the daily allowance there.  So I would say we are in very good shape as far as sodium is concerned.
From March through October we have extremely high temperatures and all sweat quite a bit.  We all drink gatorade which contains sodium but on the other hand our daily requirement would be increased as well.
I am confident we are not in the group of Americans consuming too much sodium, if anything, we are under the daily requirement.
You should switch to Kosher Salt to reduce your intake.  Another suggestion is to use salt in pinches to "finish" your food rather than salting it while it is cooking.  If you begin to read labels you will begin to feel offended by the sodium content and will automatically avoid high sodium products, big culprit, Kraft Mac and Cheese.
If you are concerned, conduct your own experiment with your family.  Teaching your kids these good habits will be good for everyone's health!  Please feel free to post a comment as to your findings.

My Skinny on Fat

Monitoring fat intake is a personal affair, I liken it to using the restroom and washing your hands. No one really knows what you did in there.

I sat in a meeting about 15 years ago where the speaker spoke on topics of eating and exercise. He discussed fat intake and fat cells. He explained that we form fat cells at 3 times in our life. The 3rd trimester (what the mother eats matters), between the ages 4-7 (what we feed our children at this critical time is highly important) and in times of heavy dieting. We can't control the 1st two but the third is tricky business. If you feel you lose weight and then gain it back and then some, you are probably right. You body forms more fat cells as its supplies are being depleted. If you gain weight, you have more cells to fill and more fat is in fact stored. Constant weight loss and gain is defeating the purpose. Excercise and a healthy diet of all food groups is always the best habit you can have. I have always had a very strong sense of both.

I have never deliberately cut fat out of my diet. I don't eat a lot of fried foods but I sautee with Butter and Olive or Canola Oil, I drink 1/2 & 1/2 in my coffee, and I only buy whole milk for my son and for my cooking needs. If you try to get by on a 1/2 grapefruit and a rice cake for breakfast, I think you will find you can't make it til lunch without a snack. If your snack is a bag of chips or cookies, which most often it is since we have the least access to the right foods, then it is my belief you would be best served having a real breakfast and omitting the snack.

From this long ago meeting the way it was explained was if you can't get from one meal to the next without a snack then you don't have enough fat in your diet. If your job is active that can be particularly true. I don't mean go crazy gourging on fatty foods, but set up a good mix of all foods including the amount of fat your body needs. Once I had a thin sliced low calorie bread with turkey and no fat cheese. What was the point, I was starving, it was as if I had never eaten lunch and guess what I did?

Some ideas might be to reduce the serving size and if you don't already, eat proper meals, begin to eat all 3 of them, and cut out all snacking in between. Another way to keep eating they way you like is to add excercise. Did you know you burn the same number of calories whether you run or walk a mile? I find if I excercise before I eat, it actually curbs my appetite. Grab someone you like to talk to and begin walking daily. It'll be good for eveyone!