Too Much Salt in the American Diet

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Researchers say there is too much salt in the American diet. The number one perpetrator is not the salt that a person adds to a meal, but processed foods, fast foods and even a lot of sweets. Unfortunately, this is even more bad news for the Americans because this type of foods makes it very hard for a person to regulate the daily intake of sodium.

The latest study conducted on this subject revealed that the average American teenager consumes 1000 mg more salt than the dose recommended on a daily basis (2100 mg). The numbers are even higher in the case of adults in between the ages of 19 and 51. The average man consumes 4400 mg per day, a bit more than the average woman, 3100 mg.

There are a lot of health concerns connected to a sodium intake of this magnitude. They range from serious heart problems to simple water retention that causes bloating. Every single one of the health issues must be carefully balanced because it could lead to very serious problems that can only aggravate as time passes.

Heart Diseases

Salt is very often associated with heart diseases. The reason behind it is the fact that a bigger intake of sodium causes hypertension. From this to serious heart problems there is only a small step, and that step could be the possible arrhythmia that develops on the background of the elevated blood pressure levels. From there on, a heart attack is just a slice of pizza away.

Bone Fragility

An increased level of sodium in the human body can cause the bones to become more fragile. This was already proven in a study that focused on diabetic patients and women suffering from osteoporosis. The more salt they had in their diet, the more elevated the risk of broken bones.

It is proven that salt can cause even deformations at the skeletal level. This is way more serious than a broken bone injury. It is a malformation that will last a lifetime.

Kidney Stones

Anyone who has ever gone through the excruciating pain of eliminating a kidney stone is currently eating a very healthy, low sodium meal.

The kidneys act as our body’s purifying system. When the amounts of calcium and sodium exceed normal levels, the surplus remains in the organs, thus transforming into stones. People who have been able to eliminate the stones in a natural way can be considered very lucky, letting aside the horrendous pain, because in a great number of cases the stones cannot be passed along the urine stream and they lead to severe complications like kidney failure, and even death.

Cancer

A couple of days ago the FDA banned three materials that were used in pizza boxes and were proven to be cancerous. Today we learn that pizza is one of the processed foods that contains way more salt than needed, and that it can, too, cause cancer.

The Cancer Research American Institute has declared that a higher level of sodium present in food is one of the leading causes of stomach cancer.

The conclusion is that Americans should start worrying more not about the level of salt that they pour themselves in the food, but the high level of sodium already present in almost everything they eat. National awareness on this subject must grow exponentially.

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