Salt and Blood Pressure
The relationship between blood pressure and salt is important to understand to control your blood pressure. First, salt is sodium and it is important to our bodies. Our bodies take in salt (sodium) in the foods we eat. Our kidneys get rid of the salt (sodium) keeping us in a delicate balance with just the right amount of salt.
When we eat too much salt the kidneys can not keep up and the extra sodium goes into our blood stream. Salt attracts water. So as the salt level in the bloodstream rises it pulls
water into the blood stream to dilute the salt. This increase in fluid in the bloodstream causes an increase volume in the blood which raises the blood pressure. So how much salt is too
much? If you have high blood pressure you should keep the sodium in your diet to 1,500 mg of sodium or less a day. Our bodies need 500 mg of salt daily. Canned foods have the most salt as salt is often a preservative in these foods. Fresh food hast the least sodium and frozen is in the middle.
When you read the label and you see sodium listed you are seeing salt is an ingredient that food. Notice in the food label that there is 660 mg in one serving and this product says there are two servings in the container. Reading labels and maintaining a salt (sodium) intake of 1,500 mg or less is a key to controlling your blood pressure.
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