Get the skinny on salt

Cutting your salt intake is one of the most important changes you can make to keep your blood pressure at a healthy level. One of the benefits of natural, rather than processed, foods is that they contain little to no sodium chloride (table salt).

• Scientists had confirmation of the damaging effects of salt when they studied an indigenous tribe from South America, the Yanomami, who live in the rainforests of Brazil and Venezuela. The tribe's diet contains little fat, no refined carbohydrates — and no salt.
• When they die as adults, the Yanomami show no evidence of the cardiovascular disease that is omnipresent in Western civilizations.
• The average adult blood pressure is lower than 100 systolic (the top number in a reading) and just over 60 diastolic (the second number) — an ideal, healthy level.

• You don't have to travel to the Amazon to start cutting sodium out of your diet.
• Reducing daily salt intake by just .75 grams — roughly the amount contained in a 40 gram (two ounce) piece of cheddar cheese — can reduce systolic pressure by two to four points, and diastolic pressure by one to two points.
• In Canada and the United States, current dietary guidelines call for no more than 2,300 milligrams a day of sodium for healthy adults, or 1,500 milligrams for middle-aged and older individuals.
• Most of us take in much more than that. But it is not salt in cooking, or even the salt that we add to meals, that's the prime culprit.
• The sodium in processed and pre-prepared foods such as soups, bread, and premade meals accounts for more than three-quarters of our average salt intake.

• If you want to cut down on the amount of salt you consume, it is worth getting into the habit of reading the labels on food packaging before you put items into your shopping cart.
• Don't be fooled into thinking that "reduced sodium" means "low sodium." It simply means that the product contains 25 per cent less than a comparable product.