How many of your patients know how much salt is there in an Oreo cookie? Probably a lot more than you or they might think. Three cookies give you fully 11% of your daily recommend, for children the figure is a lot higher. Perhaps you'd be better to switch to low fat cottage cheese. No you wouldn't. A single serving contains one quarter of the daily adult intake.
These are some of the numbers from a US government commissioned study by the Institute of Medicine which estimates salt causes 100,000 premature deaths due to hypertension and related diseases.
“Salt is very addicting,” says Sidney Alexander, a Boston cardiologist. He sees his patients struggle. “Even though there are good salt substitutes and other spices they can use, they have a hard time giving it up."
There's very little you can do to avoid over dosing on salt unless you eat only food prepared at home. Three-quarters of the salt you consume comes from processed food and that served in restaurants. Some dishes contain three and four times the daily requirement.
For more see the New York Times report at http://nyti.ms/dDm0tP
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