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SALT LAKE CITY — How much salt is in your diet? It may be a necessity for your scrambled eggs but some new studies say that over 2.3 million people worldwide died from cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths in 2010 from eating too much salt.
"The burden of sodium is much higher than the burden of sugar-sweetened beverages," Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health and author of both the salt and sugary drink studies, told ABC News.
"That's because sugar-sweetened beverages are just one type of food that people can avoid, whereas sodium is in everything," he said.
People are so focused on their calorie and fat intake when really, the dangers lie in sodium.
–Jenna Jackson
According to the first study, in 2010 adults on average consumed 3,950 mg of salt a day— over twice the daily 1,500mg recommendation from the American Heart Association and daily 2,000mg recommendation from the World Health Organization.
"I think salt (and sugar) intake aren't discussed enough," said Jenna Jackson, a nutrition and dietetics student at CSU Northridge. "People are so focused on their calorie and fat intake when really, the dangers lie in sodium."
Sodium consumption in America
In a list of salt consumption in the world's 30 largest countries the U.S. ranked No. 19, with citizens consuming an average of 3,600 mg of salt a day. To keep things in perspective, a teaspoon of salt has 2,325 mg.
According to the second study, one in 10 Americans die from eating too much salt. This study comes after another one just revealed there were 25,000 deaths per year in the U.S. related to too many sugary drinks.
Dariush says that one out of three deaths due to excessive sodium occurred before age 70.
"From that we could determine the health effects of sodium, it's really affecting younger adults, not just the elderly," Dr. Dariush said.
#saltshakepoll
Jackson, who is also the project manager at the Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics, says it is extremely important to monitor your salt intake to make sure you have the proper blood pressure, heart function and hydration status.
What does this mean for you? Well, that Crown Burger isn't doing you any favors. Eat one and you've almost reached the AHA daily recommendation. A regular Crown Burger comes in at about 1300 mg of sodium.
Jackson says it's important to not eat over 2,300 mg of salt a day and to choose foods with less than 5 percent of the daily recommendation of salt. That means finding foods with 115 mg of salt or less.
That's not easy to do when you have a hankering for pizza.
Popular Eats:
- Papa John's 14" Pepperoni Pizza, 1 slice = 890 mg sodium
- Crown Burger = 1300 mg sodium
- In-N-Out cheeseburger = 1000 mg sodium
- Taco Bell 1/2 pound burrito = 1320 mg sodium
- Chili's queso with chips = 3340 mg sodium
- McDonald's large fries = 350 mg sodium
- McDonald's sausage McMuffin with egg = 890 mg sodium
- 1 medium tomato = 20 mg sodium
- 1 medium carrot = 60 mg sodium
- 8 medium strawberries = 0 mg sodium
- Brick Oven = no nutritional information available
- Settebello Pizza = no nutritional information available
- The Pie Pizzeria = no nutritional information available
Phone calls made to Brick Oven, Settebello and the Pie Pizzeria revealed no nutritional information at all, although Brick Oven says they're working on getting theirs out to the public. According to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, only restaurants with 20 or more locations are required to post their nutritional information.
"I don't research everything I eat before I eat out," said Corrine Stokoe, new mother of one from Sandy, Utah. "We try to not eat out often, so when we do it's more of a treat than a habit ... I try to just enjoy my food."
Keeping things in perspective
Jackson says if everyone limited their intake to 2,300 mg or less a day, there would be a big decrease in risk of hypertension and heart disease would decrease. However, it's OK to have the occasional treat.
Stokoe says she tries not to worry too much about all the bad things she hears about food in the media.
I also think that people can go completely overboard with believing everything that they read and overreacting out of fear. Instead of basing my decisions on fear-based motives, I always prefer to make decisions with positive motivations.
–Corrine Stokoe
"I also think that people can go completely overboard with believing everything that they read and overreacting out of fear," Stokoe said. "Instead of basing my decisions on fear-based motives, I always prefer to make decisions with positive motivations."
Stokoe says she tries to focus on positive eating by buying lots fruits and vegetables for her family and making her own baby food. But she says she does make a conscious effort to stay away from processed foods.
"We rarely buy salty potato chips or snacky, processed foods," Stokoe said. "It makes them more of a treat if we go on a vacation or out boating with friends in the summer."
When the sodium information is not available, it makes it tricky to track your salt consumption. However, there are several ways to lower your sodium intake.
- 1. Eat whole foods: As if we don't hear this enough, but it's very important for your health to eat lean meats, fresh fruits and vegetables and beans.
- 2. Cut back on canned, frozen and processed foods: Rinse off canned beans and vegetables to lower sodium intake.
- 3. Know what you're eating: Look at nutrition labels. Keep an eye on your intake by looking at nutrition labels and choosing foods that are low in sodium.
