Worried high blood pressure? Before you toss the salt shaker over your shoulder, put it back on the kitchen table and consider this fact from the American Heart Association (AHA): More than 70 percent of the sodium we consume comes from processedprepackaged and restaurant foods.
So those crystals you sprinkle on your corn on the cob really aren’t the problem. It’s all that sodium added to food before you have a chance to say “no thanks.” You can’t get out the sodium you’ve already put in. The best you can do if you want avoid high blood pressure—a risk factor for heart attack and stroke— is to avoid the saltiest foods in supermarkets and restaurants. And if heart disease runs in your family, be sure to check out these Heart Health Symptoms You Should Never Ignore, According to Doctors.
The AHA has created a kind of police lineup, “The Salty Six,” which identifies the worst bad guys for your cardiovascular health. Read on to find out the foods to give up (or at least limit) if you don’t want high blood pressure, and for more on how to eat healthy, don’t miss out. The #1 Best Juice for Everyday Drive, Science Says.
These culprits are somewhat stealthy. Look at the nutritional information on a loaf of your favorite sliced bread. You’ll see that it contains about 100 to 200 milligrams (mg) of sodium, which is not a ton. (To put that in perspective, the AHA says you should limit your sodium intake to 2,300mg per daybut ideally, you should aim for 1,500 mg, especially if you have high blood pressure.) So why are bread and rolls on the AHA’s warning list?
“In the society we live in, we eat a lot breadexplains Florida-based registered dietitian nutritionist kim pinkRDN. “You have muffins, bagels, slices of bread, pastries for breakfast, it all adds up.” And of course, there are always winners in the sodium department. Check out the corn muffins at biscuit barrel. Each has 510 mg of sodium. That’s almost a quarter of the recommended daily limit of 2,300 mg!
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Sorry for burning your tongue. Unfortunately, your beloved Pizza it is one of the saltiest of the six. But are you surprised? Bread, cheese, and tomato sauce contain large amounts of sodium. But things get super salty when you start adding all the ingredients like pepperoni, extra cheese, canned mushrooms and artichokes, and so on,” he says. bonnie taub dixRDNauthor of Read it before you eat it: from label to table.
Most of the sandwiches fast food burgers, chicken sandwiches, and even veggie wraps are loaded with high blood pressure-increasing salt. In fact, it’s safe to say that every time you eat out, even when you eat well, you’re likely consuming an unhealthy level of sodium. That’s why you should strive to “prepare more meals at home,” suggests a registered dietitian nutritionist. Ilana MuhlsteinRDNauthor of You can quit! How I Lost 100 Pounds Enjoying Carbs, Cocktails, and Chocolate, and You Can Too! “Most of the salt in our diets comes from restaurant foods,” she says.
A quick search for some of your favorite restaurant meals will make that very clear. For example, the popular Boston’s Market chicken pot pie contains 1,780 milligrams of sodium. Do you think an omelette is a safe option for breakfast? Careful with Denny’s where the Mile High Denver Omelet Breakfast contains 2,360 mg.
reduce eating sausages and another sausages such as bacon, ham and sausage is one of the most effective ways to quickly reduce your sodium intake because cold cuts are the fourth largest contributor of sodium in the US diet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Disease Prevention (CDC). Instead, choose uncured meats and low-sodium deli meats or fresh meats like grilled chicken. nutritionists of consumer reports analyzed the sodium content of 124 packaged deli meats from many different processors and compared them to similar sized portions of fresh meat and found that the deli meats contained, on average, up to 11 times the sodium content.
The average can of Soup contains between 1,400 and 1,800 milligrams of sodium and some contain a good amount more. “Even if you limit yourself to the half-cup serving, you still get 890 mg of salt,” says a registered dietitian nutritionist. Jana Mowrer, MPH, RDowner of HealthWins Advice and Consulting. “That’s more than half of your (recommended) sodium intake with a small half-cup serving!”
Another high-sodium canned source that may surprise you is canned vegetables, says dietitian Kim Rose. “Canned vegetables have fiber and minerals, but that preservation process adds sodium to keep them from spoiling. Those vegetables soak up that sodium bath, so rinse them under warm running water,” advises Rose. “I like to let canned vegetables sit in water for a few minutes so some of that sodium leaches out.”
The AHA selected these Tex-Mex staples because of their enormous popularity in restaurants and in home kitchens as quick meals. Even when made with healthy beans, restaurant burritos can easily exceed 1,000 mg of sodium thanks to the addition of cheese, salsa, and tortilla. So forgoing the taco run every other week will go a long way toward limiting your exposure to the influx of blood-pressure-raising sodium. “Although you can’t completely eradicate salt from your diet, eating potassium rich foods such as fish, avocados, bananas and vegetables will do wonders to help limit their negative effects,” suggests Gretchen San Miguel, MDmedical director of Medi-weight loss.
Now that you’ve added the Salty Six to your list of the worst foods for high blood pressure, start eating more of these 20 Healthiest Foods That Lower Blood Pressure.
