If you are watching your sodium intake for any reason, this might prove helpful. We automatically think of sodium/high blood pressure/salt shaker in the same light. They are connected.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that about 77% of the sodium we eat comes from packaged, store-prepared food or restaurant food. There is a reason why the prepared supermarket food taste so good. We just fail to turn the package over to read the nutritional panel because the juice runs all over the place and we have a mess! Easier to put it in the basket because after all it is fresh. Let's go back to the restaurant food. You can actually go online and check out the sodium content of what you might be eating at a local restaurant before ordering or ask for the nutritional information when you get there. By the way, that tasty bread that lands on your table as you are scanning the menu...a big source of sodium! Those cheese biscuits (310mg for one) don't look so good right now. Who can eat just one? While I am sharing details with you 6% of sodium is added as we eat (shake, shake, shake), but we only get 5% of our sodium from food cooked at home.
So let's review the stats. 77% of sodium comes from food prepared away from home. 6% is added as in the salt shaker. 5% comes from home cooking. Home cooking wins every time! Eat at home!
More information is available at www.cdc.gov/salt/food.htm.
