We all know salt isn’t great for us and overdoing it can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease. The problem is, salt is everywhere, even in foods that you might not suspect.
A busy lifestyle and a grab-and-eat attitude mean bad news: your everyday meals might be saltier than the Atlantic.
Dr Paul Zollinger-Read, Chief Medical Officer of Bupa, says that we need to wean the world off salt: “You might not consider yourself to be a salt lover; you may never even add salt to your food at the table. But most people regularly consumer more salt than the recommended daily limit (6g).
This is because around 75% of the salt in our diets is already added to the food we eat. Bread, pasta sauces, even your favourite biscuits, all contain salt.
The fact that salt is already hidden in so many of our foods means people are completely unaware that they regularly go over their daily quota.
Layne Lieberman, award-winning nutritionist, advises that we need to be checking the nutrition labels of our lunchtime sandwiches and groceries: “It’s wise to aim for a 1:1 ratio of calories to sodium (salt). For example, if a product has 170 calories per serving, the sodium should not exceed 170 milligrams.”
So, make sure your shopping list doesn’t include these (warning: cheese lovers might want to look away).