Our bodies need sodium in the diet in order to maintain proper fluid levels and deficiency of sodium can occur when individuals suffer from acute diarrhea. Lack of sodium is also experienced by sports persons not taking enough water and among people who fast on water and juices. While the deficiency is not easy to find, the excess consumption of sodium is commonly found. When you indulge in excess sodium in the diet, you are likely to be prone to high blood pressure levels, leading to strokes and heart attacks. To keep a check on the sodium intake in your diet, there are some foods which you can avoid because of their high salt content.
Foods that contain excess sodium and should therefore be avoided:
- Sauces and dressings: Soy sauce that is an important ingredient when it comes to Oriental cooking is today available in the low sodium versions because this sauce is known to have high salt content. It is recommended that you check the nutritional labels of sauces before buying them. Likewise, salad dressings may also contain excess sodium and you need to check for their labels too before using them. The spaghetti sauce packs in a surprisingly high amount of sodium and you need to buy the no-salt added type.
- Cured meats: Salami or bacon contains an unusually high amount of sodium because these need to be preserved and salt is known to be a great preservative. A single bacon slice contains as much as 195 milligrams of sodium.
- Cheese: Most cheese types will contain a lot of sodium and when combined with their high cholesterol content, they can be an absolute disaster for people with heart conditions. Cheeses which are known for their high salt content are Parmesan, Swiss cheese, Blue cheese, Cheddar, Feta and Mozzarella.
- Frozen dinners: Frozen meals can be very convenient because they hardly take any time for preparation, but they have exceptionally high salt content. The “lighter” versions may contain low amounts of sodium but you cannot completely rely on that guarantee. You should ideally check their labels because sometimes the word “lighter” refers to the fat content.
- Ready-to-eat cereals: You should ideally check for nutritional information on ready-to-eat cereals. For instance, a cup of raisin bran cereal may have as much as 250 milligrams of salt. You can instead choose puffed wheat or rice because these are sodium free and mix these with the regular cereals.
- Vegetable juices: You may feel that drinking veggie juices is very healthy but you should remember that they are very high in salt. You should look for companies that prepare low-salt vegetable juices. Likewise canned vegetables contain preservatives that may have high sodium content. You should rinse them thoroughly or purchase only those which are being sold as “no salt added” versions.
- Nuts: You need to avoid salted nuts like roasted peanuts that contain about 192 milligrams of salt in a single ounce. Even an equal serving of roasted mixed nuts will be high in sodium. It is therefore recommended that you include only the unsalted varieties in your diet.
These are some common foods which may be part of our daily diet but which may actually be quite high in sodium, making you prone to many cardiovascular diseases. It is therefore advisable to avoid these as far as possible in your daily meals.