Nutrition 101 - Avoid eating too much salt

"Avoid too much salt," the experts say. We hear this all the time, but how much is too much? In the United States, the average person's consumption of sodium per day is between 3,000 and 4,000 milligrams, well above the ideal.1 According to Louise Light's book, What to Eat, the recommended sodium intake for young people is less than 2,300 milligrams, while the daily sodium intake for middle aged and older people should be no more than 1,500 milligrams.2

If you're thinking you don't need to worry because you hardly use any salt, you might be interested to learn than 77% of our sodium intake comes from packaged and restaurant foods.3 Only 6% of our daily sodium comes from the salt shaker.3 A few examples of restaurant foods high in sodium include the Outback Steakhouse Bloomin' Onion with sauce at 5,510 milligrams, Olive Garden's Chicken Parmigiana and spaghetti at 3,380 milligrams, and P.F. Chang's Kung Pao Chicken and rice at 2,820 milligrams.1

You may have heard that high sodium intake can cause or exacerbate high blood pressure in some people. That is true, but it may also raise the risk of heart attacks, strokes, asthma, kidney stones, osteoporosis, and stomach cancer.3 Some people are not as sensitive to salt as others, but experts recommend we should assume we are sensitive to it.1

How do we cut back on our sodium intake or reduce the effects of the salt we do consume? Reading labels of the packaged foods we buy can help a lot.2 Also, eating more fresh foods, prepared at home, can go a long way to reducing our sodium intake.3 Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and some low-fat dairy products contain very little sodium and provide calcium and potassium which seem to ease the negative effects of sodium on blood pressure.3 Some additional tips from Consumer Reports on Health include:

- Cutting back on canned meat, soups, cold cuts, frozen dinners and pizza.
- Buy products will less than 140 mg of sodium per serving.
- Rinse canned tuna and beans.
- Don't salt cooking water.
- Use herbs and spices in place of sodium.
- Limit the use of high-sodium condiments like soy and barbecue sauce.3

For a delicious salt-free seasoning blend, try Bragg Organic Sprinkle, which contains 24 herbs and spices. You can find this product at http://www.bragg.com/ or in stores such as Whole Foods.

1Liebman, B. April 2010. Shaving salt, saving lives. Nutrition action newsletter. Center for Science in the Pubic Interest.

2Light, L. 2006. What to eat: the ten things you really need to know to eat well and be healthy! McGraw-Hill: New York.

3Consumer Reports on Health. April 2010. Salt: How low should you go? Consumer Reports.

Nutrition 101 - Eat foods that naturally contain calcium

Think dairy is the only way to get calcium? Think again. A study that was reported in the September 2005 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that boys who eat the largest number of fruits and vegetables have the strongest bones.1 "Those who consumed 10 servings of fruits and vegetables daily wound up with significantly more calcium in their bones than those who ate less, despite eating the right amounts of dairy foods."1

One of the most important factors for preserving calcium in the bones is ensuring the body is balanced in terms of its pH, a measure used to determine the acid-alkaline balance. When the body becomes acidic (from eating lots of processed foods, sugar, soft drinks, white flour, white rice, beef, milk, and others) it begins to pull calcium out of the bones, a process which reduces the acidity.2 Therefore, a diet rich in alkaline foods, like fruits and vegetables, is important for maintaining bone mass. Fruits and vegetables also contain many important bone-nourishing minerals.2 The effect of eating alkaline food sources is that the body's pH shifts toward neutral or alkaline, allowing the bones to retain their calcium stores.2 One recommendation for maintaining this favorable balance is to "fill half of your plate with vegetables, one-quarter with fish or other lean proten, and the remaining one-quarter with a small amount of starch, such as brown rice."2

Some of the best food sources of calcium are: kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, broccoli, almonds, canned fish (sardines and salmon), and in limited amounts, dairy such as swiss cheese, yogurt, and milk.1,3

Many people now take calcium supplements to ensure strong bones. However, some of these products contain calcium in the form of mineral salts (a.k.a. rocks) which do not assimilate in the body very well. Therefore, food-based calcium supplements that contain other bone building nutritients like Vitamin D, Vitamin K, magnesium, strontium, phosphorous, and manganese might be worth considering. Two companies that carry food-based supplements can be found at http://www.foodform.com/ and http://www.realfoodnutrients.com/.

1 Light, L. 2006. What to eat: the ten things you really need to know to eat well and be healthy! McGraw-Hill: New York.
2 Stengler, M. Spring 2010. Better bone health. Vitamin Shoppe Amazing Wellness.
3 Haas, E. 2006. Staying healthy with nutrition: the complete guide to diet and nutritional medicine. Celestial Arts: Berkeley.

Nutrition 101 - Eat wild-caught fish and free-range, organic meat and eggs

When choosing to eat fish or land-based animals and their by-products, it is a good idea to be mindful of where and how they were raised. Certain types of fish and many conventionally raised animals may contain toxins primarily because of what they eat. For instance, polychlorinated biphenyle chemicals (PCB's) that are used for making dyes and paints, as well as many other products, still linger in the environment and are found in the tissues of fish and land animals despite having been banned in the 1970's.1

In addition, the high mercury content in fish may be problematic.1 Wild fish generally contain fewer heavy metals and pesticides than farm raised fish, and are not as likely to be genetically modified.2 On the other hand, most farm raised salmon are fed diced fish that have consumed PCB's from the environment.1 Cold water fish like wild-caught salmon have more omega-3 fat than farm-raised Atlantic salmon.3

The Environmental Defense Fund lists the following fish as having the most favorable impact on our health and the least harmful impact on the environment:

Salmon
Mahi-mahi
Tilapia
Striped bass
Halibut
Herring
Catfish
Arctic char
Abalone2

Being selective about meats and other animals products may be beneficial, as well. Eating land animals that have been raised humanely and have been organically or grass fed may be important to our long term health. The animal's health and well-being is directly connected to the health of the meat, the eggs, and other by-products they generate. The health of these foods directly impacts our own health.1 It is also important to remember to eat lean meats, as toxins are stored in the fatty parts of the animals.2 Further, organic meats will contain far fewer toxins than meats from conventionally raised animals.

1Rubin, J. 2005. The great physician's rx for health & wellness. Thomas Nelson: Nashville.
2Light, L. 2006. What to eat: the ten things you really need to know to eat well and be healthy! McGraw-Hill: New York.
3Colbert, D. 2007. The seven pillars of health. Strang: Lake Mary, Florida.

Nutrition 101 - Avoid refined sugars and flours

Perhaps this is not the right time to cover this subject so soon after Passover and Easter when many of us still have parts of our chocolate bunnies and other goodies to eat...or maybe it is the perfect time.

Dr. William Coda Martin posed the following question in 1957: "When is a food a food and when is it a poison?"1 He defined poison in medical terms as "any substance applied to the body, ingested or developed within the body, which causes or may cause disease."1 Dr. Martin considered refined sugar a poison because it is stripped of its "life forces, vitamins, and minerals."1 Refined flours are included in this definition because they act in the body just like refined sugars, and provide little to no energy or nutrition.

Following is a summary of what happens when we consistently eat these refined products:

Refined sugars and flours produce an acidic condition in the body, and an increasing number of minerals are required from the depths of the body in order to regain an acid/alkaline balance. Also, as a way to preserve the health of the blood by reducing acidity, calcium and other minerals are leached from the bones and teeth resulting in rotting and deteriorating. Continuous consumption of these foods eventually affects every organ in the body. First, they are stored in the liver in the form of glucose (glycogen), but the liver's ability is restricted, so when the liver has had enough, the extra glycogen is returned to the blood in the form of fatty acids. The fatty acids are transported to every part of the body and stored in the ones that get the least amount of activity, namely the stomach, the thighs, the behind, and the breasts.1

Disease is the next step and may manifest as: type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome (syndrome X), inflammatory conditions, high blood pressure, hyperinsulinemia, hypoglycemia, high cholesterol, and Candida (yeast overgrowth), and many others.2

Replacing refined foods with whole, unprocessed foods may help us to avoid many health problems and provide us with a lot more energy and much needed nutrition. And, since refined sugars and flours trigger fat-making hormones2, it is recommended that you cut out all refined sugars if you want to lose weight.3 Just in time for bathing suit season!

1Global Healing Center. 2010. Refined sugar - the sweetest poison of all: why sugar is toxic to the body. Retrieved from http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/
2Light, L. 2006. What to eat: the ten things you really need to know to eat well and be healthy. McGraw-Hill: New York
3Tierra, M. 1998. The way of herbs. Pocket Books: New York.