Less is more when it comes to salt

You’ve probably heard that you should eat less sugar, avoid artificial sweeteners, and watch how much fat you eat. And while limiting your fat and sugar intake can help you with weight loss program and avoid certain diseases, it’s also important to take a closer look at the salt (sodium) in your diet..

What Excess of sodium can do

Even if you are healthy and have normal blood pressure, some great weight loss advice to keep in mind is to be aware of your sodium intake. With too much sodium, people who are insulin resistant need to be extremely cautious. Insulin resistance is not the same as diabetes. Consuming too much sodium can cause high blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for heart disease. An excess of sodium can also cause deficiencies of vital nutrients like potassium, calcium, and magnesium as your body adjusts to deal with the overload of sodium in your body.

It’s estimated that Americans consume 10 to 20 times more salt than our bodies need to maintain water balance loss and electrolyte function, and almost double the 2,300 milligrams allotted by most dietary guidelines. Unfortunately, cutting your salt intake may be more complicated than simply skipping the salt shaker at the table, since much of the sodium we eat is hidden in processed foods.

Weight Loss Tips

Opt for whole, fresh foods when possible and look for low-sodium varieties of canned and boxed foods. Of course, it certainly won’t hurt to give up the table salt as well. Practice using citrus juices, herbs and spices to season your foods instead of salt. Try to limit your daily salt intake to about 1 teaspoon per day.

Some weight loss advice to avoid higher sodium intake is for you to stay away from convenience foods. Makers of convenience foods use lots of sodium “salts” from sodium phosphate to sodium citrate. Since sodium is soluble, it can dissolve and mix in with other ingredients in our food. This is why weight loss advice when it comes to sodium intake is so important. More caution should be used when reaching for the salt shaker. More attention needs to be paid to sodium labels on some of our favorite foods.