Every health worry or trend has a grain of truth to it. Salt is an interesting one.

With an aging population we constantly hear from our friends and family as well as the media that too much salt is really bad for blood pressure. This is true.  What most people that go on a salt bender fail to understand is you MUST have salt to survive and that a daily range of salt is healthy for you.  So how much is enough and how much is too much?

Have a look at this Health Canada page on sodium intake.  To make it simple, for adults they don’t recommend more than 2300 mg per day.  How much is that? 2300 mg of salt works out to a teaspoon actually.  So salt from all sources should be less than that.  The bottom end of what you need is 1300-1500 mg for most adults.

The biggest problem in limiting salt is how you eat. If you eat processed meals or fresh meals prepared for a long time in a supermarket you are guaranteed to be way over 2300 mg a day. If you eat fast food you could likely double that.

How does Lakelands Diet Delivery stack up?

Average salt by meal:

• Breakfast – 394 mg
• Lunch – 523 mg
• Dinner – 463 mg
• Snacks – 160 mg

So an average day on 3 regular meals and 2 regular snacks would be 1700 mg on a Lakelands Diet. Well below the 2300 mg recommended maximum.  You will have to add in what you drink as well.

Waterloo region has had some issues with sodium in the drinking water. Tests done in 2011 showed a litre of straight out of the tap water contains on average 54 mg, so your 2 liters of water a day is going to be over 100 mg. Other drinks:

• One cup of milk contains about 120 mg
• Black coffee is 4.7 mg per 8 oz (good thing)
• Black tea is 9.5 mg
• Orange juice 2.5 mg
• Can of Coke 15 mg
• Arizona Ice Tea – 10 – 20 mg
• 2L Softened Water – 1000 mg

At Lakelands we show the sodium for every meal so you could select a much lower amount if recommended from your doctor.

If you are worried about salt and want to eat a healthy amount we have you covered. Sign Up today.

More from Health Ambition