Hello friends I’m glad you decided to join
me. Today we're going to continue to address foods that Americans eat too much. We’re
going to zero in in salt, the white gold. Let's look at the objectives.
So today we're going to look at salt throughout history,
we're going to look at what is salt anyway. Why is vital to our life?
Where do we get it from? If salt is so vital to life what's the problem?
Again, salt has played a very important role in history, it has been used as a currency a
store of value, and in the food industry as a preservative and in medicine.
Here are roman soldiers that were actually paid at least portion of their salary in salt.
Here is a chapel in Poland built inside a salt mine.
I was fortunate to visit with a
couple of polish friends a few years ago. And here is Venice that gained
its prominence because they had a monopoly in the white gold, the salt.
But what is salt anyhow? Salt, you know it's just table salt. It is
40p percent sodium, 60 percent chloride. So, if you look at this picture one teaspoon
of salt is about 2300 milligrams of sodium and again sodium is vital to our health.
We have different types of salt so obviously we have garlic salt, kosher salt,
Himalayan salt they are they are all the same. They are the same. They have
the same amount of sodium. The difference they have other trace minerals
that give them an extra flavor or color. The pink color for instance on Himalayan
salt comes from traces of iron. Where do we get our sodium from?
We get our sodium from our diet. Again, it's essential for the function
of every single cell in the body. It is crucial for nerve and the muscle
function, to maintain blood pressure and the volume status as well .
Here is a diagram of a potassium, sodium potassium pump that is very
important on each cell to maintain the balance between the sodium and the potassium
in the intracellular and the extracellular fluid. Here is an example of a nerve
ending showing its connections to muscle fibers that lead to muscle contraction.
Where our sodium comes from? 71 percent comes from processed foods and
restaurant foods let me repeat that, 71 comes from processed foods and restaurant foods.
At the table the saltshaker is only five percent, home cooking only accounts for about six percent.
This is very important because on the next video we're going to talk ways
of decreasing the amount of salt in our diet. Obviously, we'll have to
concentrate where the money is, the processed foods and the restaurant food.
Let's dig a little bit more in detail. In the US more than 40 percent of
the sodium people eat comes from these 10 types of processed foods.
Again, you have the deli and the meat sandwiches, the pizza, the tacos and
burritos, the soups, and the chips and so on. On this slide again the same thing,
sandwiches are big contributor to the sodium. And if you look at the standard American diet
again it’s mixed dishes, sandwiches and burgers, tacos, pizzas and meat and poultry that
account for most of the sodium in our diets.
It's very important to realize that about
nine in ten Americans get too much salt.
And what’s the problem?
Too much salt will lead to hypertension, and this will aggravate and cause heart attacks
and strokes and even be responsible for dementia. And let's look at this slide that I call it the
anatomy of a sandwich. And if you look on the left-hand side and you have just on the
top one slice of bread has 200 milligrams of sodium the slice in the bottom has
another 200, one teaspoon of mustard has 120 milligrams, one slice of cheese 310 and
six slices of turkey has 690 milligrams of sodium! If you look on the right side even if you pick
the lower sodium options in the sandwich, we end up with 917 milligrams of sodium.!
It's quite a bit. Here's a picture of Salzburg and the word
actually means salt castle in German. And let’s look at the big question.
How much salt how much is too much? How much salt should we have in
our diet? How much is too much? the dietary guidelines for Americans 2020-2025
they put the limit at less than 2300 milligrams. The American heart association
puts the limit at 1500 milligrams. The average American eats at least 50 percent more
and sometimes 100 percent hundred percent more. This again has implications for heart
attacks and strokes and high blood pressure. It is quiz time.
Let's look at the first question. so let's look at what Americans do not eat enough.
We've been talking about what Americans eat too much let's look at Americans don't eat enough.
Again, we'll answer this on the next video. One more question
Which of the following are signs that you're eating too much salt?
Again, we answered that in the next video. And remember your health is too
important to be delegated to others. Let's take control.
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See you on next video.
