We all ingest salt every day, whether we realize it or not. Various organizations, including the USDA, AHA, and Cooking Light magazine, recommend less than 2,300 milligrams sodium daily (the amount in one teaspoon of table salt) for healthy people. Most Americans consume closer to 4,000 milligrams a day.
Sodium has benefits, like helping to maintain the body's right balance of fluids, says cardiologist Richard Katz, MD, director of the cardiology division of George Washington University. But ingesting too much salt is a prime cause of increased blood pressure. Higher blood pressure is a major cause of heart attacks and strokes, both of which can be reduced by minimizing salt intake.? Even among healthy adults there is usually room for improvement in the blood pressure department. "If blood pressure is 125/70, it's better at 120/70", Katz says. (The American Heart Association [AHA] notes that low blood pressure is relative for each person and is a concern when it drops suddenly. Your doctor can help you reach a blood pressure goal that best enhances your health.)
Only a quarter of sodium intake actually comes from salting our food, says AHA President Dan Jones, MD. More than 75 percent of sodium in our daily diets comes from the processed foods we eat. Salt is a natural preservative and it enhances flavor, so it's no surprise that salt and other forms of sodium are included in packaged foods.
What do I need to to do change my salt intake and balance my super supplements?
The first step to keep sodium under control is to make smart choices at your grocery store. Choose sodium-free, low-sodium, or no-salt-added convenience foods. Always read the label! Reading the Nutrition Facts Panel is an easy way to gauge the amount of sodium present in a food. If an item contains more than 20 percent Daily Value (DV) of a nutrient, a serving of that food is considered to contain a high amount of that nutri ent, according to the FDA; five percent DV of a nutrient is deemed low. For sodium, 20 percent DV equals 460 milligrams; five percent DV sodium is just 115 milligrams.
Lower-fat or fat-free products can be higher in sodium than their full-fat counterparts: An ounce of full-fat sharp cheddar cheese has less sodium than one ounce of fat-free cheddar. When fat is removed from foods, other things like sodium may be added to compensate. Still, if you're trying to limit saturated fat in your diet by enjoying low and fat-free foods, the trade-off may be worth it if you limit sodium in other areas.
Disodium guanylate (flavor enhancer)
Disodium inosinate (flavor enhancer)
Sodium alginate (thickener)
Sodium benzoate (preservative)
Sodium bicarbonate (texture enhancer)
Sodium citrate (pH influencer)
Sodium hydroxide (pH influencer)
What should I do to in addition to lowe ring my intake of this not so great super supplement? Exercise can help keep your body balanced both inside and outand great super supplements can help. When you sweat, you secrete the salts in your body. However, if you work out hard or play hard for more than an hour, you should drink an electrolyte replacing sports drink because you can actually lose too much salt while working out for long periods of time.
Spokane Super Supplements: a Focus on Sodium Chloride...salt
How to Lower Bad Cholesterol Through Diet
It is important to lower cholesterol level because cholesterol has been associated with the development of coronary heart disease. The higher the level of cholesterol in an individual, the more likely he will be developing heart disease later on. High cholesterol levels can also put a person at risk of suffering from a stroke or a heart attack.
According to health experts, cholesterol fighting foods may help you in lowering cholesterol level. This is because the food intake itself can control the amount of bad cholesterol that enters your body.
Changing your lifestyle and dietary habits contribute a lot in lowering bad cholesterol. Below are some easy to follow guideline that will surely help you to lower your bad cholesterol.
1. Include plenty of green vegetables in your diet because they are considered the healthiest food to lower cholesterol. Vegetables are high in dietary fiber, and full of dietary nutrients that help maintain a person's efficient metabolism. These are perfect cholesterol fighting food because they are low in calorie-content.
2. Fruits are also effective cholesterol fighting food because these are low in calories. These are also an effective means of controlling weight because they are all-natural product rich in dietary fiber to boost satiety.
3. Soymilk and soy sausages, oat bran cereal and bread as well as nuts make up a complete low cholesterol diet. Soy protein, nuts, and fiber rich food such as barley and oats can effectively cut cholesterol levels by up to seven percent.
4. Minimize your intake of saturated fat and other fat substances by 25-30 percent. The best diet for avoiding coronary heart disease includes consuming unprocessed non-hydrogenated fats rather than the hydrogenated variety.
5. Increased your intake of omega-3 fats from fish, fish oil or plant sources such as flaxseeds. Also limit your daily sodium intake somewhere in the level of 2400 milligram s daily.
Make sure to follow all these guidelines for a long period of time, rather than a day or two. These are effective ways to lower bad cholesterol naturally and make your life healthier.
Note: Remember these natural treatments can't replace your cholesterol lowering medication but can only support your treatment.
Copyright © Nick Mutt, All Rights Reserved. If you want to use this article on your website or in your ezine, make all the urls (links) active.
Looking for some more home remedies for high cholesterol? Check out the biggest home remedies website and find effective home remedies for high blood pressure to control high blood pressure and reduce level.
K-Factor in Diets and Its Importance in Controlling High Blood Pressure
Although blood pressure is the result of different factors, the common denominator is extreme salt and the improper balance of potassium and sodium. These two are the major electrolytes of the body in the production of energy, nerve conduction, cell integrity, to name a few. They are the producers of the body's electricity. The balance of proportion between sodium and potassium is known as K-factor in diets.
Every tissue and organ has body cells composed of potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium and chloride which are submerged in fluid. The intracellular fluid contains more potassium than sodium while it is the other way around in the extracellular fluid.
The cells will function properly if there is the accurate balance of sodium and potassium or K-factor in diets which is important in controlling high blood pressure.
The instinct to pull the hand immediately from a hot oven and the normal beating of the heart are examples of the proper ra tio of potassium and sodium in the body. If there is distortion, this can be life threatening.
The correct ratio is about three parts of potassium to one part of sodium, K-factor ratio (potassium divided by sodium), which is also applicable to animals. Plants do not require this but helps in balancing excess sodium because of their ratio of about 10 to 20 parts of potassium to one part of sodium.
The importance of K-factor in diets to control high blood pressure can be exemplified when there is an oversupply of sodium in the extracellular fluids. To return everything to normal, the kidneys will initially expel the excess sodium.
However, if the kidneys fail to emit the sodium from the blood, the peripheral vascular system will constrict and the resistance to blood flow will increase, the result is high blood pressure. The blood pressure rises because the kidneys are excreting plenty of sodium.
In order to control this, the medica l profession introduced diuretics to treat high blood pressure. In diuretics, more fluid is expelled from the body together with sodium chloride. This is effective in the early stage of high blood pressure.
However, the kidneys are also required to emit potassium, hence the deficiency in potassium. As a remedy, doctors prescribe potassium supplements and drinking of plenty of water as replenishments.
Since potassium and sodium are almost present in the foods we eat, it is best to increase potassium and decrease sodium in our diet.
In order to remember this, here are some dietary guides:
1. Except breakfast, eat one to three types of fresh vegetables. Never add salt if boiled, steamed or stir-fried. Examples of fresh vegetables are spinach, potatoes, carrots, etc.
2. During breakfast, eat cereals like unsalted cereal, oatmeal, puffed rice and wheat germ together with a soy beverage or a low-fat milk.
3. Eat p eas, beans and whole grains but not black beans.
4. Keep away from eating processed foods due to its salt content. In you can't resist the cravings, look for the label which has 2 times more potassium than sodium.
5. Try to avoid salt in every food. Instead, use hot pepper sauce as substitutes.
6. Always eat fresh fruits. Ice cream, sherbet and ice milk can be eaten but refrain from pies, cakes or baked products.
7. Buy a cookbook with emphasis on low-sodium diet.
These dietary changes may be different from your current way of life. If following the K-factor in diets will become a habit, you will realize its importance in controlling high blood pressure which will lead to a better health.
Alvin Hopkinson is a leading health researcher in the area of natural remedies and high blood pressure treatment. Discover how you can get rid of your high blood pressure for good using proven and effective home remedies, all without using harmful medications or drugs. Visit his site now at http://www.minusbloodpressure.com
How to Design a Lower Cholesterol Diet
Eating is one of the things that can affect your cholesterol level a great deal. If you have too high cholesterol, the foods you eat can be one of the things you can control to most effectively and quickly lower your cholesterol. In fact, if you have elevated levels of high cholesterol, a healthy diet is the one thing that you must absolutely do in order to ensure heart health.
Adapting to a Cholesterol Friendly Diet
Once your doctor has confirmed that you have high cholesterol, you can take steps to regain your health by following a low cholesterol and low fat diet. Being true to such a healthful diet will ensure that you can reduce total cholesterol levels by as much as 15 percent. As an added benefit, this sort of diet will also make you feel generally healthier and more energetic as well.
You will benefit further with a regular exercise schedule and this will raise your "good" HDL levels for a total package of healthy living. Do this and within as short as 30 days you will experience a renewed sense of energy and vitality. The effects over all will be immediate.
Following a low cholesterol and low fat diet necessitates that you must do the following:
Get less than 7% of your day's total calories from saturated fat. Your doctor may recommend less.
Receive 25-35% or less of your day's total calories from fat. Your doctor may recommend less.
Consume less than 200 milligrams of dietary cholesterol each day, or follow the limits for dietary cholesterol that your doctor sets for you.
Limit your sodium intake to 2400 milligrams a day. Sea salt is a better option, but reducing your intake of all salts is the better choice.
You should be resolved to eat only enough calories to improve your healthy weight and reduce your blood cholesterol level.
Refuse foods made with harmful trans fats such as margarine, salad dressing and sauces.
Enjoy foods high in soluble fiber. These foods include:
Oats, rye, and barley
Fruits (especially try oranges and pears)
Vegetables (especially brussel sprouts and carrots)
Dried peas and beans
Avoid the Following Foods for Best Health:
High cholesterol foods can increase your level of blood cholesterol. High cholesterol foods include:
Organ meats (this includes liver, which may be eaten in small quantities)
Egg yolks
Full fat dairy products
Fried and processed foods are often high in fat and salt, which can wreak havoc on your heart health. Limit and eat only in moderation if at all:
Highly processed foods, and especially processed meats such as deli meats, sausages, hot dogs, bologna, salami and fatty red meats
All foods that are fried, especially deep fried foods
You will produce meals that have lower saturated fats when you try the following methods of food preparation:
Bake
Broil
Microwave
Poach
Steam
Grill
Roast (only if you remove fats that are melted in the process)
Lightly stir-fry or saute using low-fat and low-salt broth
Selecting your Foods
Enjoy a wide variety of foods regularly, including select cuts of meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs and nuts each week.
You can further keep your blood cholesterol levels low by doing the following:
Choose chicken and turkey that has the skin removed. You can keep the skin on to seal in the juices so long as you remove the skin before eating.
When selecting meat, choose leaner cuts, white meat, and cuts that have less white "marbleized" texture. The white "marble" is fat that can increase your cholesterol.
Select fish such as cod that has less saturated fat than even chicken or other meats.
Even the leanest cuts of meat, chicken, fish, and shellfish have saturated fat and cholesterol so limit your daily intake to 6 ounces or less.
Remember: You can increase soluble fiber if LDL is not lowered enough from reducing saturated fat and cholesterol.
These factors can help you lower the level of cholesterol that is part of your normal food intake.
5 Fad Diets To Avoid
There are so many fad diets out there these days that attract people with there fast weight loss and celebrity lifestyle image. The fact is that nearly all of these diets only really offer short-term weight loss solutions and can be extremely unhealthy. Iv'e put together a list of 5 popular fad diets - along with reasons NOT to try them!
Detox Diet
Claims to lose a stone in 10 days, defeat cellulite, give glowing skin and no more bloating. This diet is meant to compliment other detox methods such as massages, colonic irrigation, saunas, fasting etc. Food such as fish, meat, eggs, dairy, wheat, salt, sugar etc are banned, while fruit, veg, beans, seeds, nuts are allowed. This results in a lack of nutrients, lowered immune system, a temporary weight loss, mainly water. It can lead to yo-yo dieting, nausea, sickness and headaches. It is said to causes food cravings, resulting in eventually giving up! It can also cause eating disorders and there is no good evidence of it actually working!
Low Carb / Atkins Diet
The aim of low carb diets is to force the body to use its own fat as its main energy source. This produces something called ketone bodies to fuel body parts that can not use fat as an energy source such as the brain and red blood cells. This puts you in a state of ketosis - resulting in smelly breath and side effects like fatigue and nausea. These diets do produce short term results, which actually come from loss of muscle tissue and water. They are not a long term weight loss solution and are unhealthy if sustained.
Starvation Diet
Starving yourself is one of the worst diets that you could try. Ok, you may initially lose a lot of weight but the effect this has on your body is drastic! You will be extremely lacking much needed nutrition and this will lead to fatigue, lack of sex drive and hormones, sleep loss, possible hypothermia, poor concentration and judgement, depression, anxiety, personality changes, social withdrawal, your metabolism will dramatically slow down, you will lose organ tissue and muscles, you can get shakes, feel the cold more, and feel very week. Low calorie intakes actually slow down weight loss.
Hollywood Diet
This is basically a 24 or 48 hour 'Juice Fast' where you eat no food in this time. This diet has the same cons as the starvation diet. You are really just losing excess water in the body with this diet and it does'nt last long, you will soon put that weight back on. It is expensive to buy the juice, around $25! You will get no protein or iron in the body, and will be taking lots of sugar and carbs. Tastes good at first but soon turns very sickly.
Cabbage Soup Diet
This is a 7 day diet plan which supposedly offers a fast weight loss solution. This is a very short term solution and is not sustainable so is'nt a viable option for long term weight loss. There are a few benefits to this diet which include fast weight loss, a healthy beneficial change from eating junk food, and research has shown that cabbage helps to prevent cancer. However, the drawbacks do outweigh these benefits somewhat significantly. The soup is high in salt, lacking in good overall nutrition - low in protein, calcium, essential fatty acids, high in sodium and MSG, requires much will power as the soup tastes very bland and is extremely repetitive, gives you gas!, and most of all this is not a healthy sustainable solution to long-term weight loss. This diet will most probably make you GAIN weight as it has a very low calorie intake and you can get bloated!
There really is no substitute for a healthy diet and regular exercise if you want to lose weight and live an overall healthier and more active lifestyle.
Having a Diet to Lower Cholesterol
If you want to lower your cholesterol levels, following an ideal diet may be able to help you a lot. It has been known for a long time now that the food a person eats or is accustomed to eating daily can have a direct relation in the body's cholesterol levels.
And it is important for people to lower their cholesterol levels because cholesterol has been associated with the development of coronary heart disease. The higher the level of blood cholesterol levels in an individual, the more likely it is that he will be developing heart disease later on. Aside from that high cholesterol levels can also put a person at risk of suffering from a stroke or a heart attack.
Aside from using drugs to lower cholesterol levels, following a low cholesterol diet is the next best thing to keep your cholesterol levels down. Eating more vegetables, soy products and other low cholesterol foods can be just as effective at reducing blood cholesterol as medication. A study has been able to show that a vegetarian diet can lower cholesterol by as much as one-third in just a month.
The best cholesterol-lowering diet that you can follow usually includes a hearty serving of vegetables such as broccoli and red peppers. Soymilk and soy sausages, oat bran cereal and bread as well as plenty of fruits and nuts make up a complete low cholesterol diet. Soy protein, nuts, and fiber rich food such as oats and barley can effectively cut cholesterol levels by up to seven percent.
A low cholesterol diet also requires you to minimize your intake of saturated fat by seven percent and other fat substances by 25-35 percent. It has been discovered that the best diet for avoiding coronary heart disease includes consuming non-hydrogenated (unprocessed) fats rather than the hydrogenated variety. Increased consumption of omega-3 fats from fish, fish oil or plant sources such as flaxseeds is the suggested fat intake in a low cholesterol diet. With a low cholesterol diet, one should also limit daily sodium intake somewhere in the level of 2400 milligrams daily.
A typical day on the low cholesterol diet would include a hearty breakfast of soymilk, oat bran cereal with chopped fruit and almonds, oatmeal bread, vegetable-based margarine and jam. A typical low cholesterol lunch would comprise of soy cold cuts, oat bran bread, bean soup and a dessert of fruit. For dinner, stir-fry vegetables, tofu, fruit and almonds would be the usual low cholesterol diet fare. Following this type of low cholesterol diet religiously for long periods, it is possible for one's cholesterol level to drop by as much as 29 percent in just a month.
Hidden Sodium in your Everyday Foods is a True Health Hazard!
Sodium is a silent Killer. Especially to those with Hypertension, Heart Disease, and other Health Issues. Do they print this on the Label? Of course not, they figure what you do not know will not hurt you. But that is completely false.
Over 2.5 years ago I was forced to go on a Sodium Restricted Diet for Health reasons. I have lost over 50 pounds in those 2.5 years without even trying, just changing the way I ate.
So many people are into Carb Counting, Fat Gram Counting and Calorie Counting.
What if I told you a Friend and I had compiled a list of Recipes that included NO Sodium in the food preparation and the food tasted just as good as if it had all the bad ingredients in it? Well we have, and we are going to be releasing this book soon. What does this book do for you?
• Improves Your Overall Health (MY Cholesterol was at the Normal levels and prior they were at dangerously high levels)
• Healthy Weight Loss (50 Pounds in 2.5 years)
• NO Need for a High Blood Pressure Pill anymore ( I will talk more about that)
• Healthier Eating Habits
• Recipes your whole Family will love and never guess they are missing Salt!
• And many more Benefits that the Book will Cover
It is a Little more Costly to eat this way, but I bet it is cheaper than Jenny or other Diet Plans.
You will need Fresh Veggies, Can ones contain a lot of Sodium. The next time you are in the Grocery Store look at the Labels for Sodium Grams. The Object is to keep it at 600 MG per meal. 1800 MG a Day. It really works. If you follow the instructions in the book and what I am claiming does NOT happen (BUT YOU MUST FOLLOW THIS 100%) I will Gladly Replace your $29.97 for the book.
Why spend all that money on Guru Diets when a Simple Low Sodium Diet will do the exact same thing plus improve your overall Health? Now back to my getting on the Sodium Restricted Diet, ( Low Sodium Free) I did have High Blood Pressure, But not one single Doctor said reduce your Sodium intake. Honestly even if they had of I would not have done it. Sodium had to cause me agony before I tried it, it is like the fear of the Dentist. When it hurts bad enough you really will go. I was in bad shape due to an inner ear condition and Sodium had become a Poison to me.
In the past 2 years we have created recipes like:
• Fried Chicken and Wings
• Hamburgers With All The Trimmings
• Soups, 100% FRESH!
• Chinese Dishes
• Spaghetti
• Hot Dogs even with Chili
• French Fries
• Veggies (Must be Fresh or Frozen)
• Meat Loaf
• Stuffed Peppers
• Basically any food that you could eat before has been duplicated and when the book comes out try it on your family, The odds are they will never know and you will be doing everyone a favor but eating a Healthier Way
• A Salt-a- holic may know as they consume so much salt I am surprised they have not dried up.
I plan to have the book ready by New Years, it will be $29.97 and that is a small price to pay for a Healthier Lifestyle and lose weight without the high prices of these High Priced Diet Plans, that in my opinion only work temporary. This is easy as the food taste no different. You can improve your Health, lose weight and actually keep it off, I have for over 2 years now.
Thank you for reading my Special Report, if you would like copies please email me at Laurie@YourSuccessWealth.com and I will gladly send a FREE Copy of this Report!
Yours truly,
Laurie Brandt