How I Personally Manage My Salt Intake

Is salt really bad for health?  I've done some browsing on the internet and I have read varying opinions about salt.  Should we really take it out from our daily diet, run away from it like it's some kind of poison?  For the life of me, if I keep reading more, I'll probably go insane. But we need to know. So we keep searching and weeding out the good or credible information and those sites that clearly promote a certain propaganda. 

Until such matters are resolved and those scientists and doctors and medical practitioners come into agreement, we either take this side or that side or stay in the middle perhaps?  I think I'll take the last option instead.  After all, my doctor didn't tell me to have a no-salt diet but merely to limit my salt (sodium) intake.  Even the DASH diet plan only limits the salt.  They have two versions of it, the high salt (2,300 mg/day) and the low salt diet (1,500 mg/day).  Take note that I am only limiting my salt intake because there are studies that implicates the correlation between high sodium consumption with essential hypertension.  Besides that, I believe in the concept of moderation.  Too much of anything, even a good one becomes a poison right?

So how do I manage limiting my salt intake to 1,500 mg?  Here are a few steps I took that are not too drastic for me (but it could be for you, so just do it one at a time if you're not in any health risk).

Not Your Typical Cereal Eater

Remember when I made a DASH to the Grocery?  One of the items I bought was a big box of shredded wheat, slightly frosted.  I chose that for the fiber content and I wanted to try something new for breakfast. 

When I was a kid, we rarely had cereal at home.  I do remember having Fruit Loops, not for breakfast but something to munch on when I watch T.V.   Weird?  I guess so because typically cereals are breakfast items.  And the typical way of eating it is by pouring milk over the cereal and topping that with fruits right?   Well, the day after I bought that box of cereal, I tried to do it the normal way.  It was okay until halfway through my bowl of cereal.  The shredded wheat started getting soggy and I didn't have to chew anymore but just swallow it.  Now that didn't go right with me.  It's already like baby food.  I wonder...do you eat cereals as fast as you can so it stays crunchy?  I couldn't possibly finish a bowlful in one minute.  

The next day, I came up with a solution to the soggy cereal.  See, halfway through and the cereal is still crunchy as if I have just taken them out of the box.

I'm not your typical cereal eater.  I have no need for a spoon to eat this.  I simply munch on the cereals and prunes that I pick up with my fingers (I washed my hands okay?) and I take a sip of the milk.  Where there's a will, there's a way.  And who says cereals are just for breakfast?  I munch on it for dinner sometimes.  I really don't need to eat that much at dinner time because I will be sleeping in a few hours.  So, cereal alone (this time no milk at all) is enough for me before I take my good night's sleep.

DASH To The Grocery

Yesterday afternoon was by far the longest time I have spent on a very short grocery list.  It took me an hour and a half and I was not even able to buy all.  Talk about wasting so much time, but not totally.  I count the walking as exercise, although my recently injured left knee was already ready to buckle. So what's on my list?  Just these few items:

• Cereal
• Milk (ugh! Coffee drinkers like me repel milk.  Just the thought of drinking a glass of it makes me squirm, or worse gag)
• Pineapple Juice
• Pitted Prunes
• Fresh fruit (I was able to buy sliced and cut melon....that was my dinner later)
• Salad (you know, Caesar's and the likes.  No pre-packed ones so I skipped it.  You had to choose the ingredients. Will do that another day as I was already tired from walking)
• Cucumber

See?  Normally that list could have taken me no more than 15 minutes.  The thing is, I had to read the labels, particularly for low sodium content.  Having a good amount of potassium is a great bonus.  The good thing about doing this is I realized that even if I don't shop at Healthy Options (kind of expensive also), I could find healthy choices at a regular grocery store.  

Here are some of the items that I bought, minus the melon (gone in 360 seconds), the cucumber (camera-shy), the milk and a few items not on the original list :

DASH-ing My Way To Health By Shaking Out Salt

I am on the prowl once again for what workable diet I could start on.  I really don't have to lose weight anymore as my body mass index is in the healthy range, although I have to work on my waste to hip ratio.  I've been searching for a diet to lower my blood pressure, even without medications.  I'm looking at 28 days from now when I will halt taking Losartan and see if my blood pressure rises again.  So far now, it is steady at or below 120/80 mmg Hg. 

I visited my Info Links Page and clicked on the NHLBI link...clicking some more within the site I was brought to this page : Your Guide to Lowering Blood Pressure with Dash.  There's an option there to download the PDF file.  That is what I have been reading up on since this morning.  I have started taking note of the food I had today and will continue to do so in the following days or months until I no longer need to keep track because it has become a habit to be selective of the food I eat.