Hold The Salt: Restaurant Foods A High Source Of Sodium
Posted May 12, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Hold the salt: Restaurant foods have been found to be a high source of sodium.
Another culprit is prepackaged food, the kind found either at the very front of your grocery store – or in the freezer section.
A study out of the United States warns that consuming too much salt can lead to hypertension, among other ailments.
In fact, the U.S. Centers for Science in the Public Interest called the salt in prepared meals “probably” the most dangerous ingredient in the food supply.
Too much sodium can also lead to heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease.
However, saying that salt alone is the only problem with restaurant meals is also misleading.
In addition to portions being larger than those typically served at home, those servings may also contain more fat. The calorie content cannot be separated from the health risk posed by sodium.
The study involved 17 restaurant chains, including Olive Garden, KFC, Burger King, Taco Bell, Arby’s and Red Lobster.
The latter was found to be the biggest offender, with its Admiral’s Feast – with Caesar salad and lobster-topped mashed potatoes – containing nearly 7,000 mgs. of sodium. The average recommended daily amount for adults is about 1,500 mg.
Experts say all that salt can leave your body shaken. “It increases the number of deaths as a result of stroke by 15 per cent,” warns Marco Di Buono of the Cdn. Heart and Stroke Foundation. “It increases the number of deaths due to other forms of heart disease by 10 per cent, all unwanted and unnecessary.”
Other salty meals to watch out for: the half chicken meal at KFC and the bean burrito at Taco Bell. Some kids’ meals have more than an entire day’s worth of salt.
Most fast food chains list the amount of salt they use on their websites. Locating them on the go isn’t always quite as easy. To find the average sodium in your favoutite chain’s fixings, click here.
Other resources:
How to control your salt intake
How much salt should you have?
