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Canadians love their salt. We buy a lot of foods loaded with it or we shake it on almost everything we eat from soup to nuts consuming two or even three times the recommended amount of sodium (an ingredient in table salt) that our bodies actually need, often without realizing it. Too much sodium may increase blood pressure, the number one risk factor for stroke and a major contributor to heart disease.

Because our diets are generally so high in salt, everybody even those with normal blood pressure can benefit from reducing their salt intake. People with high blood pressure or who belong to certain ethnic backgrounds need to be extra cautious. Research studies have shown that First Nations people and those of African or South Asian descent tend to have higher rates of high blood pressure and for that reason are at greater risk of heart disease and stroke than the general population.

In today’s world of fast and convenience foods, the Heart and Stroke Foundation recommends that Canadians eat less than 2,300 mg of sodium (about 1 tsp / 5 mL of salt) a day total from processed foods and salt added during food preparation and at the table. For those who have been diagnosed with high blood pressure (hypertension), or those who are salt sensitive, sodium intake should be limited to 1,500 mg (2/3 tsp) a day.

Here are five easy ways to reduce your salt intake:

Cook from scratch
One of the best ways to control salt intake is to prepare more home-cooked meals. Buy ingredients to make homemade soups, casseroles and sauces rather than using commercially prepared or canned varieties. For a low-sodium soup recipe, whip up our fresh herb soup.

Make your own topping
Ketchup, mayonnaise, sauces, spreads and salad dressings all contain loads of sodium. Make salad dressings from healthy unsaturated oils (olive, canola, soybean), vinegar, and crushed garlic. Top them off with fresh oregano, tarragon, dill, paprika, chili flakes, parsley, grated ginger, cumin or coriander whatever might appeal to your palate. Alternatively, sprinkle toasted sesame seeds or almonds on steamed broccoli or green beans. Serve our guacamole with rice crackers as a low-salt spread or as an appetizer or snack.

Go tropical
Use fruit sauces for meat, chicken or fish by creating mixtures of orange, pineapple, mango or other tropical fruit. Make our tea poached salmon with fruit salsa.

Seesaw between sweet and sour
Vegetables can be livened up with sweet or sour choices. Use maple syrup, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice on baked squash or sweet potato. Vegetables get a lift from a splash of lemon, orange, or balsamic vinegar. For a wonderful tasting side dish that doesn’t need any help from salt, try our oven-roasted asparagus.

Read the Nutrition Facts table
On packaged and processed foods, look for lower-salt varieties whenever possible: no more than 240 mg for appetizers and side dishes per serving, 480 mg or less for soups and 720 mg or less for dinners, entrees, and mixed dishes. In the ingredients list, watch out for other forms of sodium under these names: monosodium glutamate (MSG), baking soda, baking powder, disodium phosphate and any compounds that have sodium in its name.

Recommended reading.

Updated Thu. Jul. 23 2009 6:53 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Many of the prepared foods and meals in Canada are eaten around the world too, but with one significant difference: the Canadian ones contain much higher levels of salt.

New research published today by World Action on Salt and Health (WASH) shows that a large number of food items sold in Canada contain significantly more sodium than the very same products sold in other countries — in some cases more than twice the daily maximum limit for an adult in a single meal.

WASH surveyed over 260 food products available around the world from fast food chains such as KFC, McDonalds, Subway, and from packaged food manufacturers such as Kellogg’s and Nestle. Not one product surveyed had the same salt content around the world. And some displayed huge differences in sodium from one country to another.

Kellogg’s All Bran, for instance, contains 0.65g of salt per 100g in the United States, and about 1.13g of salt per 100g in the United Kingdom. But in Canada, it contains 2.15g of salt per 100g in Canada.

That’s about 620 milligrams per bowl — or more than one-third of the daily recommended intake for people aged nine to 50.

A serving of Burger King onion rings has 1,500 milligrams of sodium per serving — more than 100 per cent of the daily recommended intake. A serving of BK onion rings in the UK has just 500 mg — even though the serving size in the UK is about 30 per cent larger.

A serving of KFC Popcorn Chicken has 2,271 mg of sodium in Canada; in Malaysia, a similar-sized serving has 1,690 mg.

WASH notes that the UK generally has salt levels in the bottom half of the table for most products, reflecting the fact that salt has been a focus for public health in this country for several years.

Canada, meanwhile, has some of the highest levels of sodium in our packaged and chain restaurant foods, which might explain why the country has such high rates of high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attack, heart failure, stroke, and kidney disease.

Health Canada recommends people aged nine or older consume no more than 2,300 mg a day.

And really, Blood Pressure Canada, a consortium that includes the Canadian Stroke Network and the Heart and Stroke Foundation, says Canadians should aim for a daily total of no more than 1,500 mg of sodium.

If most of us followed this simple rule, they say, the rate of stroke and heart disease could drop by 30 per cent in Canada. High blood pressure and has also been linked to obesity, stomach cancer, worsening of asthma, and kidney stones.

Since most of consumers’ sodium intake comes not from their own kitchens, but from packaged and prepared foods, Graham MacGregor, Chairman of WASH and a professor of cardiovascular medicine, says food companies need to lower sodium levels in their foods.

“The fact that companies distribute products with so much less salt in some countries raises serious ethical concerns,” he said in a statement on the WASH news release.

“It is very hypocritical for manufacturers to make healthy claims about their products whilst unnecessarily adding to worldwide health inequalities. A gradual reduction in salt can easily be done across all products in all countries. We urge all manufacturers to make these reductions not just in a few fortunate countries, but across the world.”

WASH co-ordinator and nutritionist Katharine Jenner agrees, saying global food brands still seem reluctant to provide their healthiest products to everybody in the world.

“If Kellogg’s can provide Spain with lower salt Corn Flakes, why can’t the rest of the world’s consumers have them too?”

WASH’s report comes on the same day that U.S. advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest launched a class-action lawsuit in New Jersey against the Denny’s restaurant chain. They allege that meals at the chain are dangerously high in sodium and put customers at greater risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.

“Denny’s is slowly sickening its customers,” alleged CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. “…Denny’s customers deserve to be warned about the considerable health risk posed by many of these meals.”

Separately, CSPI has also petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate salt as a food additive and to restrict sodium levels in various categories of food.

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/food-aliment/sodium-eng.php

It makes highly worthwhile reading

What is needed from you, Dear Reader, is comment on the items we publish in order to demonstrate that Canadians’ concern for high sodium products and misleading labelling is really existant.

AND THIS JUST IN!

We’ve just discovered Schneiders   has a smoked bacon labelled at 50% less sodium!