In recent news this week; there has been advice about not having enough salt in your diet. Well, that might work for those who do not have heart disease, high blood pressure or kidney disease. For people with high blood pressure who are at risk for kidney disease or people who already suffer from kidney or heart disease; large population studies do NOT recommend high sodium intake.
If you fit into those categories, the National Kidney Fund stands by our previous recommendations and advises that your health would definitely benefit from restricting sodium to 1500-2000 mg per day. Those with kidney disease and hypertension who are not willing to restrict sodium intake will have to take diuretics and their blood pressure medications will be ineffective or not work as well.
If you do not have hypertension, heart disease or kidney disease, you may be able to safely take in the amount of salt suggested by this study which recommends a daily sodium intake range of 2645-4945 mg, or about 13,000-24,000 mg of salt daily (2000 mg of sodium=5 grams of salt). It is however important to note that, not everyone is aware he or she has kidney disease; hence you must know yours and your family’s status before you consider it safe to consume high amounts of salt.
For example, your spouse or other family member may have normal blood pressure, no kidney disease and no heart disease and doesn’t need to restrict his/her sodium intake, while you may be someone who benefits from salt restriction as you may have salt-sensitive hypertension. This means, if you increased your salt intake, you would have to take more blood pressure medication. So how does that translate to the dinner table? The point is; for family meals, you would go with low salt recipe options, and avoid lots of processed foods with too much added salt. Home cooking should be low salt. Those at the table who don’t need to restrict their salt intake can feel free to use the salt shaker.
Bottom Line: People at risk for kidney disease or those who already suffer it and those with high blood pressure should limit their sodium intake. Be sure to check food labels to know exactly how much sodium is in each item and be aware of your daily consumption so it doesn’t exceed 2000 mg. This amount of sodium represents 5 grams of salt (sodium chloride) each day, so far from a salt free diet and very tasty.
With your support, The Iya Foundation, Inc is confident a feasible early detection, surveillance and treatment program can be established to slow, and possibly prevent the progression of kidney disease in the U.S, and particularly in the African Immigrant Community in the U.S.
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