True or False:

1. Tabasco sauce is high in sodium.
2. Roughly 60% of people with high blood pressure are genetically salt sensitive.
3. Instant hot cereals are low in sodium.
4. Eating more than 1 ¼ tsp of salt daily may increase your risk of stomach cancer by 51%.
5. Cream cheese is low in sodium.
6. Parmesan cheese is high in sodium.
7. Salt and sodium are the same things.
8. Most of the sodium that we consume is from adding table salt to our food when we are cooking it or at the dinner table.
9. It has been estimated that America would save 26.2 billion dollars in health care savings if Americans moved to an average of 1,500 mg of sodium a day.
10. A high sodium diet has been linked to kidney failure.

Answers:

1. False. Tabasco sauce is low in sodium (<100 mg/serving).
2. True. People who are older, black, have high blood pressure, have diabetes, or who have chronic kidney disease are more likely to be salt sensitive.
3. False. Instant hot cereals are high in sodium (>300 mg/serving).
4. True. Experimental research shows that salt damages the stomach lining and causes lesions, which, if left to develop, can become stomach cancer.
5. True. Cream cheese is low in sodium (<100 mg/serving).
6. True. Most cheeses are high in sodium except for cream cheese, ricotta cheese, and Swiss cheese.
7. False. Salts contain sodium and chloride. One measly teaspoon of salt contains 2,325 mg of sodium.
8. False. Only 10% of our sodium intake comes from table salt in the salt shaker. About 77% of it comes from packaged, prepared, and restaurant foods.
9. True. It would also reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease by 500,000 – 1.2 million over the next decade. The average American currently consumes 3,200 mg of sodium a day – more than twice the recommended limit.
10. True. High sodium diets are associated with heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, heart failure, and kidney failure.