True or False:
- Tabasco sauce is high in sodium.
- Roughly 60% of people with high blood pressure are genetically salt sensitive.
- Instant hot cereals are low in sodium.
- Eating more than 1 ¼ tsp of salt daily may increase your risk of stomach cancer by 51%.
- Cream cheese is low in sodium.
- Parmesan cheese is high in sodium.
- Salt and sodium are the same things.
- 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.
- It has been estimated that America would save 26.2 billion dollars in healthcare savings if Americans moved to an average of 1,500 mg of sodium a day.
- A high sodium diet has been linked to kidney failure.
Answers:
- False. Tabasco sauce is low in sodium (<100 mg/serving).
- True. Older people, black, have high blood pressure, have diabetes, or who have chronic kidney disease are more likely to be salt sensitive.
- False. Instant hot cereals are high in sodium (>300 mg/serving).
- True. Experimental research shows that salt damages the stomach lining and causes lesions, which can become stomach cancer if left to develop.
- True. Cream cheese is low in sodium (<100 mg/serving).
- True. Most cheeses are high in sodium except for cream cheese, ricotta cheese, and Swiss cheese.
- False. Salts contain sodium and chloride. One measly teaspoon of salt contains 2,325 mg of sodium.
- 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.
- 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.
- True. High sodium diets are associated with heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, heart failure, and kidney failure.