Discussion Board

The recommendation to have no more than one gram of salt per calorie is a little hard to adhere to. If you know you are eating around 1200 or 1500 or 2000 calories per day it is possible you could calculate your salt intake and keep the total to one gram per calorie of food. However, I have a jar of salsa from Trader Joe's and it contains thirty mgs of salt per 10 calories which is 3 grams salt per calorie and there is no salt added to the salsa. It is not on the list of ingredients and the label says no salt (no salt added--not just the governments bright idea not to have to list a quantity if it is below one half a gram per serving) So even food in its natural state often surpasses Jeff's recommendation.

Didi

My recommendation on sodium is only for added sodoum in packaged &/or processed foods as does not apply to sodium that occurs naturally in food.

Also, the recommendation is sodium in mgs/calories and not sodium in grams.

While some natural foods may exceed the recommended 1:1 guideline, natural foods average about a .25:1 ratio. There are a few veggies that are higher but at 100 cal/lb, its impossible to consume a significant amount of them

Salsa is a condiment and my guideline for condiments is 4:1 and there are salsa's that meet (or beat) the guideline as does the one you found. In addition, you can look at the ratio for the full recipe with the salsa. So a salsa may be 4:1 but the ratio of the rice & bean recipe with a little salsa added will easily be under 1:1

It's also always important to put everything in perspective.

My recommendations are to limit packaged & processed foods and to get most all (>75%) your calories from plant foods in their natural (no salt added) state.

It really is simple. All my Fast Food meals on both DVDs are all no salt added and show how easy it is to meet and surpass my guidelines.

So, consume a diet made up of predominately whole natural foods. Limit added sodium to no more than 1:1 on packaged foods and you will easily be under the AI recommended by the IOM.

In Health
Jeff

PS A packaged salsa does not count as "food in its natural state"

Jeff, go back to bed. It is too early to be up answering questions. If you are in CA even the birds aren't up yet.

Didi

Thank you!!! That clarifies some things that have been floating around in my head