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Reducing one teaspoon of salt from your daily diet can lower your systolic blood pressure readings as much as taking typical hypertension medications, even if you don’t have high blood pressure, a new study has found.
One teaspoon of salt has 2,300 milligrams. This is her maximum daily amount recommended by the U.S. government for people over the age of 14. Latest US Nutritional Guidelines. However, the American Heart Association It is recommended A diet with less than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day.
“This is the first study to show that people who are already taking blood pressure medication can further lower their blood pressure by restricting sodium,” said co-principal investigator Norina Allen. . Professor of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
“And we found that when you reduce sodium in your diet, with or without medication, 70% to 75% of people are more likely to experience a decrease in blood pressure,” Allen said.
High blood pressure is often called “hypertension.”silent killerBecause there are no symptoms. The only way to know if you are infected is to get tested. However, one in three adults worldwide suffers from high blood pressure, which can lead to heart attack, heart failure, kidney damage and stroke, according to one report. 2023 report According to the World Health Organization.
Almost half of Americans live with high blood pressure, According to the American Heart Association. Approximately one-third of them are “Resistant” hypertension, high blood pressure that does not respond despite the combination of three types of drugs. A 2021 study found that men between the ages of 20 and 49 are up to 70% more likely to have uncontrolled high blood pressure than women of the same age.
“Today, most people consume too much salt because it’s in almost everything we eat,” says the director of cardiovascular prevention and health at National Jewish Health in Denver. Director Dr. Andrew Freeman said.
“A teaspoon of salt may seem like a small amount, but added salt appears to have a surprisingly large effect on blood pressure,” said Freeman, who was not involved in the study. .
middle-aged and elderly
the study, Published on Saturday In JAMA magazine, 213 people between the ages of 50 and 75 were assigned a high-sodium or low-sodium diet for one week. After eating that diet for seven days, each person switched to a different diet.
About 25% of participants had normal blood pressure, while another 25% had untreated hypertension. Of the remaining group, 20% had their blood pressure under control, while 31% had it uncontrolled.
During the high-salt week, people added two tablespoons of broth to their regular meals. Each packet contains 1,100 milligrams of sodium. During Low Sodium Week, people ate low-salt foods that were purchased and given to them by a nutritionist. The goal was to consume just 500 milligrams of salt per day, a dramatic reduction.
According to this study, the drop in blood pressure during a low-salt diet was rapid and dramatic. Compared to a high-sodium diet, a very low-salt diet lowered blood pressure by 8 millimeters of mercury.
“When compared to a regular diet, people lowered their blood pressure by about six columns of mercury, which is about the same effect seen with first-line blood pressure drugs,” Allen said.
“Furthermore, the decline occurred very quickly and was consistent even in people who were normotensive, mildly hypertensive, or already on medication.”
Allen said there were no serious side effects from reducing salt by this amount, unless the diet was adjusted to a bland diet.
“When you go from a high-sodium diet to a low-salt diet, everything becomes bland,” she said. “Your taste buds will adjust over the course of a few weeks, so we want you to continue taking it. It really brings back the taste and flavor and makes the normal one taste very salty.
“It takes a little while for your taste buds to adjust, but your blood pressure improves pretty quickly,” she added.
However, blood pressure medications can have many side effects, including cough, constipation or diarrhea, dizziness, lack of energy, headache, muscle pain, nausea, nervousness, fatigue, weight gain or loss, and erection problems. These usually subside over time. National Library of Medicine.
Having a salt shaker is a good start, “but that’s not where most people get their salt,” Freeman says.
“Salt is found in foods that you wouldn’t expect to have much salt in. Two slices of bread may contain 400 or 500 milligrams of salt. A pickle can contain an entire day’s worth of salt. “It contains salt. A bowl of soup can contain several days’ worth of salt,” he says.
But with careful shopping, Allen says, the job can be accomplished. Allen said the nutritionists bought the low-salt diets offered in the study after reading the labels at local grocery stores.
CNN looked at low-sodium menus and found that most breakfasts included store-bought quick oats, Greek yogurt, and grapes, while lunch included grilled chicken, lettuce tossed with oil and vinegar, and a low-sodium version of lentil soup. Turns out it contained bread and peanut butter. And tortilla chips. Dinner included ready-to-eat brown rice and vegetables, burritos, and lasagna.
“They were a reduced-sodium version of vegetable lasagna,” Allen says. “They were things that anyone could get at the grocery store, like apples and bananas. They weren’t specially made by a chef.”
The award-winning DASH diet, short for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, is an expert-approved way to reduce your salt intake. DASH has a simple premise. Eat more vegetables, fruits, and low-fat dairy products. Limit foods high in saturated fat. As in this study, limit your sodium intake to 2,300 milligrams per day.
The DASH meal plan includes 4 to 6 servings of vegetables and 4 to 6 servings of fruit, 3 servings of whole grain products, 2 to 4 servings of fat-free or low-fat dairy products, and several servings each of lean meat. And eat nuts, seeds, and legumes every day.
No matter which diet plan you choose, people who want to cut back on sodium are better off making their own food at home, where they can read the labels and calculate the salt content, Freeman says.
Eating at a restaurant can be a hassle, even when it’s healthy.
“Think of a vegetable dish at a restaurant. These green beans might be cooked in salted butter and topped with things like salty crunchy onions. Over time, you’ll end up with a lot of things you didn’t intend. You end up ingesting salt,” Freeman said. “The best way to eat food is to eat it with as little processing as possible.”