Scary Salt
As if we moms didn’t have enough to worry about when it comes to getting a healthy meal on the table for our kids, now we’re learning more and more about the ‘silent killer’ in our foods—salt. This topic is actually one that we addressed on SavvyMom almost three years ago.
Surprisingly, salt is hiding in things you would never even imagine it to be—one of the worst offenders is the ubiquitous breakfast cereal, and many of them have more salt per serving that the equivalent in potato chips! And the classic ‘come-home-for-lunch’ grilled cheese and tomato soup lunch has more sodium in it than a growing child should have in an entire day. (The ‘daily tolerable-consumption limit’ for adults is 2300 mg of sodium a day while the recommended amount is 1500 mg a day—the suggested maximum amount is weight-adjusted for children, who should consume less, with toddlers in around the 1000 mg a day level and children age 4 – 8 at 1200 mg per day).
There are some basic takeaways when it comes to changes you can make to ensure our kids’ food has less salt beyond just taking the salt shaker off the table. Here are a few that I have committed to making at our house:
- Serve more fresh fruits and vegetables (as if you needed another reason to do so) as they are naturally salt-free
- Stay away from the packaged baked and frozen goods. Even though the transfats are all gone now, cookies, crackers and those frozen lasagnas are all chock-full of salt. So better to make/bake your own and freeze them if you can
- Read the label as there are significant differences between brands (I use a lot of beans, lentils and chick peas in my cooking and while soaking my own would definitely reduce the salt, I find canned ones much more convenient—however, on my grocery shop last weekend, I noticed that just by switching brands I could reduce the sodium content quite a bit)
- Reduce the use of condiments—pickles, soy sauce, ketchup and store-bought salad dressings are some of the worst offenders
I’d love to hear if you’re worried about salt and making any changes to your family’s diet?
