' Message of the Day - Tuesday Dec. 11

December 11, 2001

PILLAR OF SALT 12/11/2001

You know how much I love to “people gaze” at restaurants. It seems to be so

much fun to watch people order, eat, drink, and laugh. I`ve noticed

something. People are using more salt. Where I`m from, we salted everything.

We salted tomatoes, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, and even watermelon!

You can`t go to a restaurant and find a table without a saltshaker. They`ve

even gotten fancy and created the salt grinder filled with rock salt that

you grind just like you would grind peppercorns.

Now your body does need a small amount of salt. This is true. When you

exercise and sweat, that sweat is very salty because it`s filled with salt.

That`s one way the body gets rid of excess salt, but over salting can be

deadly! First of all, it can cause water retention. Have you ever been to a

Chinese restaurant and after the meal, you went home and couldn`t even slip

off your rings? Salt is the reason! Most restaurants do pre-salt all their

foods. It goes in the salad, in soups – you even boil pasta in salty water!

Too much salt in the body can also lead to high blood pressure, which could

lead to heart attacks, strokes, and kidney failure. You don`t want to fool

around with that, so when you go out to eat, ask them if they can make your

food without so much salt in it. You should also be looking at those frozen

foods and some canned foods to see how much salt is in them. The body only

needs about 200 mg of salt per day. Sometimes one TV dinner has over 1000 mg

of salt in it! When you take out the fat, sugar and salt are always put in

its place.

Please be careful and watch your salt intake! This is the time to really

read your food labels. There are many salt substitutes, but my favorite is

Spike. It was created by an amazing nutrition lecturer, Gaylord Hauser. You

can sprinkle it on anything, and the herbs and spices he put into this

shaker are healthy and rich in flavor, so spice up your foods, and take that

saltshaker off the table!

Love,

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