sodium Archives - EverybodyCraves

News Bites January 11, 2020

A poor diet is worse than smoking or high blood pressure, study shows

You don’t smoke, your blood pressure is in-check, and you’re not obese. So what if you don’t carefully watch your diet, right? Wrong! According to a recent study published in the Lancet, poor diet is the leading cause of death worldwide—contributing to more deaths than well-know risk factors like tobacco use and high blood pressure. Researchers analyzed dietary habits of adults aged 25 and older between 1990 and 2017 across 195 countries. They compared those findings with how it affected their chances of an early death. In 2017, they found that 11 million deaths (that’s 22 percent) of the deaths over that time frame were caused by poor diet. The breakdown? About 9.5 million deaths were due to cardiovascular disease. Another 900,000 were due to diet-related cancers. More than 330,000 deaths were from diabetes, and more than 136,000 deaths were caused by kidney diseases. Not only were there more dietary-related…

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News Bites March 14, 2018

The most unhealthy Chinese takeout dishes you can order

When you want Chinese takeout, nothing else will do. The arrival of those duck pancakes, sesame chicken and hot and crispy egg rolls is practically ceremonial to a proper Saturday night staying in. But while we enjoy full chopstick after chopstick of these saucy specialities, we should consider what we’re actually putting in our bodies. Since Chinese takeout doesn’t come with nutrition information printed on the packaging, it’s easy to ignore the makeup of what’s inside. New information from watchdog group Action for Salt will, unfortunately, change that wonderful ignorance for us all. More than 150 Chinese dishes from six different London Chinatown restaurants were analyzed for the report, and the results were not good. The BBC reported that Action for Salt found 58% of the entree options contain about half of an the American Heart Association’s recommended maximum daily 2,300 milligrams (msg) for adults. (Ideally adults will limit intake to about 1,500 mg per day.)…

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Seasonal January 30, 2018

Some states are switching to beet juice and beer to ‘salt’ icy roads, sidewalks

Most snowy places around the country throw salt on the roads to eliminate ice and improve road conditions. According to New Herald, experts fear all this road salt tossed onto sidewalks and scattered on highways, is having an alarming impact on the environment. Conscious of this fact, some cities are turning to less conventional materials to get the job done: beet juice, molasses, cheese brine, and beer. Researchers on the subject cite mounting evidence that the 20 million tons of sodium chloride crystals used each year is increasing the salinity of hundreds of lakes — particularly in the Midwest and Northeast. In the past 50 years, chloride concentrates in some of the sampled lakes have quadrupled, and in a few cases, even increased a hundredfold. If the problem is not corrected, they warn, the runoff could threaten freshwater ecosystems and put everything from frogs to microscopic zooplankton at risk. As the negative effects are…

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News Bites November 3, 2017

Enjoying spicy foods linked to lower blood pressure

Pixabay

People who eat spicy foods may have a heightened sensitivity to the taste of salt, a new study suggests. The findings were recently published in the journal Hypertension and show there is reason to believe eating spicy foods may help people consume less salt. Eating less salt means lower blood pressure and better health for millions of people. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), people are eating too much salt in all corners of the world. The recommended daily salt intake is less than 5 grams, but most people consume somewhere between 9 and 12 grams. The WHO estimates that 2.5 million deaths could be prevented each year if salt consumption was reduced to the recommended levels. The health issue prompted Zhiming Zhu, M.D., professor of cardiovascular medicine and metabolism at the Chongqing Institute of Hypertension in China to pursue alternatives to salt. Zhu and his team decided to study spicy food…

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Crave-Worthy Recipes May 15, 2017

A look at the growing artisanal salt trend

Image credit: Meghan Rodgers

A half dozen salts sparkle in the sunlight at a stand in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. They vary wildly in texture, size, color, shape, and, of course, taste. The artisan salt trend has taken off in recent years, and with it, a deeper appreciation for the common mineral. Culinary creators are no longer limited to the taste of table salt, and health conscious consumers committed to the “farm to table” lifestyle have taken to them as a healthier alternative. Still, salt gets a bad rap among most. We’re told by doctors to avoid ingesting extra salt at all cost. But Kimarie Santiago wants to shake up that idea. The Long Valley, New Jersey woman is, of course, biased. She owns the growing artisan salt empire, Saltopia, but her passion for preaching salt’s health benefits, is infectious. And, she backs her bias with science. “I’ve dedicated my life to having my two…

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