American Heart Association - Eat less salt: An easy action plan for finding and reducing the sodium hidden in your diet

American Heart Association Low-Salt Cookbook, 4th Edition

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American Heart Association Quick & Easy Cookbook, 2nd Edition

American Heart Association No-Fad Diet, 2nd Edition

The New American Heart Association Cookbook, 8th Edition

American Heart Association Quick & Easy Meals

American Heart Association Complete Guide to Womens Heart Health

American Heart Association Healthy Family Meals

American Heart Association Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook, 4th Edition

American Heart Association Low-Calorie Cookbook

American Heart Association One-Dish Meals

Copyright 2013 by American Heart Association

No book, including this one, can ever replace the services of a healthcare professional in providing information about your health. You should check with your healthcare professional before using the information in this or any other health-related book. Because numerous variables account for a wide range of values for certain foods, the nutrition analyses for the recipes and the sodium values provided throughout this book should be considered approximate. Different results may be obtained by using different nutrient databases and different brand-name products. The author and the publisher expressly disclaim responsibility for any adverse effects that may result from your use of the information contained in this book.

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
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CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

Your contributions to the American Heart Association support research that helps make publications like this possible. For more information, call 1-800-AHA-USA1 (1-800-242-8721) or contact us online at www.heart.org.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
American Heart Association eat less salt.
p. cm.
1. Salt-free diet. I. American Heart Association. II. Title: Eat less salt.
RM237.8.A43 2013
613.285223dc23 2012015399

eISBN: 978-0-307-88805-1

Cover design by Ashley Tucker
Cover photography by Kristin Duvall/Getty Images

v3.1

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION CONSUMER PUBLICATIONS

DIRECTOR: Linda S. Ball

MANAGING EDITOR: Deborah A. Renza

SENIOR EDITORS: Janice Roth Moss, Robin P. Loveman

SCIENCE EDITOR/WRITER: Jacqueline Fornerod Haigney

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Roberta Westcott Sullivan

RECIPE DEVELOPERS

Ellen Boeke

Nancy S. Hughes

Annie King

Julie Shapero, R.D., L.D.

NUTRITION ANALYST

Tammi Hancock, R.D.

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION SCIENCE AND MEDICINE ADVISOR

Dorothea Vafiadis

Most Americans today, including an estimated 97 percent of our children, are eating an unhealthy amount of sodiumand as a result, we have seen the incidence of high blood pressure rise all across the country. In fact, unless this trend changes, nine out of ten Americans may develop high blood pressure at some time in their lives. Scientific evidence shows that eating a high-sodium diet increases the chance that your blood pressure will rise to a dangerous level. To prevent that increase and its potentially deadly effects, we want to do everything possible to help you eat less sodium. We know that our current food supply makes that difficult, but were here to help!

Because our mission is to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease, including stroke, and eliminate its devastating consequences, the American Heart Association is deeply committed to reducing the amount of sodium in the current food supply. We are working with the food industry and government regulatory agencies to join us in this commitment. The American Heart Association has revised its recommendation for daily sodium intake to less than 1,500 milligrams, which is based on scientific research on healthy sodium levels. Sodium is an important part of our diets, but we need only about 500 milligrams per day under normal circumstances. Yet the average American currently consumes about 3,400 milligramsmore than double the amount we recommend for most people. (There are some exceptions to the 1,500-milligram limit, however. For example, people who lose sodium because of environmental conditions, such as working in hot factories or hiking in the desert, and people with medical conditions that cause the body to need more sodium should not restrict their sodium intake to that level.)

We recognize that the task of reducing sodium brings with it many inherent challenges. It isnt easy to change ingrained habits quickly, and the existing food environment presents more highly salted options than it does heart-healthy opportunities. The objective of this book, however, is to help you understand both why its so important to live a healthy lifestyle and how to gradually transition to get to that goal. Its okay to take small steps rather than one big leapin fact, we recommend it.

Your first step is to acknowledge that doing something to establish a healthier diet is better than doing nothing. Any sodium reduction you make, no matter how small, is a step in the right direction. Once youve made a few meaningful changes in your eating habits, you can choose to move on at your own pace, using the realistic strategies and stair-step approaches this book suggests.

Some of the how-tos youll find throughout include:

How to accurately and realistically assess your current sodium intake

How to reduce the number of high-sodium products in your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer

How to read food labels

How to uncover the sodium hidden in foods

How to keep sodium in line when you eat out

How to build an overall healthy, lower-sodium diet

How to create your own personalized healthy menus

We believe that with solid health information, an achievable action plan, and more than 60 heart-healthy versions of popular high-sodium recipes, you can lower your salt intake and enjoy the food you eat.

Adopting a lifestyle that supports your lower-sodium goals is necessary for good heart healthand those goals are attainable, one step at a time.

Rose Marie Robertson, M.D.
CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER
AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION/AMERICAN STROKE ASSOCIATION

Why has salt, a simple ingredient found on everyones table, become such a hot topic in the fields of nutrition and health? The explanation is anything but simple, yet the facts established after years of research and debate leave little doubt that we are all eating far more sodium in the form of salt than is healthy.

FACT : The more sodium you take in, the higher your blood pressure is likely to be. We know that the connection between sodium and blood pressure is direct and progressive and has no threshold.

FACT : You have a 90 percent chance of developing high blood pressure at some point in your lifetime. More than 75 million people over the age of 20 have high blood pressure today, and that number is growing every day.