Many restaurant meals contain too much salt

BBC News reports that a "survey of nearly 700 popular meals served in celebrity chef and High Street restaurants found half were high in salt - equivalent to a red traffic light label on a supermarket product. From their research, Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) discovered that the 13 saltiest main meals contained more than the maximum recommended daily intake of 6g of salt."

To give Consensus Action on Salt and Health its due, it keeps on checking salt levels in various food products and in various establishments that serve meals, and it keeps on bringing out reports which draw attention to the continued high levels of salt that are potentially harmful to consumers. Professor Graham  MacGregor reminds us that "Salt puts up our blood pressure, and as a result, thousands of people die unnecessarily each year from strokes, heart attacks and heart failure. Whilst efforts have been made by foods in supermarkets to use less salt, chefs' preference for saltier foods is preventing further progress. It's clear from our survey that some chefs are not listening to their customers."

I just wish that, as well as drawing attention to high salt intake increasing blood pressure and causing premature deaths from strokes, heart attacks and heart failure, health experts would inform people that salt intake is a major factor in problems of obesity, child obesity and morbid obesity. This is especially the case for people who take or have taken prescribed steroids, HRT, antidepressants, some contraceptive medications, anti-convulsant/anti-epileptic drugs, anti-psychotics, and some other prescription drugs.

Read about how to lose weight by eating less salt and salty food.

Was it the medication prescribed by your doctor that made you fat?

Maybe you've sometimes wondered whether it was the medication prescribed by your doctor that made you fat. Check out the prescription drugs mentioned on this page and on this. If you conclude that your weight gain may have been caused by one or more or these drugs, then you can easily reduce that excess weight by cutting down on salt and salty food. - Why not try it? It is a safe, fast, effective way to lose weight, lower high blood pressure, reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes, of stroke, of heart attack and heart disease, reduce your risk of most cancers and of depression, cognitive decline/dementia/senility, frailty, falls and fractures, and a host of allied health problems. - What's not to like? - You will feel sooo much better!

Don't deride it till you've tried it! - Losing weight by eating less salt, that is.

Don't deride it till you've tried it! - Losing weight by eating less salt, that is. - Very occasionally, foolish people write to me to deride my assertion that the easiest, fastest, safest way to lose excess weight is seriously to cut down on added salt/sodium. For one thing, they are usually naturally slim people who have never had the problem of being overweight/obese and never experienced the difficulties of losing that excess weight while living in a society that relies heavily on processed food products that are high in salt and other sodium compounds. For another, they tend to think of losing weight only as losing excess fat. - There is a strange idea around that to lose excess fluid as a means of losing weight is somehow 'cheating' and doesn't count! - What nonsense! When overweight people lose excess fluid by cutting down on added salt/sodium they not only lose excess weight, reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, depression, heart disease, arthritis, fragile bones, premature aging, cognitive decline, dementia and many other degenerative conditions, but also lower their likelihood of experiencing a stroke, heart attack, frailty and mobility problems. - What's not to like? - Go on! - Try it! - Lose weight by eating less salt and salty food! - You will feel sooo much better!

Beware! That pub meal is likely to be very high in salt!

Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) has been surveying the salt content of 526 pie, mash and gravy products from large pub chains, cafes, takeaways and supermarkets, as reported by hc2d.co.uk.

It's good that Consensus Action on Salt and Health keeps drawing attention to continuing high concentrations of salt in prepared meals, but after so many years of attention being drawn to this, retailers who sell meals to the public must know that for the sake of the health of their customers they should be lowering the amount of salt in those meals.

It seems then, that Wetherspoons and Punch Taverns don't care that their high salt meals are damaging their customers' health. It would seem that by making their meals salty, they hope to increase the thirst of the customers who eat them, and therefore to sell more drinks to them to quench that thirst. If you are one of those customers, I suggest you try telling the manager you would prefer the meals to be less salty. Failing that, you may like to consider taking your custom elsewhere for the sake of your health. If you cut down on salt and salty food, you will feel better and have more energy, and you'll lower your risk of stroke, heart attack, diabetes, cancer and dementia, as well as lowering high blood pressure and losing excess weight/fluid retention.

Why do nutrition labels include sodium levels, do you reckon? - You CAN'T believe it's because sodium is good for you!

Why do nutrition labels include sodium levels, do you reckon? - You CAN'T believe it's because sodium is good for you! - You can check which foods are high in sodium/salt here.

There's a little rhyming mnemonic about the famous scientist who discovered sodium:

Sir Humphry Davy,
Who abominated gravy,
Lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.

I find it curious that although the noun 'odium' gives us the adjective 'odious', there is no parallel adjective 'sodious'. Maybe if Sir Humphry Davy were alive today, having coined sodium he would relish the chance of coining sodious too. It would be a useful word and might assist in warning unfortunate salt-sensitive individuals of the foods they need to avoid. In the meantime, we must be content with sodium-rich and high in sodium and such composites, and I offer sodious as a suggestion for a new word...(o:

How do YOU deal with temptation?

How do YOU deal with temptation? - I've decided the best way for me to deal with it is to avoid it as far as I can. - If it's something that would harm me if I ate it - like cheese, say, which contains a lot of salt and therefore should be avoided by steroid victims - I simply never buy it. If it's not in my home, I can't give in to a moment of weakness and nibble at 'just a bit'. I think it's so much harder to resist what is there in the fridge or in a cupboard, than it is to resist buying it in the first place.

Almost all the food that I buy is bought over the internet and so that naturally reduces temptation for me. If you normally go to shop in physical shops, then it must be harder for you to resist your favourites, especially if you ever go shopping when you are really hungry and the likelihood of impulse purchases is much greater. If impulse shopping is your downfall, why not try ordering your groceries over the internet or by phone sometime and see if that makes it easier for you to keep your little 'addictions' in check?

Watch out for salty salads!

See this Telegraph report. It's a bit sneaky making salads salty, because people tend to expect salad to be a healthy choice of meal. High salt intake can increase your risk of a stroke or a heart attack, especially if you are in one of the vulnerable groups. And if you have high blood pressure or if you are overweight, then salty food is extra damaging to you. See Sodium in foods.

Salty Food is Fattening

Salty food is fattening even if it is low in fat and low in calories.

Here is the information you need to lose weight safely, easily and fast by cutting down on salt and salty food:

How to lose weight

See Sodium in foods

and FAT RETENTION

My Big Fat Diet Show, Episode 3, shown January 12th

Well I watched tonight and there were points made that pleased me. I was glad to see the 'cheese-addicted' woman helped to get over her 'addiction'. - Cheese is high in salt and so it is a food best avoided by overweight people wanting to lose weight, because all overweight people are sensitive to salt. For overweight/obese people, eating salt/sodium tends to increase their problem of fluid retention and so they weigh more. Because this woman drastically cut down on her cheese intake, this reduced her salt intake and so she lost some of her fluid/water retention. The fluid is lost by excreting more urine. If you want to lose excess weight, you would do well to reduce your intake of cheese.

Cheese figured in another part of the programme tonight too - Dairylea cheese. - But of course Dairylea cheese isn't really cheese at all: it's a concoction. The dietician on the show explained that it is mainly composed of skimmed milk powder, butter, cheese, emulsifiers and a high amount of added salt. - See Nutritional information for Kraft Dairylea Spread. Since it is so very high in salt/sodium it is not something you should be eating if you want to lose excess weight. To convert sodium content to salt content, multiply the sodium by 2.5.

Chocolate digestive biscuits, both the usual ones and the ones labelled as 'lower fat', featured in tonight's show. Both of these types of chocolate biscuit, and indeed almost all sweet biscuits, you may be surprised to learn, are high in salt! - If you are trying to lose excess weight you should cut down on biscuits or avoid them altogether.

If you find exercising difficult, please do not feel you have to do it to lose weight. Exercise is good for many aspects of health, but it has practically no part to play in losing weight.

Here is how to lose weight

Sodium in foods

FAT RETENTION

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Study finds dramatic rise in type-two diabetes limb amputations in England

BBC News reports that the "number of people in England having a limb amputated because of type-two diabetes has risen dramatically." Obviously this is related to the continuing rise in the number of people developing type 2 diabetes and also with the illness developing when people are younger than previously.

Type 2 diabetes occurs mostly in people who are overweight/obese, and it is one of the very serious side-effects of the many prescription drugs, e.g. corticosteroids, that weaken blood vessel walls, resulting in fluid retention/sodium retention/obesity/raised blood pressure and many other health problems.

To lower your risk of developing obesity, type 2 diabetes, etc. in the first place, it would be prudent to avoid prescription drugs unless they are really necessary, and make a serious effort to minimise your intake of salt/sodium and salty food. - Avoiding salty food entails avoiding the highly-salted processed foods like bacon, sausages, bread, cheese, cornflakes etc. See Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Protect your pets from salt and salty food. Salty food causes obesity in dogs, cats, rabbits, etc.

If you have an overweight pet dog, cat or rabbit, it is overweight because of eating food containing added salt, e.g. leftovers from your takeaway meal. This is bad for them. Give them unsalted food instead. They will lose weight, have more energy and live longer.

The same applies to overweight owners of pets...(o:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Sodium in foods

Vulnerable groups

Children and Obesity

See also FAT RETENTION

advice for pregnant mothers

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Associated health conditions

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

Breakfast cereal manufacturers may be forced to stop making untrue claims about their products being healthy

As reported here in the Sunday Telegraph, breakfast cereal manufacturers may have to stop making untrue claims about their products being healthy or helping slimmers to lose weight. In fact, most breakfast cereals contain a very high proportion of salt and and this is harmful for most consumers, especially children. Salt is the constituent of processed food that contributes most heavily to obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and a host of other illnesses and ill health in general.

There are a few breakfast cereals that do not contain added salt. These include porridge, Ready Brek, Shredded Wheat and Shreddies.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Vulnerable groups

Sodium in foods

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted from my website if you need my help. My help is free.

Parents are being advised against putting ham sandwiches into children's lunchboxes

Parents are being advised against putting ham sandwiches into children's lunchboxes in this BBC report. Other cured, salted, smoked and processed meats are also advised against. The reason given (by the World Cancer Research Fund) is that these meats increase the risk of bowel cancer in later life.

I agree with the WCRF that these meats are not good for children. Salty food, in particular, is not good for children. As well as increasing the risk of bowel cancer (and most other cancers too) it is the cause of child obesity. Unfortunately the Food Standards Agency says it is OK to give children cured, salted, smoked and processed meats occasionally. - Well it's not OK - not if you want your children to be as healthy as possible, and also to avoid becoming overweight.

Salt, of course, could properly be regarded as a carcinogen.

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

FAT RETENTION

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Vulnerable groups

And see Sodium in foods

Denny's is being sued for serving food too high in salt

Jerry Hirsch of the Los Angeles Times reports that a "New Jersey Superior Court lawsuit alleges Denny's heavy use of salt puts "the restaurant chain's customers at greater risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke." The lawsuit asks the court to order Denny's to list the sodium content of its food on the menu and warn about the hazards of consuming salt in high doses."

Very well done to the Center for Science in the Public Interest for filing a lawsuit on this issue! Highly salted food is extremely harmful to people with high blood pressure, people who are overweight, people with heart problems, cholesterol problems, kidney problems, liver problems, diabetes sufferers and a host of others.

Jerry Hirsch also informs us that "The group also has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to regulate salt as a food additive instead of an ingredient that is "generally regarded as safe." Such a change would make it easier to regulate sodium levels in food, such as by limiting the amounts permitted in various food categories."

That would be a very useful step to take. Salt/Sodium is clearly the most dangerous part of the meals Denny's serves. - Although regulatory authorities stress calorie content, the calorie content is largely irrelevant for health, since it is sodium content that mainly causes weight gain (in people who are sensitive to salt).

Remember:

If you're obese or overweight
SALT is the poison on your plate!
Margaret Wilde © 2008

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

FAT RETENTION

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Vulnerable groups

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

Which Food Additive Is Doing The Most Harm? - For Most People The Answer Has To Be Salt.

Which is the food additive most likely to be harming your health? - It is salt - common salt - sodium chloride. - That's if you are one of the people living in the developed world and are one of the majority who are overweight or obese.

These are two of the factors that make salt/sodium a harmful food additive for you:

1. It may be that you like to eat convenience food/ready meals/takeaways/processed foods/salty snacks. These are too high in salt to be healthy for anyone who is overweight.

2. It may be that you have taken or are taking prescribed medication that causes salt sensitivity and that has resulted in fluid retention/weight gain/obesity/high blood pressure and all the other health problems associated with drug-induced obesity.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

FAT RETENTION

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Vulnerable groups

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

Are Pork Pies to Blame For the Stockton-on-Tees' Child Obesity Problems?

The Times reports that people in Stockton-on-Tees eat more pork pies than people elsewhere in the region, and also that the town was named as the country’s capital for childhood obesity in Department of Health figures released this week. The question arises as to whether there is a causal connection between these facts.

Well pork pies are very high in salt/sodium, as are all cured meats or foods containing cured meat, so I'd say that if many of the children in Stockton-on-Tees are eating pork pies then the pork pies are definitely contributing to the child obesity problem.

When children become fat it is because they are eating salty food like pork pies, sausages, bacon, crisps, takeaways, ready meals, etc. Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.

Because children have much smaller bodies than adults it would be best if they had no more than half as much salt as adults. Most children, however, have much more than this because they eat so many snacks and instant foods. Just one cheeseburger, for instance, can contain almost double the recommended daily salt maximum for children. There are high amounts of salt in packet soups, instant noodles, ketchup and sauces, burgers, hot dogs and savoury snacks.

Overweight children should not be put on a diet; dieting is harmful and unnecessary and does not usually result in weight loss. Once children start dieting it is often the beginning of a lifetime of yo-yo dieting and increasing weight and ill-health. And exercise has no effect on child obesity.

Fat children will lose weight fast if they eat less salt. And even faster if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and unsalted vegetables, because these are rich in potassium, which helps to displace sodium from the body.

Unfortunately bread contains a lot of salt and most families eat quite a lot of bread because of using it for sandwiches in packed lunches, and for toast, etc. Because of its high salt content bread is not a healthy food for little children or for anyone who is overweight. Some bread manufacturers have lowered the salt content of certain loaves, but most bread still usually contains 0.5g or more of sodium per 100g. This is too much. - Always check on the packet; look for the lowest sodium content.

Cheese is often recommended as being good for children because it contains calcium, but cheese is not really good for children because it has a high salt content. So don't give them a lot of it. Children can get plenty of calcium by drinking milk and by eating yogurt (but avoid the sort of yogurt that has lots of chemical additives).

There are no calories in salt - but if you cut down on salt you will easily lose weight. If you cut down on calories you will not lose weight.

Children and Obesity

FAT RETENTION

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

These are healthy breakfast cereals that will not make you gain weight - Shredded Wheat, porridge, Ready Brek

But don't put salt in the porridge/porage! - Overweight people should avoid salt and salty food, so as not to increase fluid retention and hypertension.

Most other breakfast cereals contain a lot of salt and so will tend to make fat people fatter and will raise the blood pressure of people who have high blood pressure. - These 'baddie' breakfast cereals include Kelloggs Crunchy Nut Clusters (honey and nut), Kelloggs Bran Flakes, Kelloggs Rice Krispies, Kelloggs Fruit n fibre, Kelloggs Cornflakes and other brands of cornflakes too, Cheerios, Special K, Quaker Oat Krunchies. (I don't know how the manufacturers get away with claiming that Special K helps you lose weight when you have it instead of 2 of your 3 meals in a day for 2 weeks...(o: - It contains a high proportion of salt so it cannot help you to lose excess weight.)

Maybe you think you don't eat much salt/sodium? - I invite you to have a look at the labels on the packs of food in your store-cupboards. - You'll be surprised...

Obesity is a very serious disease syndrome caused by the medical profession and its acolytes, by the dieting industry, and by pharmaceutical companies, all of which have supplied harmful misinformation to innocent members of the public and then blamed their victims for the harm caused...

The processed food industry has been equally culpable in doing harm by adding far too much salt to their products.

While women and men continue to be constantly misinformed by the foolish, unscientific 'experts', then obesity will continue to increase both in incidence and in severity. The best way to extend your life-span and improve your health is to cut out salt as far as you can and also to avoid prescribed pharmaceutical drugs as far as possible.

To lose excess weight it is necessary to eat less salt and salty food because this will reduce the body's fluid retention. This is the safe, sure, healthy way to lose and it works like magic.

DON'T DIET! - Dieting is unnecessary, harmful and IT DOES NOT WORK!

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Children and Obesity

And see Sodium in foods

Salty food is not good for your pet dog or cat. Don't feed them bits from a takeaway meal or a processed food meal. It could make them fat/diabetic.

Have a look at my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Beware the salty salad! (McDonald's)

McDonald's salads 'are saltier than a Big Mac' - Telegraph

Extract:

"Some McDonald's salads contain nearly a third more salt than a Big Mac burger and fries, new research shows.

A survey of 156 ready-made salads and pasta bowls from coffee shops and fast-food restaurants found that while the overall average of salt levels was healthy - 1.4g - nearly a fifth (19 per cent) had more than the 2g recommended for a meal.

The saltiest salad in the survey by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) - the Thai noodle bowl from EAT - had 4.4g of salt per portion, nearly three quarters of the total recommended daily salt intake of 6g.

Cash said some salads should carry health warnings rather than manufacturers marketing them as healthy meals.

The research found the McDonald's crispy chicken Caesar and grilled chicken Caesar contained 3.5g and 3.3g of salt per portion respectively - more than the supposedly less healthy Big Mac and small fries, which contains 2.5g of salt.

Graham McGregor, a professor of cardiovascular medicine and chairman of Cash, said cutting salt intakes would save thousands of lives.

He added: "Many people think of a salad as a healthy lunch. And in many cases this is true and we would encourage people to look out for low salt, low fat salads as a good lunchtime option."

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Blood volume abnormally high? Hypervolemia? - Cutting down on salt will help.

Cutting down on salt and salty food/processed food/ready meals will reduce high blood volume and many, many other health problems, including obesity and high blood pressure. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html

and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free...(o: