Do not add salt to your meals and avoid processed foods

The addition of salt to meals is associated with a lower life expectancy and a high risk of early death. Who says it is a new study now published.

More than 500,000 people were analyzed, who answered a questionnaire between 2006 and 2010 about their eating habits and how often they added salt to their meals. Researchers at UK Biobank analyzed the amounts of salt added after meals were cooked.

The investigators returned to contact the respondents about nine years later, and found that the more salt they added to their meals, the greater the probability of early death. People who consume large amounts of salt can easily reduce them by eating more fruits and vegetables, experts indicate.

The American Heart Association recommends that adults do not consume more than 2,300 milligrams of salt per day. However, the ideal limit is 1,500 milligrams per day. Excessive salt consumption causes increased blood pressure, which can lead to cardiovascular disease, strokes and kidney diseases.

Even if you do not add salt to your meals, you may be consuming excessive amounts of sodium. One of the main culprits is processed foods, which use salt for texture, flavor, color and preservation. More than 70% of the sodium that Americans consume has been added by the food industry to products previously purchased in supermarkets or restaurants, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

"Most of my patients do not add salt to the dining table, but do not realize that breads, canned vegetables and chicken breasts are among the worst culprits (of high sodium levels) in the U.S.," said Stephen Juraschek, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School that investigates sodium and hypertension.

To avoid sodium you should replace salt with aromatic herbs and spice mixtures, and concentrate your diet on underprocessed foods.