Solving Sodium

Let’s talk about salt. There’s been lots floating around about low-sodium diets, food options and the risk of eating too much sodium. The truth is, you can’t live without salt, and you probably wouldn’t want to, as it add lots of flavor and is important for cooking.

Cooking Light has been talking a lot about salt lately, and found some interesting information when they decided to test one of their favorite low-sodium marinara sauce brands in the lab. The label boasted only 185mg of sodium per half cup, but when it was tested, it came in at more than three times that number. They cited that the discrepancy may have come from switching the supplier of canned tomatoes used as the base of the sauce, which isn’t a routinely tested change. However, the results of their experiment suggested that when looking for low-sodium products, labels should be a general indicator at best, not taken at face value.

The magazine took it a step further when they thought about foods like pickles (or anything pickled, really) that are soaked in salty brines. Did this make them higher in sodium? Their test results were varied. They found that a couple supermarket pickle brands contained more sodium than was listed on the label, but most brands actually came in under the level they were reporting. One came in at 23 percent lower sodium than was stated. But this doesn’t mean they were low-sodium, as most of the pickles averaged 313mg per spear, which is 14 percent of the daily allowance. And serving sizes can vary also, as some brands don’t even count a whole spear as one serving.

Even more interesting, unless you already suffer from a medical condition that could worsen with high sodium, a recent study suggests that eating less salt has no effect on your risk of high blood pressure or heart disease.

That being said, if you are trying to cut back, or just want to know for certain exactly how much salt you’re consuming, the best solution is to cook from scratch.