Monday, February 9, 2015

More Salt than Cinnamon

It's long been a "thing" to watch your salt/sodium intake when trying to be (pre)hypertensive-free. I haven't really been tackling my blood pressure issues (which fall into either prehypertension or hypertension, depending on the day) and just feel lately like my pressure is up, I'm out of shape, unhealthy, although weight is fine, not eating super well, and it's time to start taking some decent measures toward taking care of myself in this regard.

So, I'm starting to pay attention to sodium intake. I kept it in mind last night when I was making supper. I was going to use a prepackaged flavoured rice mix, then went, "Wait, it's got all kinds of salt I wouldn't add if I were making rice on my own." So, I looked up a low-sodium chicken fried rice recipe and the only sodium added was part of the Bragg's soy seasoning.

Just now, I thought I would eat some oatmeal before heading out for an appointment. I decided to have a look at the label on the box of prepackaged apple cinnamon instant oatmeal: 7% of the daily recommended max intake for one package. I look at the ingredients: salt is listed BEFORE cinnamon. There is more added salt in that package than cinnamon. That's crazy! So, I went for the whole large oats with some almond milk: the oats have no sodium in them, although the milk has the same 7%--at least in part due to the added sea salt. (Did they have to add the salt?)

Now, we need some sodium, but with prepackaged foods, there can be an amount of salt you never would have guessed would be there.

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