Wednesday, April 1, 2009

How much sodium is healthy?

Hi!

This is some info I put together from various resources in regards to consumption of how much sodium is healthy:

A low sodium diet includes no more than 2,000 to 3,000 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day. To give an idea of how much that is, 1 teaspoon of salt is approximately 2,300 mg sodium. People with moderate exercise schedule are usually asked to limit their sodium intake to 3,000 mg per day.

People with moderate/severe heart failure are usually asked to limit their sodium intake to 2,000 mg per day.

The human requirement for sodium in the diet is about 500 mg per day, which is typically much less than typical American diet. Most people consume far more sodium than is physiologically needed. For certain people with salt-sensitive blood pressure, this extra intake may cause a negative effect on health.

I also recommend this article: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sodium/NU00284

References:
1) Heart Failure Society of America, How to follow a low sodium diet.
2) Implementing recommendations for dietary salt reduction: Where are we? DIANE Publishing. ISBN 1428929096.

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