Wednesday 12 March 2014

Warning! High salt intake



Nowadays, we can see that a lot of campaigns about obesity or anti-sugar which were started in order to make people have healthy life. But I think maybe they forgot that they should be concerned about only sugar intake but also salt intake. 


According to the BBC News “Children’s diet far ‘too salty’”, in UK, children have high salt consumed, especially in teenager, that can increase risk of high blood pressure. Much of salt intake comes from processed foods which make this problem difficult to solve, though manufacturers reduce salt in their products. 


From my point of view, high salt intake is not only current problem in children but also in adult. We know that salt is important, it is good for our health and can make foods have better taste. But I think because it can improve taste of some foods, so almost every dish has salt and maybe too much. Though the Department of Health told manufacturers to reduce salt in their products, I don’t think it can help a lot because we don’t eat only one product. For example, French Fries, I think French Fries are one of the high sodium foods because as I see in Mcdonald or many restaurants, they put a lot of salt on French fries before serving and also eat those French Fries with ketchup. Besides, Thai foods also have high sodium level. They were added a lot of seasoning sauce. Or sometimes we eat some fruits with sugar and salt. This can make us consume too much salt.  I think we all know that if we eat too much salt, we can have serious health problem. High salt intake is dangerous, it can cause high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, obesity and kidney disease. 

I understand that although we know it’s not good to eat too much salt, sometimes we can’t avoid it. Actually, I’m the one who have high salt consumed and I can’t change myself. This article reminds me about my childhood, it’s not bad memory but it’s not a good thing to do. When I was young, my younger sister and I really liked eating salt. I don’t know why we liked but at that time we usually secretly ate salt, pure salt not eat with foods. When we went to my grandma’s house where there is sea salt which is bigger than normal salt, we ate that salt like candy.  The funniest memory is when I was three or four years old, my sister and I sat under a table with bottles of sauce, I got soy sauce but my sister got fish sauce, we said cheers and then drink it. I can’t remember who started first. I know it’s not good habit. Since I grew up, I have tried to reduce my salt intake, at least not eat it without foods, and also drink a lot of water.

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Reference
 
Robert, M. (2014, March 11). Children's diets far 'too salty'. BBC News Health. Retrieved March 12, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-26513014

7 comments:

  1. Now, my eating habit is quite healthy, and I try to reduce eating salty food. When I was a child, I also liked eating salt and fish sauce, but I didn't consume that much. How could you and your sister "drink" fish sauce!

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    1. Sometimes I think that why children like salt. Many people who I have known said when they was young, they liked salt. As I say in article above, I try to reduce eating salty food, but it's very difficult because I don't cook it by myself. Sometimes when I see some products say 'low fats' and 'low sugar', I think why there isn't a product that say 'low salt'

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    2. Drinking fish sauce and soy sauce? I like both, and probably add too much sometimes, but I don't think even as a child I would have been tempted to drink them. Sugar, on the other hand, was something I loved to eat. I sometimes choked on it, but that didn't stop me taking another spoonful when I thought I could get it without my parents noticing. And adding at least three big spoonfuls to my tea.

      But tastes change. Today, I can't drink sweetened drinks, and I don't much like sweets, except for high cocoa chocolate, which isn't really sweet anyway. And rich chocolate cake, and a few other desserts where the sweetness does not entirely cover the other tastes.

      Unfortunately, I love some things with high salt contents. I am aware of it, and hope I'm not overdoing the salt. My biggest worries are butter and olive oil. Olive oil is supposed to be healthy, but it's also still very fattening, and I do love it.

      And that reminds me of eggs fried in duck fat - one of the delights of my annual visits back home to Australia. I'm pretty sure that duck fat, however delicious, is not high on the list of healthy things to pig out on.

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  2. In the past, I was aware of the amount of sugar intake, but I usually looked over the salt until I met one of my teacher who have a kidney disease. My teacher told that she have to do the kidney dialysis about 2-3 times per week and 4-5 hours per time. I think that was so scary. Therefore, after that, I try to decrease the amount of my salt intake. For example, I won't add more salt, fish sauce, or soy sauce in my noodle.

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  3. Wow that sounds very funny lol. I like to eat food which has salty taste but can't drink fish or soy sauce. When I was very young, I love sugar very much, and when my mom was not at home, I went to the kitchen and had a good moment with sugar, sometimes with my brother.

    I have heard from my brother who studied business that McDonald use to put more salt in french fries in order to make consumers get thirsty then order their beverages, which means more money for the hamburger shop to collect. I agree with Kloy that we can't control it if we still not cook by ourselves, which seems very hard to do so in our rush-hour urban life.

    And I think Thai people love to add more seasoning in their dishes than other countries. I'm not sure that drinking more water will solve high salt intake or not.

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  4. I usually receive look of concern when I put too much fish-sauce in my noodle. I do think salt enhances favor, but i know I have to control it more. Thank you for the good article like this.

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  5. When I was a child, I and my sister love to eat mango with sweet&sour dip - sugar, chili and fish sauce mix it together - It's very delicious for me and we ate it a lot. But when we grow up and know the cause, we tried to decrease it. And now, we stop using it and eat only mango for our good health. It's difficult but I have to control for my good life ;)

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