They call the teenage years boys’ and girls’ “formative years” because it’s the time in their lives when they’re developing lifelong habits, their senses of humor, their circle of friends and their personal interests.  Granted, changes in personality, habits and friends take place later life, but by and large, “High school never ends,” as the rock band Bowling For Soup likes to say.

And nowhere is this “formative years” notion truer than when it comes to teenagers’ diets.  Just ask the American Heart Association.

Adolescents typically consume anything and everything in this span of their life, and for the most part, they can get away with it; they have metabolic rates that can beat the band!  But according to a new round of research from the American Heart Association, there’s at least one aspect of a teenager’s diet that disallows them from getting off scot-free.

According to a recent conference held by the American Heart Association, teenagers can reduce the chances of developing conditions associated with high sodium intake – like heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure – by reducing their sodium intake while they’re teenagers.

Ideally, teenagers should be consuming no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day, which is a little less than a teaspoon of table salt a day (remember, there’s a difference between salt and sodium).  But that’s the ideal, not the reality.  In reality, according to the study’s lead researcher Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, teenagers are consuming on average a little more than two teaspoons of salt a day, or 3,800 milligrams!

And to be honest, that’s probably a conservative estimate.  Think about it.  Never mind the amount of table salt kids put on food with their salt and pepper shakers, but popular teenage fare (e.g. convenience foods, snacks, frozen dinners) comes loaded with sodium straight out of the box.  And there is no bigger offender than pizza, which the National Center for Health Statistics distinguishes as the worst of the worst.  Worse than soup, even.

Salty Soup

Speaking of soup, consider the sodium content in one cup of Progresso’s Light Chicken and Dumpling soup.  In one cup, there’s 690 milligrams of sodium.  And that’s in one cup!  If you were to have the entire can of soup (two cups), that’s 1,380 milligrams of sodium – just 120 milligrams shy of the recommended amount of sodium to be consumed over an entire day!

Imagine the sodium content found in two to three slices of pizza!

So what’s the upshot?  Well, should teenagers decide to do what’s best for them and heed the recommendation of the American Heart Association, the cuts in annual cases of heart attack, stroke, and heart disease would be significant.  Bibbins-Domingo and her colleagues estimate there’d be 120,000 to 210,000 fewer coronary heart disease diagnoses; 36,000 to 64,000 fewer heart attacks; 16,000 to 28,000 fewer strokes; and 69,000 to 120,000 fewer deaths per year.

Fortunately, several state legislatures have taken notice of this sodium conundrum and are actually doing something about it.  In my home state of New York, for example, Mayor Bloomberg established a $370,000 ad campaign that highlights the health hazards of excess sodium.  And enemy number one for Bloomberg is soup, specifically canned soup.

Companies like Campbell’s haven’t appreciated the way in which their product is being portrayed in advertisements (posters depict mounds of salt pouring out of soup cans).  In a statement, the Campbell’s soup company said the advertisements are “not an accurate representation of the company’s soup portfolio.”

In their defense, Campbell’s does offer soup varieties with less sodium than their traditional varieties.  Still, unless they’re organic, even their low sodium offerings aren’t worth it.  I’ll get into why a little later on.

Assessing Whether or Not You’re Consuming Too Much Salt

There are many ways to determine how much salt you’re consuming on a daily basis.  Perhaps the best way is to get a blood pressure reading.  If your blood pressure is 120/80 and over, dollars to doughnuts you’re consuming too much salt.

Another really easy way is to write down what you’re eating every day, taking special notice of how often you reach for that salt shaker.  If you find yourself applying salt to foods before even tasting them, again, dollars to doughnuts you’re probably overdoing it on salt.

How do we cut back?  Well, ideally, we’d stop eating salty foods, even so-called “healthy options” like broth-based soups.  But seeing as how we’re entering the cold weather months, signing off on soup is a less-than-attractive option.  After all, what’s better than a nice hot cup of soup to warm you up?

Avoid excess sodium is by avoiding pre-packaged foods as much as possible and preparing foods – like soup - yourself.  That way, you know exactly what’s being added to the soup, and more importantly, how much.

But if you’re a devotee of canned soup – and, admittedly, there are a lot of great tasting canned soups out there – look for organic soups varieties.  Health Valley Organic, Imagine Natural Creations, and Amy’s Kitchen have lots of all-natural varieties and all of them are made with unrefined organic sea salt.  This fact alone is beneficial, as organic sea salt has been shown to normalize blood pressure and heart rates when consumed in moderation.

Does Organic Equal Low Sodium?

It’s important to note that just because something is “organic” doesn’t mean it’s naturally low in sodium.  Even if it’s organic, read labels, looking for things like “Light in Sodium,” “Less Sodium,” or “50 % Less Sodium.”  Anything lower than 400 mg per serving can legitimately be labeled low in sodium.

Thankfully, food companies are ever so slowly cutting back on their salt use.  Earlier this spring, in fact, 16 food companies committed to reducing the amount of sodium used in their products, including Heinz, Kraft Foods and Pepsi.  With any luck, if New York City’s ad campaign continues to be successful, we’re bound to see more food companies follow suit.

Let’s hope our teenagers do the same.

Sources
sciencedaily.com
associatedcontent.com
sciencedaily.com
dailymail.co.uk
cbsnews.com