GET STRONG, GET HEALTHY, FEEL AMAZING!
Change your body and life with coaching from Huron County's best fitness and nutrition experts.
Get Started Now
Our Blog
Written By: Mairead, Registered Dietitian In the fitness and health world, there's lots of questions about salt and sodium. How much do you really need? Do you need to worry about having too much? Is there a better type of salt? And like many things in fitness and health, the answers are more nuanced than just a basic yes or no. Sodium is a mineral found is both processed foods and table salt. It plays a few important roles in our bodily functions: helping regulate blood pressure, helping muscles contract and relax properly, and conducting nerve impulses. So we do need salt in our diet every day. For most normal healthy adults, 1500mg of sodium daily is enough to meet your need so your body can function normally. People who exercise a lot or are very active in the heat may need slightly more than this because they lose more sodium through sweat. Those who workout for an hour a few times a week generally don't need to fuss about taking in more sodium, since most of us are well above this required amount to start with! When we have too much salt on a consistent basis, this can raise our blood pressure. High blood pressure can increase our risk of a having a cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke, especially if it's combined with high cholesterol or blood sugars. This is why we're often cautioned against taking in too much salt. The upper limit we want to stay below for most normal healthy adults of 2300mg of sodium per day. So how do we take in less sodium? Reducing the salt you add during cooking and at the table is usually a great first step. Restaurant meals and take-out can be very high in sodium, so cooking at home more often can help reduce your sodium intake. For processed foods, check your labels to see if you're taking in more salt than you think - use the percentage of daily intake on the side of the nutrition facts chart. 5% or less is a little, 15% or more is a lot. Plain old table salt isn't the only kind that contains sodium. Sea salt, kosher salt, pink Himalayan salt, and most other variations of salt do still contain the same amount of sodium - the difference comes in how they are processed. While some salt options do have trace amounts of other minerals, you would have to take in way too much of the salt itself to get enough of the other minerals. As usual, nutrition advice is nuanced and not a "one size fits all" answer. Most people are taking in more than enough salt to meet their body's regular needs, and there's lots of good reasons why a more moderate intake might be a good idea! Looking for more personalized nutrition advice? Let's chat! Email mairead@degreefitnessseaforth.com for more info about our Nutrition Programs, or click HERE to book your FREE Bite-Sized Nutrition Chat!
The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.
Written by: Mairead, Registered Dietitian Fats can be confusing... Are they good? Are they bad? What's the difference between the different types? Let's take some time to break down the different types of fats and which ones we want to make sure we include on a regular basis! First of all, we don't need to follow a low fat diet, unless you have a specific medical condition where this is the case. We actually need fat in our diet to help us absorb certain vitamins and play important roles in cell function. Like any nutrient, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. If we eat too much fat, it may mean we're taking in more calories than we need, which can lead to weight gain "Good fats" are our unsaturated fats. These come from foods like nuts, seeds, avocados, olive oil, canola oil, and fatty fish (salmon, trout, etc.). They help promote normal cholesterol levels, which can reduce our risk of heart attack and stroke. Unsaturated fats can also help reduce inflammation in the body and help promote brain health. "Bad fats" are our saturated and trans fats. Trans fats have been mostly phased out in Canada, but used to found in many processed foods and baked goods. Saturated fats are found in fatty meats, high fat dairy, fried foods, coconut and palm oils, and many packaged or processed foods. Diets that are high in saturated fats can lead to higher cholesterol levels and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, although most people are still safe to consume some saturated fats as part of a healthy balanced diet. So how do we know what types of fat are in a food? We check the label! Total fat is always listed on the nutrition facts table, with saturated and trans fats underneath. The total fat value is made up of the saturated fats and trans fats listed, as well as any unsaturated fats the food contains, which may or may not be listed on the label. To see if a food is high in saturated and trans fats, use the percent daily value, which is the percentage over on the right hand side of the nutrition facts panel. If the percentage is under 5%, the food is low in saturated and trans fats. If it's over 15%, it's high in those fats. Fat does so many good things in our body - but we need to make sure we're choosing the right ones to help with our heart health! Practice reading labels to know whether you're making a health choice. Looking for more personalized nutrition advice? Let's chat! Email mairead@degreefitnessseaforth.com for more information about our Nutrition Programs!