While health campaigners have been banging on for several decades about how harmful salt is to humans (so harmful in fact that if we don’t get enough we get very ill and die) in the last ten years the intensity of the campaign has been stepped up. Think back to 2004 and a government misinformation campaign that featured Sid, a “giant slug with a message”, who slimed his way onto television screens back to warn people about the dangers of consuming too much salt. “Stay away from fast cars, loose women and SALT!” he screamed.

Stay away from SALT? Now that really is nonsensical. Sodium, the active ingredient of salt is not only one of the minerals most essential to life, it is present in everything we eat, in fact those “five a day” portions of fruit and vegetables the government’s misinformation campaigners are always haranguing us about contain quite a lot of sodium. 

Sid’s message, (YouTube) that a sprinkling of sodium not only kill slugs but humans too, has now become the received wisdom worldwide. High salt intake is linked to high blood pressure, or hypertension as medical scientists wrongly call it (well what would you expect, they’re scientists?) Salt is a key risk factor for strokes, heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases they rave. Together those rank as the world’s number one killers. In the warped and fervid imaginations of scientists salt induced cardio vascular problems are far bigger killers than malnutrition, poverty or old age . The World Health Organization (WHO – the people who brought you the Swine Flu pandemic) puts cutting salt intake alongside quitting smoking as one of the top 10 “best buys” in public health.

“Blood pressure is the biggest cause of death in the world … and salt is the most important thing that puts it up,” says Graham MacGregor, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the London-based Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine and chairman of the influential World Action on Salt and Health lobby group (WASH). “Cutting back on salt gives a direct beneficial effect on the biggest cause of death in the world. That’s why it’s so important.” Just think about the sheer idiocy of that statement and you realise Mr. McGregor is a serious rival to Barack Hussein Obama as the most stupid individual in the world. Blood pressure is the biggest killer? Well in a crazy way I suppose it’s true. If we don’t have blood pressure we’re already dead, possibly through lack of sodium. Therefore everybody who dies must have some blood pressure in order to be able to do so. But you don’t have to take my word for it. There are plenty of doctors and medical researchers question the “science“

So what is the truth?

Recent scientific research suggests the basis for a global hate campaign by the “progressive liberal consensus” against salt that rivals their hate campaigns against tobacco, alcohol, junk food and the working classes is not what you’d call rock solid. In fact all, that is ALL, the evidence that was not funded by big pharma who want to protect us from cardio vascular disease by forcing anyone over 50 to take blood pressure lowering drugs) points to the fact that salt intake way above the recommended daily level is not harmful to people whose bodies are functioning normally.  Two 2011 studies indicate that the evidence is inconclusive, or that reducing salt may even be harmful.

I should point out here I almost died as a result of having too much sodium in my blood. The problem was not related to diet however but to stress. Too many years of working in a high stress environment resulted in an adrenal gland malfunction, Conn’s Syndrome, which cause my body to retain salt and eliminate potassium, a very dangerous imbalance of blood electrolytes. Once diagnosed the condition is easily controllable but my doctor (you’ve heard of Dr. Dolittle? Well this guy was Dr. Do-nothing;) was more interested in lecturing me on the evils of salt and an unhealthy diet than actuially finding out what was wrong. Eventually I was left brain damaged and paralyzed by a brain haemorrhage. (That is another story however which you can read in my memoir of recovery Calumnious Strokes – which will be online soon.)

“There’s a view that salt is the root cause of all high blood pressure worldwide and some people religiously hold on to that belief,” said Tony Heagerty, head of the cardiovascular research group at Britain’s Manchester University and a former president of the International Society of Hypertension. “But the evidence for that is actually pretty flimsy.” As Dr. Heagarty says, “If you torture data long enough it will give you the answer you want.”

Note that appearance of that word “religiously.” We have seen climate scientists turning their science into a religion, now we find that medical scientists are at it. Scientists seem to hold to the dogmas of their profession more tightly than the fine people of Pennsylvania are alleged by certain politicians to cling to their guns and Bibles.

After years of claims by the academic lobby who are in the pay of big pharma and big government that on salt “the science is settled” (now where have we heard that before?) in recent months debate that has flared  with each side harnessing a legion of experts in hypertension, heart disease, nutrition and scientific analysis. The salt industry has, naturally, jumped on studies that question the conventional wisdom, and at least one food manufacturer has started to add salt back to some of its processed foods. At times, as happened when people started to challenge the spurious and now discredited claims that the science was settled and carbon dioxide emitted by human activity was solely responsible for climate problems, the row became very personal with the science lobby, having no logical argument other than, “We’re scientists, that proves we’re right,”  adopting tactics usually associated with religious zealots and political seditionists to attack their critics.

Us poor consumers are again trapped in the middle of these two interest groups, both of which stand to gain by winning their case. Some people in the anti – salt lobby may have jumped to the conclusion that I am a fan of salty food. They could not be more wrong, I have always hated salty food and the junk food which relies on the addition of excessive salt to mask the fact that it is over processed, disgusting, bland, tasteless pap. I dislike the taste of salt too. But such things are down to individual choice.

Instead of being allowed to exercise our freedom to choose we have become unsuspecting guinea pigs in a grand global experiment.

“The two sides are totally polarized and there’s no agreement or consensus on what the answer is,” says Peter Sherratt of the UK Salt Association. “Any new scientific paper which supports the anti-salt position is lauded as proof salt consumption is dangerous, but any piece of evidence or science showing salt is beneficial, or reducing it dangerous, is criticized as unrepresentative and unscientific,” he said. This sounds, does it not, exactly like a reprise of the non – debate about carbon dioxide, with the side that has government and the media on board simply shouting down opposing views.

The salt issue has big implications for the pharmaceutical business however. Salt used in food accounts for only a fraction of the 250 million tonnes of annual global production. Looking at the United States alone, 1.5 million tonnes of so-called human nutrition salt was sold in 2009 with a value of more than $321 million.

But the U.S. snack foods industry, a key consumer of salt which includes major companies like Pepsico’s Frito-Lay and Kraft’s Nabisco, has a combined annual revenue of $27 billion, according to analysis by company profile builder Hoover’s. Then there’s the business of selling drugs to treat high blood pressure. Worldwide sales of anti-hypertensives were around $35 billion in 2009, according to research by Deutsche Bank.

So when we look objectively at the case against salt and wonder why it is so demonised, as usual it’s a case of “follow the money.” Regardless of the effect on health, there is more money at stake for the supporters of the anti salt lobby, particularly if they can persuade government to pass the laws that will make criminals of those who refuse to take their daily doses of blood thinners, beta blockers and artery scrubbers. Just don’t ask about the harmful effects such drugs might have on people who don’t actually suffer from the conditions the drugs treat.

This article is the first in a short series on the great salt scam.

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Congress is finally coming to the aid of America’s children. One of the proposals should reduce the sugar content of cereal by 8 percent a serving rather than the 12 percent usually found in the most popular brands. (You say, that’s still too much, so do I, but it is somewhat better.)  Another good thing is, the food companies won’t be able to advertise it as healthy unless the product includes nutrition such as, whole grains, vegetables or fruits. The food companies are being forced into doing what they should have done themselves for the sake of kids health and cutting the latest rate of obesity. Food companies are not taking it lying down.
    The food companies had promised to regulate themselves and have blasted Congresses proposal to force them to do so.  The king of food advertisers, Dan Jaffe told the New York Times, “The proposal is restrictive and would virtually end all food advertising as it’s currently carried out to kids under 18 years of age.” Well duh, that’s exactly what it’s supposed to do. Now kid’s advocates are worried the government will water down the regulations till America’s kids will be the losers again.
   Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity released a report ranking dozens of brands of popular cereals for nutritional vallue and efforts to market them to kids. Here are the top ten with the poorest nutritional value.

1. Reese’s Puffs
2. Corn Pops
3. Lucky Charms
4. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
 tie
4. Cap’n Crunch
6.Trix
 tie
6. Froot Loops
 tie
6. Fruity Pebbles
9. Cocoa Puffs
10. Cookie Crisp

These are the most marketed cereals to kids on TV, with Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Flakes and Cookie Crisps rounding out the list. Cereal companies spend more than $156 million every single year marketing to children. Parents must listen up. Buy healthy foods for your kids. Do not feed your children junk. Americans children are the most obese children in the world. Children can whine and be an aggravation but the parent can say no. No, you cannot eat junk. No, you can’t watch TV. You have to go run and play. Be a responsible parent. Groom your children to be healthy. Stop making these junk food companies rich.

Hitler was the first person to introduce Fluoride into the water, but he didn’t do it to improve peoples teeth. Hitler put Fluoride in the water of people in his concentration camps for the purpose of sedating them and controlling them. It was also believed that in certain concentration sodium Fluoride would lead to sterilization.

Now you note I used the term “Sodium Fluroide”.. well Fluoride isn’t really a substance. It is not on the periodic chart of elements, nor is it included in the “Merck Index”, considered the bible of Pharmaceuticals. Rather you may find a gas listed as Fluorine, which is used in aluminum manufacturing, and the nuclear industry. In these processes several toxic byproducts are produced, one of which is sodium Fluoride. According to the Merck Index sodium Fluoride is most often used as rat and cockroach poison (rodenticide and insecticide). You may better know it as an additive in toothpaste, and drinking water in some cities.

Have you ever heard of Sarin Nerve Gas? Let me refresh your memory. On March 20, 1995, Sarin was released in several train stations in Tokyo, Japan. More than 1,000 people were temporarily blinded, 50 were severely injured, and 13 were killed.

The drugs many of us know as Prozac, or Sarafem (these are the trade names used for sale) are really a drug called Fluoxetine. If you are unfamiliar with Prozac, it is a mood altering drug. Among other things it is noted for increasing suicide risks in people under 25 years of age. Oh.. and by the way, sodium Fluoride is a basic ingredient in Prozac, aka, Fluoxetine.

Now.. here is another twist. As a byproducts of the aluminum industry, this substance has been rather hard, and costly, to dispose of. Somewhere along the way Alcoa, and the rest of the aluminum industry in the USA somehow convinced the Food and Drug Administration and American government to BUY this poison at a mark up of 20,000%!

Okay, so think about it, your government pays a 20,000% mark up on a waste product, that is considered a poison, and they put it in your drinking water. Sodium Fluoride is injected into some water systems at a rate of 1 part per million, but a lot of drinking water is used for toilets, shower, and so forth, as such, much of what was paid for, is wasted.

YIKES – sodium fluoride may even be in your drinks as many are made with fluoridated water. We refer here to more than just your ‘take out’ coffee, but your bottled drinks, juices, and sodas.

Independent studies have shown that sodium Fluoride reduces lifespan, increases cancer (most notably bone cancer), causes mental disturbances (lowers IQ, and makes humans more docile). It has been suggested that it is linked with Alzheimer’s Disease – as aluminum in the brain is a related cause and sodium Fluoride is a byproduct of aluminum manufacturing.

Fluoride is also used in most toothpastes, and fears have prompted many people to start making their own toothpaste. In 2002, according to the American Association of Poison Control, one death was attributed to ingestion of fluoride toothpaste. In 2006 over 22,168 cases of exposure were reported to them, with 313 being so severe they required hospital emergency treatment.

Some multiple vitamins contain fluoride and again in 2006, 1802 cases were reported to the American Association for Poison Control, of which 61 required emergency hospital treatment.

photo source

Back to the drinking water again… Diabetics and people with kidney disease are particularly at risk for problems related to sodium Fluoride in their drinking water. These people drink more, this intaking more of this poison than others. When the kidneys are not working properly they are less able to clean out toxins from the body. There are cases on record (Annapolis, Maryland, 1979) in which kidney patients on dialysis died because the ingested small amounts of sodium fluoride.

Now let’s go back to using sodium Fluoride in the water to control humans… The effects of such on human behavior have long been known, as we mentioned it was used in Nazi Germany. But if you think American governments didn’t know about this… you would be wrong.

Albert Einsteins nephew, Dr.  E.H. Bronner, himself a scientist, published a warning in the Catholic Mirror, Springfield MA, January 1952:

“Fluoridation of our community water systems can well become their mos subtle weapon for our sure physical and mental deterioration. As a research chemist of established standing, I built within the past 22 years, 3 American chemical plants, and licensed 6 of my 53 patients. Based on my years of practical experience in the health and chemical field, let me warn: Fluoridation of drinking water is criminal insanity, sure national suicide. DON’T DO IT!”

His letter went on to say that Even in very small quantities, sodium fluoride is a deadly poison with no effective antidote. As well he pointed out that it is different from organic calcium-fluoro-phosphate that our bodies need but which we can get from eating proper foods.

Recall “Operation Paper Clip”? Many Nazi scientists were brought to America by the CIA. Many were actual “rocket scientists” but as well some of these scientists were involved in other medical and chemical experiments.  Where they being used to add chemicals to the water supply to control Americans into submission?

Perhaps the sudden growth in incidences of behavior problems (ADD, ADHD, and so forth) may be related to Fluoride in the water?  Interesting to note that not all countries use Fluoride in their drinking water, one wonders what relationship this could show on civil obedience or IQ?  For example the people of France are well known for holding protests against their government when compared to the people of the USA.   You will note in the picture below the darker red the country is the more fluoridation occurs.  Grey countries are unknown.

photo source

If you are alarmed, or irate, and are perhaps motivated to look into this further, I encourage you do to so. As well I encourage you to stand up to the politicians in your area if sodium Fluoride is added to your local water supply, demand its removal.

Of course if it is added, you might just be so apathetic you don’t care…. which.. is what they want!

Myself I drink fluoride-free well water!

Related Links and Sources

Save a Bunny – Make your own Toothpaste

Toxicity of Fluoride

What Every Mother Should Know about Fluoride

I know ALL my levels are high right now – that’s to be expected in the beginning of a healthy changeover. As you read in segment eight , I revealed my weight after I realized my blood pressure was pretty high. Since blood pressure is a measure of a good diet, I knew even though I was trying to eat healthy with what little I had, it wasn’t a great diet. When I saw the blood pressure machine tell me I was off the charts, it was nothing short of a slap in the face with a high voltage metal paddle. I was honestly shocked to the core. I stripped down the kitchen of all sources of sodium and gave my friend eleven bags of food. Nothing was held back – even my comfort foods went on the chopping block.

Vitamins are not a problem for me, but I must confess, I get tired of taking them. I’d rather take vitamins now than be put on some medication later and have my medical record show it. I want to give the Peace Corps absolutely no reason to request additional tests that will cost me a ton of money later, so vitamins are a good short-term investment. Working off this premise and using my knowledge of vitamins, I started to create a program that would help me in losing weight and bring the assorted blood levels down to acceptable levels.

I know essential fatty acids are important to the body when you start dieting, or else your mood goes through the floor and your brain sails into a fog bank. There are such things as “good” and “bad” fats, and essential fatty acids are well known for residing under the “good” category. There has been long standing research that garlic is important for cholesterol control, so that’s in my daily routine. Of course it’s important to take vitamin C during the winter season to help boost your immunity, and when taken in conjunction with vitamin E, they work like little “brooms”, sweeping up as antioxidants. I’m also ingesting lecithin and milk thistle because they work on the liver, and if your liver isn’t functioning effectively, it’s being overworked and under performing. There is much research to show a sluggish liver will “hoard” fat around the mid-section, increasing your risk of fatty liver and ultimately, Non- Alcoholic Steatorrhoeic Hepatosis. You can guess that wouldn’t look good on a medical report and if I have it, which is sounds like most obese people do, it’s reversible (liver cells can regenerate).

Here’s a little tip that I just picked up today in my Internet travels: do not take vitamin E with garlic capsules. Both have the ability to thin the blood, and you don’t want to take two blood thinners at the same time! So there’s another adjustment to my health regimen and a few dollars saved in my pocket.

The reason I mention this is because the liver can process cholesterol and fats if it’s functioning normally, but you’re not going to bring down the blood levels if your liver is overtaxed. Of course there’s always more to the story than just a quick overview. Lecithin keeps cholesterol and fats liquid so they won’t stick to the arterial walls, but you need a way to transport the harmful elements out. We take it for granted with extra water, we can urinate the poisons out. That’s not exactly the case, but it is a big part of it. The liver produces bile, which helps to process the cholesterol and fats being sent in, but your body needs ample fiber as well in order to transport it out. Fiber acts like a sponge and gives the “bad” fats something to cling to. So it’s water and fiber that help to rid the body of its toxins when it comes to cholesterol.

Of course exercise helps to lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol, but I think everyone has heard that from the doctor in one form or another. “Quick smoking, eat a healthy diet, and lose some weight”, and then you notice they’re not a weight loss motivator. The ashtray on their desk also doesn’t lend credence to their recommendations. We naturally do not like the “do as I say and not as I do” approach to a healthy lifestyle from the man who’s got bacon crumbs in his moustache and Marlboros in his pocket.

Taking into consideration of the scientific basics, I suddenly realized I didn’t know what the recommended daily allowance for cholesterol was. Unless you’ve had a heart attack, you generally do not go through your day and ponder the mysteries of life and the limits of good cholesterol health! I did some searching online and discovered the amount was 300 mg per day. I thought that seemed low, so I started to look at the food I was consuming. My fish contained 35 mg, so I was ok there. I looked inside the egg carton, and saw 270 mg, much to my horror. Yes, I’ve always known eggs were high in cholesterol, but I didn’t realize one little egg and fish fillet “ate” up my entire daily allowance!

This was another sobering reality because I normally eat two eggs a day and a piece of fish. The one good thing I’ve learned is to eat the egg first and then chase it with a half a cup of oatmeal and a lecithin capsule so the fat doesn’t “stick” to the arterial walls and has a way out of the body.

I’ve always looked at eggs as a “clean” or “efficient” protein source because I’ve always been told that. Let’s compare here for a minute to get a reality check:

Eggs are clearly not the “clean” source with this side-by-side comparison, especially when you keep in mind the rule of staying under 300 mg of cholesterol on a daily basis. Two eggs and a piece of fish equal 575 mg of cholesterol, and that’s way too much. I know the cholesterol is concentrated in the yoke, and there are times when I’ll use only a half a yoke, but that doesn’t work with a hard boiled egg – my preferred method. I love the yokes in that case, but I guess I’m going to have to swear them off. To me, an egg is NOT an egg without the yoke.

One could argue the value of the egg as being the lower sodium content, but remember the trick I wrote about in a previous segment ? If you soak the fillet, you can remove a lot of added salt during the production of the product. It’s a small price I’m willing to pay considering I hate finding fish bones in the back of my throat. Of course your body needs some salt, so whatever occurs naturally in food and what little is left over after soaking is probably not enough to worry about.

I was chatting with a friend last night about diet and exercise issues, and although he exists somewhere between sedentary and work related bursts of movement and regular spring through fall juicing, his smoking and otherwise dietary habits are somewhat to be desired. For the moment, I am lighter than he is in terms of scale weight, but if we did an accurate comparison between the both of us, he might win out today.

The reason I mention him at this point is because he said to me, “you’re becoming compulsive with this diet thing”. I told him I wasn’t compulsive, but I was being stringent because I’m having to face facts I might not be in good enough shape in three months to go for a physical and lab work; I might have to readjust my expectations and shoot for four or five months. Granted, that means I’ll be looking at March or April for a doctor’s visit, and I’m shooting to have all medical and dental issues resolved and perfectly clean by June.

Thankfully the rest of my diet consists of lots of carrot and celery sticks, tomatoes, flax and sesame seeds, frozen mixed vegetables, and a little powered fiber that I add into my oatmeal for a little extra cholesterol grabbing power. I do drink a lot of water with lemon, but I’ve got a stern warning about drinking too much, based on personal experience. Just a word of advice: keep a bottle of Gatoraide handy in case you drink too much water – it might save your life!

If you don’t like trying to find all the segments of this series, you can locate the links to them here and they will return you the exact spot on the socyberty.com site.

quazen.com articles by this writer can be found here

socyberty.com articles can be located here

relijournal.com articles are here

picable.com photographic images are here

When I started changing my diet a few weeks ago, I didn’t get on the scale because at that point, I had no idea what God had in store for me. I was changing it because in all honesty, I was feeling little nagging chest pains. As much as you want to pretend they’ll go away, you know darned well they will not, so I had to start changing my diet. I have no clue what I weighed at that time, either.

After I got “the call”, I stepped on my scale that measures body fat as well as weight; it tipped at 195.5 and 47% body fat. I’m not proud of to reveal this, either. Nine days into the diet, I have lost five pounds and I’m exercising with steady walking of five miles a day. The best laid plans of men sometimes have plans of their own and I have this nasty habit of forgetting that aspect of life.

Three days ago, I started to feel a minor pain in my left shin and I thought I could walk it off. The pain came on after I tried jogging a little bit in an attempt to shave off a little bit of time on my 1.5 hour walk. We’re all told heat and ice will do wonders for the pain; I wrapped it up in an electric heating pad and sat the walk out. Wanting to speed the healing process, I had also been soaking the ankle water as hot as I could stand. Nothing has worked to my satisfaction, so I decided to make a short hobble to the grocery store and purchase an ace bandage and some food.

A few days back I decided to make another change in my diet – I wanted to consume more raw foods. I got a taste for celery, baby carrot sticks, and small tomatoes; I wanted more than the processed foods I was eating. What was on the menu before? I tried to make it healthy with my budget: ramen noodles, Starkist albacore tuna, and Campbell ’s “healthy request” tomato soup. Recently I had cut out the cheerios and corn flakes because they were too carbohydrate intesnsive and switched to old fashioned long cooking oats and brown sugar. Even now, I’ve pushed the brown sugar aside and substituted it for pure honey, which is less processed.

Wandering through the grocery store, I decided to implement some changes in my diet. I decided to pass on canned tuna and opt for Gorton’s salmon fillets since economically they had less salt and cost about the same per fillet. Most appliances are packed up and ready for a move, but I found a stainless steel steamer I forgot I had in the bottom of the kitchen gadgets drawer. This gave me a healthy way to cook the fish and steam a cup of vegetables at the same time. I do have a big food steamer, but for a few veggies and a fillet of fish, it’s impractical.

I also gave up on the ramen noodles and Campbell ’s tomato soup for whatever reason; it was more of a taste buds and salt issue. One day I happened to notice I had figured the salt content wrong in both products. Ramen noodles had a whopping 1520 mg of sodium, so I started to think about how I could cut the salt down. There were insulated paper coffee cups in my cabinet with the two holes in the lid, which became what I thought was a good option: I used half the seasoning packet, cooked it to tenderness, and then put the lid on and used the hole to drain away the excess salt and fat. If anything, it was no longer swimming in salt. The Campbell ’s soup I also made a mistake by reading there was only 470 mg of sodium, but not noticing each can contained 2.5 servings, not two. The sodium went from 470 mg to 588 mg per 12-ounce cup, which is a lot of salt.

I made another mistake a few days ago that cost me some ground: Starkist albacore tuna has 250 mg of salt per serving, and I was ok with that before I realized I didn’t add the salt correctly. The can of tuna contains 2.5 servings, and the can normally contains 4 ounces of tuna and 2 ounces of vegetable broth, so they call it 6 ounces. Most people wouldn’t look at a 4-ounce can of tuna and think to be within the recommended portion, it would mean (2) 1.5-ounce portions and (1) 1 ounce portion. Most diets recommend at least 2 ounces of chicken or four ounces of fish (four times a day in a mini meal format) to be within an acceptable protein range that won’t set you up to fail from starvation. If you do the math correctly, a can of tuna which seems like it would be a healthy alternative, has 625 mg of salt – that’s almost as much as the ramen soup with only half the packet, and breezes past the “healthy request” tomato soup.

Sitting around and recovering from my walk/jog a few days ago, I happened to be watching the local PBS station. They had a diet guru on TV and I hadn’t thought too much about what I was watching because I was tired, but he said something that made me stop and think: “Are you getting high empty calories from any processed food you’re eating? Cut them out and replace them with raw foods and you’ll get more bang for your buck.” I’ve heard this many times, but this time I remembered something I had forgotten: it’s hard to overeat on carrots and celery because you feel full too fast.

I’d been thinking about the ramen noodles for a few days because I didn’t like the fact I was consuming 380 calories on this meal. I had mentally budgeted myself to be somewhere in the range of 800 to 1000 calories per day, and if I stuck to the low end of 800, nearly half of my “calorie budget” was spent on this meal. I didn’t like that thought at all because it meant I would be starving later on or exceeding the calories, so I wanted to replace it and use the ramen noodles as an occasional option.

All those thoughts received not a gentle wake up call, but a plowing over like a train. Going back to the grocery store, I happened to be looking for a nutrient in the vitamin aisle, which they didn’t have. As I searched the shelves, I saw a little old man sit down near me and the sounds of clicking and an electrical motor being used. I hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a free blood pressure machine and I decided I should at least have some idea where I was on the scale.

I figured my blood pressure was going to be a little high since I hadn’t been taking care of myself prior to this point. Sitting down, I forced my sleeve up and slid my arm down into the mechanical cuff. The last time I had checked my blood pressure was a few years ago, and I remember the systolic number was 93, which wasn’t that great, but it wasn’t classified as high blood pressure (according to the doctor who wrote me up, I had high blood pressure over “90”). Quietly waiting as the machine did its thing, I noticed the “high blood pressure” chart on the label in front of me was at 140 on the systolic, and that’s as high as the chart went. The cuff hissed as it released and then the moment of truth flashed on the screen: systolic was 152 and diastolic read out at 101.

How high my pressure was, I didn’t know, but I’d never seen my pressure that high before. Was I five minutes away from a stroke and a heart attack since I passed the highest marker on the machine, and did it automatically dial 911 with a pressure like mine? One can’t help but be full of questions, and even if the machine wasn’t 100% accurate, I knew even if it was off by 10%, my readings were still too high.

Walking through the door, I called my friend Laurie and asked for her advice. I thought I was doing the right things with vitamins, diet, and exercise, but now I wasn’t sure. She has been out of the cardiology field for a while, and although she said I was doing the right things, it might be a temporary spike in blood pressure that sometimes happens with the start of an exercise program. This was something I hadn’t heard before, but it was nice to know it might be a partial contributor.

Once I hung up the phone, I sat down and started to pen a quick email to another friend, elaborating on my dieting mistakes with the sodium monster that I thought I had in check. It wasn’t until I started to think about my current diet during this email that I decided to find out what the daily recommendation for sodium intake was, and it turned out to be 2400 mg a day, but they were actually recommending 2000 mg for most people. I started to add up my mistakes and realized even with cutting out half the salt in the ramen noodles, I was still registering 2600 mg of salt. This is when it hit home I wasn’t as diet and salt savvy as I believed I was.

This realization scared me enough to change a few more behaviors. I went into the kitchen and started stripping it bare of salty foods. All unopened food went into plastic grocery sacks with the full intention of giving it to a friend’s kids who could “afford” to burn off the high salt by simply breathing. In the end, I filled up eleven sacks. Where did I find the salt?

• Salad dressings, pickles, mustard, seasonings, packaged seasonings (taco, chili, stews), marinades, barbeque sauce, hot sauce, hot dog relish, mayonnaise, gravies, dip mixes, bullion cubes, shaker style seasonings, bread crumb mixes
• Hush puppies and corn bread mixes
• Cocoa mixes
• Canned beans, canned chili, canned diced tomatoes, canned tomato sauce (the last two had on the label front “no salt added”).
• Packaged microwave rice, boxed and bagged rice mixes
• Cake mixes, cake frostings, peanut butter cookie mixes
• Soups, canned tuna, oriental noodles, biscuit mixes

This isn’t a complete list of what I bagged up, but it’s enough to get you thinking about what’s inside your cabinets and where the salt is lurking. In the case of one of the salad dressings, for example, one tablespoon had a whopping 600 mg of sodium. The easy mac and cheese microwavable bowls that gives you a small snack size has over 660 mg of salt – that’s a huge amount for a kid or adult to ingest! The microwavable rice weighed in at almost 1000 mg for a half a cup serving size. Also watch soft drinks, which often are loaded with salt and sugar.

The other good thing about cleaning out the cabinets and refrigerator is that I know there will be no unacceptable foods entering my mouth and nothing to sabotage the diet. Not having a vehicle means I have to walk to the store a couple of times a week, and it means I don’t run out for fast food or sweet snacks on a whim. I think about not only about the food I’m choosing, but the amount of space in the backpack as well as the weight I’ll have to carry home.

I may not have been able to control my dieting before, but now I have no choice but to do the right things and eat properly. It’s certainly not practical or even an option for a family with kids, but at least watching what actually comes into your house is achievable.

Here’s one tip that can help in ridding your food of salt: place the food in a bowl of water and rinse it a few times, then let it set for a half an hour. Salt “holds” water in the body, and since it’s naturally drawn to water, it’s drawn out of the food.

Of course this won’t work for soups, but I find with packaged veggies that have added salt, and even fish fillets, it works pretty well. I also give it a hand by steaming the fish and veggies, knowing the dripping water will carry away some measure of sodium. If you choose canned tuna, you can try and rinse the excess salt out, but I will warn you the flavor is a bit “lacking” after this. I’ve tried the lower sodium options, and they were awful in my opinion, but they might taste great to you.

If you don’t like trying to find all the segments of this series, you can locate the links to them here and they will return you the exact spot on the socyberty.com site.

quazen.com articles by this writer can be found here

socyberty.com articles can be located here

relijournal.com articles are here

picable.com photographic images are here