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Many of you may focus on the amount of calories or carbohydrates you eat, but what about salt?
The average American eats way too much salt, leading to possible heart disease or other health problems.
Pat Sweetman and Nick Garry enjoy going out to eat, but they also try to pay close attention to their diet.
"I try to keep all carbs out of the diet except for once a week," Sweetman said.
Despite Sweetman's name, he also tries to limit sugars, but salts?
"I don't pour anything out of the salt shaker," Sweetman said.
But adding salt to your diet isn't always as obvious as shaking the salt shaker.
"One tablespoon of soy sauce has 1,000 milligrams of salt. That's almost half of what we need in a day," Sanford Registered Dietitian Teresa Beach said.
Beach says you can try low sodium soy sauce instead.
"Sometimes there are some other seasonings you can put in to try to curb the salt," Beach said.
Another place salt might be hidden in your diet? Baking soda.
"We use this in all kinds of recipes, and we need it, so the product will turn out," Beach said.
But too much could be harmful for your health. Just one teaspoon of baking soda has 1000 milligrams. You should only eat around 2000 milligrams a day, or a teaspoon of salt.
"Cheeses in general all have a lot of added sodium, and again, it's not something we taste in them," Beach said.
Half a cup of cottage cheese contains 460 milligrams of salt or around a fourth of the recommended daily intake. Another place salts can add up is in breads.
"It's about half a teaspoon of salt in one bagel," Beach said.
You also should limit how much salad dressing you use. Two tablespoons of French dressing have around a fourth of the amount you should eat in an entire day.
{4:15:40} "You can dip your salad into the dressing, so it's more portion controlled. That would help. There are some that are reduced in sodium too," Beach said.
Sodium that Sweetman says he might pay a little more attention too, especially as he tries to improve his diet.
"The two of us over the last year and a half have gotten very serious about our health as well as in our families," Sweetman said.
Beach says you should look for foods that have less than 150 milligrams of salt per serving, but having a food high in salt every once in a while is okay.
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