A 2-Week Low Sodium Diet: Can I Live On 1 Teaspoon Of Salt Per Day? | Talking Point | Full Episode

I've been missing out on some of my favorite foods, eating almost tasteless, almost as expected, tasteless foods and doing mental math to figure out what I can eat well, so I left the food court and guess what I ate? absolutely nothing, why am I doing this? Stay tuned to find out what makes ingredients come to life, adds flavor to our dishes and is found in all of our savory delights. I'm

talking

, of course, about

salt

, according to the latest national nutrition survey from 2018. You're eating about 9 grams of

salt

every day doesn't sound like a lot, but did you know that's almost double the daily intake of 5 grams recommended by the world health organization and health promotion board?

In this

episode

, I'm on a mission to find out why we end up consuming so much salt and what it affects us. We are not alone in our high salt consumption. Our daily intake is on par with China, the United States and England. I want to know what makes us exceed our daily consumption. salt limits for some answers i met up with professor william chen over lunch professor chen and his team have created natural food preservatives that can help reduce the salt content in processed foods hey professor say hello ray, This is quite a lot of food. for the two of us, yes, well, these are all my favorite dishes from this hawker center, so before we continue to eat, maybe play a little game to see what your guess is about the amount of

sodium

in descending order .

When you say

sodium

you mean salt, well, actually, sodium and salt are not exactly the same. Salt is actually a compound made up of sodium and chlorine. Five grams or less than a

teaspoon

of salt is equivalent to two thousand milligrams of sodium. our daily limit since salt is the main source of sodium in our

diet

, the two terms are often used interchangeably, from most to least flavorful, let's see, I think maybe this curry and rice, all flavored, maybe this After that, here's how I organize dishes according to what I think their sodium content is, from lowest on the left to highest on the right, turns out I'm completely wrong, surprise, there you go , so it turns out that fish soup and misoto have the highest sodium content, which will ruin my daily salt. limit me, goreng and London, come somewhere in between and chicken briyani and once I have the minimum, this is the highest, the lowest, yes, seriously, the fish soup is the highest, it's a surprise, but fish should be assumed to be the healthy option, well, a fish.

The soup may seem less greasy among all these t-shirts, but they actually contain a lot of sodium, so after one of these you no longer need to eat much during the day, oh man, how come we don't? You know how much sodium we consume, let me show you something, so what did you want to show me? Most of the sodium that ends up in our body actually comes from sauces, condiments and seasonings or, for example, look at the oyster sauce commonly used in Chinese cuisine for every tablespoon there are about 500 milligrams of sodium oops, but that's all soy sauce per tablespoon about 1000 milligrams thousand that sounds pretty high wow or something even better or worse free sauce per tablespoon about 1500 milligrams sodium wow that sounds really high it's almost about the daily sodium intake, so when we cook a dish we usually don't measure how much we are eating, so all of these together contribute to the high level of sodium in dishes, so it seems like I could use up my sodium allotment for the day with just one meal in a hawker center and that's not counting the condiments we add to almost all of our dishes, don't get me wrong, sodium is not a villain, it actually is.

An essential part of our

diet

, it helps transmit nerve impulses, keeps our muscles functioning properly and maintains the fluid balance in our body, but too much can upset this balance and cause your body to retain water, which in turn increases the blood volume and forces the heart to work harder to push blood through the vessels, the strenuous pumping puts more pressure on the blood vessels, leading to higher blood pressure, high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, increases the risk of stroke, heart disease and kidney failure, I certainly don't want that to happen to me, especially since I have a family history of high blood pressure, so I am going to try changing my diet, but I will soon find out that it is more easier said than done.

I don't know how to do it, it's really quite frustrating. I tell you, I am investigating what our salt consumption is doing to our health. So far I have discovered that we are consuming more than we should, 9 grams per day instead of the 5 grams recommended by the WHO and it is hidden in all our favorite dishes, but I found studies that claim we can eat more than twice the recommended amount without increasing our health risks. So are we being too conservative about how much salt we should be eating for some clarity? And all the research out there, I'm bringing what I learned from an expert for the last five years that lim kit has been helping Singapore heart foundation clients improve their diets and reduce their sodium intake, so I was doing these studies correctly and they say that salt is actually not that good. bad for us now how reliable these articles are, the consensus is that excessive salt consumption is definitely bad for cardiovascular health but of course there is debate in terms of how much is excessive but I think the challenge is establishing what is too much.

Largely, because some people are much more sensitive to salt compared to other populations, so should we really stick to the recommendation of five grams of salt or, you know, one

teaspoon

of salt a day? I think it definitely has benefits based on global health. organization, if we can reduce our salt consumption to less than the recommended level of 5 grams per day, we can actually prevent 2.5 million deaths annually to 2.5 million people worldwide by reducing salt consumption in Singapore , almost one in four Singapore residents aged 30 to 69 and more than one in two Singaporeans aged 60 to 69 are actually hypertensive and I think the scariest part is that hypertension is a silence, which It means that it does not cause any symptoms even when the condition is severe.

So, it's quite an alarming fact and also since hypertension is one of the key risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, we actually impact around one in three deaths in Singapore, so according to Kiet, it seems that too much Salt can kill, but face it, no country has been able to meet the recommended daily intake of less than a teaspoon a day. I wonder if it's that hard to cut back and if that will have any impact on my health, so I'll try to do it. I limit myself to less than a teaspoon of salt a day for two

week

s before starting this experiment.

I'm reviewing my basic health markers. Dr. Julian Ung will measure the levels of two hormones in my blood and take my blood pressure to determine my risk. for hypertension, then your blood pressure is actually normal, it's one, two, four, over 87, so you're perfectly fine, I eat away from home maybe more than half the time, probably about 60 of the time , yes, that puts me at risk in some way, most likely, okay. You're getting more than the recommended amount of sodium or salt in our daily diet, so I'm going to try to limit myself to five grams of salt per day for the next two

week

s.

How can I really know how much sodium is in my foods? The WSO has published guidelines on very, very common foods that are widely available and that most people would consume and they actually give you the sodium content in those guidelines. I hope the guideline can be rice with chicken, once my medical checks are done, I'm going to have lunch. There are low-calorie labels on food stalls, but why aren't there low-sodium options? So it seems to me that because of the amount I eat out I will have to limit myself to one meal a day or maybe find some kind of alternative.

I cook my own food at home and then take it out. It's tempting my first lunch without added salt, let's see how it tastes. I think I'm starting to be salty because I eat out so often that it's hard for me to control my sodium. intake, so I asked to meet with melissa co, a nutritionist with the health promotion board, she has been studying how to get food companies to reduce the amount of sodium in the dishes they serve melissa, I have been following this low diet in sodium and one of the hardest things for me because I go out to eat a lot is when I go to a food court.

I can see that you know there are many low calorie options, but why can't I find what the low sodium foods are on the stickers? Talk about the labels that are part of the healthy eating program. We are now looking into the need and visibility of extending this to low sodium labels or something, it would be very helpful, but you know HPV has been trying to educate Singaporeans on lower salt consumption since about 2011, so is it? Why does it seem like we consume more and more? Our early efforts have focused largely on pre-packaged products. Such efforts have been effective in stimulating the formulation of low-sodium sources and condiments for home use. but still we know that overall consumption has increased and we did a deep analysis and found that this increase is actually largely due to the increasing trend of eating out, so we actually carried out local trust with two suppliers major catering companies, both changed during the study period. to sauces and condiments with reduced sodium salt, so overall the findings of the trip were very positive.

The sodium reduction was significant, around 30 to 38 um across all sites, okay, yeah, and when we interviewed consumers, most of them couldn't really tell the difference and those that could really taste it. The difference is some like low-sodium pasta, which means there's still that margin where foodservice operators can reduce their sodium, you know, without compromising taste. Melissa will let me try the reduced sodium option to see if I can tell a difference. Oh, wow. I also have lunch, yes, of course, these are two dishes of fried rice, one with reduced sodium salt and the other with normal salt.

Would you like to try and see how we can tell the difference? Okay, I'll try some of this first, it's definitely good fried. the rice is quite delicious, okay, i will give this one a chance, it's almost similar, i can't really say that this red rice, yes it contains about 30 less sodium than this one, yes, but for 30 you can't tell the difference, yes, definitely. I couldn't say anything else, so what is this low sodium salt you talked about? It's like regular salt, but with a portion of the sodium, so the sodium chloride is removed and replaced with potassium chloride or other mineral salts, typically a low sodium salt will be around 40 percent.

Less sodium than regular salt, so everyone can take it. Yes, for the majority of the population; However, those with impaired kidney function will need to be a little more careful because it increases the risk of hyperkalemia, which is too much potassium and relaxes the hpb. I'm trying to get more food operators on board with using low-sodium salts and seasonings before implementing low-sodium labels to guide diners, so it looks like it will be easier to find low-sodium options in the future, but That does not help me. Now and as the days go by it becomes increasingly difficult to meet my recommended salt limit.

You know, what I really miss is being able to go to a food court or a supermarket and feel good. You know, I want to have that today. and then I just order it and eat it, so I'm having dinner, my friends, and this is basically my portion of the night, you know, for all my friends, of course, you know, it's all this food, there's all this sacrifice that it's worth it. Wow, I'll soon find out that I've been waiting for this day for two weeks. I'm in the middle of a two-week experiment to see if I can maintain the recommended salt intake of less than a teaspoon a day.

It's been a struggle so far, so here I have one of my meals prepared. This one has about 765 milligrams of sodium, so I think it's pretty decent for a meal, but it's very hard to find. Low. Sodium ready meals that aren't too expensive. I think that's one of the challenges I face. Yes, I feel a little lighter, but I think that's more because I've been eating very small portions because I eat out a lot. To find things to eat, I have been trying to cook more at home so I can control the amount of salt I put in food, but it has taken me a long time to find low-sodium recipes and calculate the sodium content in the foods.ingredients.

I actually started this. A diary to monitor my salt consumption. Cutting back on salt also makes some of my favorite dishes taste a little bland. If I'm going to make this diet work, I'm going to need help because I can't stand eating tasteless, tasteless foods. food for another day akila noor asman is a sports and nutrition trainer who has been teaching people how to cook healthier versions of her favorite dishes since 2015. She will show me how to accentuate my cooking without relying too much on seasoning my food with salt. Hello akilah, what's cooking today? Hi Ray, I'm actually making a healthier low sodium fish soup.

Bihun wow, okay, but fish soup usually doesn't have much sodium, especially when you go out to eat at hawker centers, but instead of using concentrated broth, I'm actually using onions as a natural flavor enhancer, so Generally, many foods, even the healthiest ones, contain some sodium, so there is no need to add extra salt, how did that come about? When creating this, I think it's my own struggle to find healthier, lower sodium or generally healthier outdoor Asian foods, so I've tried experimenting with different recipes. Okay, Ray, I think it's ready. You can smell it? Does it smell good? let's take it out and do a little taste test for this, I mean this low salt version really smells like the real thing, thank you, wow there is flavor, I can taste something, I'm so happy, so akilah in the one I've been.

This low salt diet for the last few days, yes, and my food is absolutely tasteless. Do you have any tips for me on how to prepare my food so it has a little more flavor? So I will recommend you add some herbs and spices. and adding a little bit of natural flavor brings out things like onions, scallions, which will actually help improve the flavor without adding extra salt, but at the same time I eat out a lot because I'm always out so yeah, how do I do it? ? Reducing my sodium intake when I'm out, best practice is to try as much as possible to stick to unprocessed foods and try not to choose, you know, those kind of fried, greasy foods and if possible, Even when choosing vegetables, try to make them raw as much as possible and minimize those that are cooked with a lot of broth, a lot of sauces and a lot of gravy because you can easily turn a healthy food into an unhealthy one if you take into account the tips that follow. days of my experiment became a little more bearable.

I have my garlic and onion fried rice low in salt. I just have Vietnamese chicken noodle soup without having any soup and the best part is that I didn't have to use a spoon and I also didn't touch any of the sauce after two weeks of depriving myself of my favorite foods, the experiments are finally over and I think I did pretty well at maintaining my daily limit. Now it's time to start drinking again and see if this has done anything for my health. I'm here to get my low salt diet test result before we even talk about your results and we're going to take another blood pressure so your blood pressure is normal and compared to what we actually measured about two weeks.

Recently, it's pretty much the same, so after all that effort my blood pressure is still the same, so that's why we took a good look at a couple of blood markers and one of the things we did for you was a blood molecule . it's called aldosterone so I can see from the results that mine has doubled yeah essentially it's almost doubled from about 200 to about 400 watts what does that indicate essentially when you're on a low salt diet this molecule actually increases and by doing so? so it helps the body retain salt and you retain water and therefore increases your blood volume and therefore will increase your blood pressure again.

Basically what my body is trying to do is keep my blood pressure and sodium levels the same, yes. right, like before I started a low sodium diet, yeah, right, and that's part and parcel of what the human body does because it tries to resist change and that's actually a very important function for the human body because obviously you don't want to wild fluctuations in your blood pressure in your heart rate things like that so doctor what is the motivation for me to follow a low salt diet if my blood pressure is normal if you continue on a high salt diet a higher salt level than recommended in your diet the long term which is basically a signal to your body that, hey, that's a new set

point

, a new normal for me, and over time, due to increasing age and all the various factors , the body will try to reset the blood pressure

point

so that it actually starts to rise as well.

I think the message here is that the purpose of a low-salt diet is to prevent you from developing blood pressure problems rather than to improve your blood pressure, so our salt intake is killing us. I have learned. that the rate at which we eat salt-laden foods puts us at risk of high blood pressure and even heart problems, but the thing is that we can control our salt intake and after just two weeks of following a low-salt diet my taste buds tastes I have become a little more sensitive to it, so I hope that in the future I will choose less salt in my diet even if I stop counting it.