High blood pressure is a common chronic disease that seriously threatens people ‘ s health. Salt control in diet plays a crucial role in the many means of combating hypertension. For high blood pressure patients, a reasonable limit on salt intake can effectively reduce blood pressure, reduce the risk of complications and provide a solid basis for healthy living.
Salt, which is an indispensable odour in everyday life, has important physiology in the human body for its main component, sodium chloride, but there are many hazards associated with over-ingestion. When humans are over-ingestioned, sodium ion concentrations increase in the body, leading to a range of physiological changes. First, sodium ion attracts large amounts of hydroponics in the body, increasing blood capacity. This is as much an additional burden on the heart and the vascular system, which requires greater strength to pump blood to the whole body, leading to higher blood pressure. Long-term high-salt diets can perpetuate vascular walls at high pressure, gradually damage vascular inner-skin cells, and promote the hardening of the arteries. Sclerosis of the artery makes the vascular wall thicker, harder and less resilient, further exacerbating hypertension, and increases the risk of coronary heart disease and moderate cerebrovascular disease in the brain.
So, at what level should high blood pressure patients control their salt intake? The World Health Organization has recommended that the daily salt intake for adults should not exceed 5 grams, while for patients with hypertension it should be strictly contained within 3 – 5 grams. This standard often implies a greater change than the dietary habits of the general population, as many people usually consume much more salt than this value.
Effective salt control in everyday life requires a multifaceted approach. The first is to reduce the use of salt in cooking. In cooking, such as cuisine, soup and stew, there is a growing habit of less salt. Salt-limiting spoons can be used to accurately control the use of salt, and may initially feel less delicious, but the taste buds will adapt over time. For example, a meal with a spoon of salt could be reduced to two thirds, adapted for some time before further reduction. At the same time, other spices can be usefully used to enhance the taste of food, such as vinegar, lemonade, peppers, eight horns, onions, ginger and garlic. These spices not only enrich the taste of food but also reduce to some extent the dependence on salt. For example, the addition of vinegar and garlic in cuisine, which both add to the flavor and reduce the use of salt, and the addition of spices such as eight horns and peppers to the stew, can spread the spices without placing too much salt.
In addition to salt for cooking, be wary of salt hidden in processed foods. Many processed foods are produced with a large amount of salt to extend the shelf life or to increase the taste, but these salts are often not easily detectable. Common pickled foods such as pickles, pickles, hams and salted fish, which have very high salinity levels, should be avoided as much as possible. In addition, more salt is contained in processed foods such as noodles, chips, ham sausages, canned foods and fast-frozen foods. For example, a bag of ordinary tablets may have a salt content close to or even exceeding the daily salt intake of patients with hypertension. Therefore, when food is purchased, the table of nutrients on the food label is carefully checked to see the sodium content. For foods with high sodium content, careful selection or reduction of the frequency of consumption.
Food outing is also a “high-risk area” for salt intake. In pursuit of taste and colour, restaurants tend to add more salt and other spices. When a person with high blood pressure is out for dinner, as much as possible, he or she should choose a fresh dish, such as a fresh, boiled, cold meal, and inform the waiter that salt is less. If possible, the dish can be installed in a single plate and salted to its own taste before it is consumed. In addition, some Chinese and Western snacks have high levels of salt, such as burgers, fries, fried chickens, etc., and should be kept to a minimum.
In household diets, salt intake can be further reduced through small techniques. For example, placing salt in difficult-to-reach areas to avoid salting in the cooking process; not placing salt bottles on the table to reduce additional salting during meals; and eating more fresh vegetables and fruits, which contain less sodium per se and are rich in minerals such as potassium, can help to promote sodium discharge and help to reduce blood pressure.
Salt control in the diet of high-tension patients is not a one-off event and requires the patient and his or her family to develop the right health awareness, starting with the drops in daily life, and to sustain a low-salt diet. While the process may face some challenges, these are worth the cost of health benefits. Through reasonable control of salt intake, high blood pressure patients are better able to control blood pressure, reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, improve the quality of life and take a firm step towards a long and healthy life.
High blood pressure.
