(Cyntha Sass/ Health) — Sodium is good for you; it’s an essential mineral, which means that your body needs it but doesn’t make it. So, you have to get it from food. Knowing how much you need in a day and the best sources to get it from can be tricky. Eating too much can lead to a whole host of health ailments.
Read on to find your recommended daily amount, tips for watching your intake, and advice on the healthiest sources for this helpful mineral.
Many people use salt and sodium interchangeably, but they aren’t the same.
Sodium is a mineral that occurs naturally in some foods and is added to most processed foods. It’s also a component of salt, which is technically called sodium chloride because it’s made up of 40% sodium and 60% chloride.
To put that into perspective, one teaspoon of salt contains about 2,300 milligrams of sodium. That’s precisely a whole day’s worth of sodium, per United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines. (The guidelines call for 1,500 milligrams daily for people with hypertension, aka high blood pressure). (…)