The Food Standards Agency has a big push on right now to get all Britain's to reduce their salt intake to 6 grams a day. Apparently we eat too much salt, and we aren't even aware of it. Most of it (75%) is already in the food we buy.
Why cut down on salt? Because it can raise your blood pressure and triple your chance of stroke and heart disease.
But exactly how much is 6 grams of salt and how are we supposed to know we're consuming it if it's hidden in the bread and breakfast cereals we eat every day? To help out, the FSA has put together a helpful list here in case you want to know which foods are typically high in salt...
You can download the free FSA salt application from iTunes (just search for "FSA salt"). Please note you need to have the latest software (3.1) running order to download the application. The application is super easy-to-use. Basically it calculates all the mumbo jumbo on the packaging and rates your choice. You simply enter the salt and weight per gram and the applications comes up with an answer: LOW (a healthier choice), MEDIUM (an OK choice) or HIGH (eat occasionally or as a treat). Easy peasey even for a techno phobe like me.
Now that it was installed I was curious about my diet...
Friday afternoon and at the local leisure centre swimming with the girls. I bought a packet of crisps (fancy ones, mind you, Handcooked Sea Salt and Cider Vinegar ones). I did a quick check, fully expecting a HIGH, but got a MEDIUM instead...
Now how about some of our breakfast cereals ...
Rice Crispy Shapes: MEDIUM
Cookie Crisps (no comments please): MEDIUM
Malt Wheats: LOW
Honey Cheerios: LOW
Nesquick (please don't judge me on this): LOW
Special K: LOW
I was really surprised me that none of these came up HIGH. Bread was specifically mentioned in the guidelines as being high in salt, so I analysed our Hovis Best of Both. MEDIUM. Hmmm.
Now I was on a mission to find the high salt culprits...Packaged frozen pizza: MEDIUM
Smoked Haddock Florentine: MEDIUM (really?)
Wafer thin ham: HIGH (finally)
Spanish chorizo: HIGH (yes!)
Diced Pancetta: HIGH (of course, I'm always thirsty after a meal with pancetta)
Net: This is a good application -- if you have the technology-- to help navigate the grocery aisles when it comes to making healthy choices and limiting your salt intake. However, I was surprised that some of the items I assumed would be high in salt (such as bread and crisps) actually came out medium. Maybe these really are an OK choice. Also, it would be even cooler if the app would tell you when you got to the 6 gram limit. But fun to use and it certainly made me more aware of which foods were high or low salt options.
