Dear Dr Garner,
My husband is getting out of hand with his use of salt on every thing. No matter what I put in front of him, he grabs the salt shaker and shakes it at least 3 times.
I am worried about his health. His blood pressure is high and his brother died of a heart attack at about the same age he is now (67 years old).
Could you please let him know that he is doing himself a lot of harm? Maybe he will listen to you.
Shocked and Scared of Salt in Sheepshead Bay

Dear Shocked and Scared,
Salt may be the most deadly part of our diet. Before I discuss further, I would like to recognize someone who is the “salt of the earth” (a good salt), Mary Murphy, the noted television personality from channel 11. I had the pleasure to talk to her this week and am so happy to hear she is a loyal Tablet reader.
Unfortunately, not all salt is good. As a matter of fact, salt becomes no good, when it exceeds our normal daily requirement, which is about a teaspoon of salt or 2300 milligrams.
While we have control over the salt we put into food we cook, we do not have control, when visiting restaurants or eating processed food. These foods are usually overloaded with salt.
Salt is an acquired taste. When we first taste it as a child, it is unpleasant, but we learn to like it.
By the same token, when we start avoiding it, the body begins to develop a dislike for it, and the food begins to taste too salty.
Let’s review some of the medical information regarding salt.
1. High-salt diets cause 150,000 premature deaths in the United States each year.
The salt in the blood stream causes the volume of blood to increase. This makes the heart work harder and raises the blood pressure, causing increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.
About 65 million Americans have high blood pressure and another 45 million have pre-hypertension- this means that the blood pressure is at the very high end of normal. Most will develop high blood pressure, if their diet of salt remains unchanged. Your husband and many others are in these groups and are particularly susceptible to the dangerous salt.
Just reducing salt intake moderately can cause a ten point drop in blood pressure, which is often enough to prevent a stroke or heart attack.
One can determine the salt content of foods found in the grocery store, by reading their labels.
It can sometimes be tricky, because instead of salt, it may say sodium, but this is the same thing.
You will be surprised when you start looking at the salt contents. For example, a container of “Cheerios” cereal has more salt than a bag of potato chips. Some of the salts in soup and other processed foods are astronomical.
Frozen foods are also a major culprit in the excessive salt we are consuming.
Most restaurant meals have more than 3000 milligrams of salt- something the consumer will never know, as it is not listed anywhere. Even bagels, have large quantities of salt, that most don’t realize.
Sometimes the salt in restaurants is used to prolong the life of foods, and even cover up some, which may not be as fresh as we would like.
Most middle age and older citizens should be consuming fewer than 1500 milligrams per day.
I have some tips that might be helpful to cut down on salt intake.
1. Making recipes from scratch will allow you to avoid much of the salt in your diet
2. Use natural seasoning, such as parsley, pepper and oregano.
3. If you do by processed foods in the supermarket, select ones that are the lowest in sodium.
4. Products that are labeled “sodium free” or ones that have less than 100 milligrams per serving are safest.
4. When you are in a restaurant, ask the chef to prepare your food without adding any salt and to use other spices when possible.
5. Avoid adding salt from the shaker. Try to remove the salt shaker from you kitchen and dining room table-the shaking is often a habit as in your husband’s case.
6. Choose snacks low in sodium like fruit and vegetables. And avoid salty snacks such as pretzels and potatoes chips.
7. Try some of the salt free substitutes such as “Dash” Just make sure that if you have any problems with your kidneys that your doctor reviews the ingredients, as many of the substitutes have large amounts of potassium.

There is some hope on the horizon, as New York City is trying to spearhead a voluntary national program, for restaurants and packaged food makers to reduce their salt content. In England, a similar collaboration between the food industry and government has already resulted in salt reductions of 40% or more. While I am skeptical of voluntary programs that will end of costing more to the participants, such as the restaurant owners, at least it is making the public aware of this silent killer.
In summary, I hope your husband understands, that there is a definite relationship between dying room strokes and heart attacks and the amount of salt that is consumed.
I suggest that people keep a diary of the salt intake they have had for a month. The goal should be an intake of salt between 1500 milligrams and 2400 milligrams (as close to 1500 milligrams as possible in the middle age and elderly group).
It may be tough at first, but the improvement may be life saving.

* Reprinted with the permission of The Tablet