Re: #lesssalt twitter chat - we need you!

[Guest guest]

Dr, Grim suggests for Salt Awareness Program.How can I or my medical team test if I am eating too much salt (sodium (Na) chloride(Cl) or NaCl?Ask the question: Do you eat out at least once a day? If yes you are eating too much salt (sodium)- in all likelyhood.1. Use a pencil and paper and record all the salt (Na) you eat for 1 day by reading the labels from what you are eating or using to flavor what you cook. One day is probably enough to decide in you are less than 1500 mg of sodium a day. 2. Get your own small salt shaker and put in 3/4 teaspoon of salt (or abut 6 packets of salt from a fast food place). If you cook everything from scratch(fresh) then u can use this for all of your salt needs for the day. 3. Use a phone app that will track my salt (Na) intake in what you eat. I like Loseit for the iPhone. When you exceed 1500 mg of Na stop eating that day. 4. Purchase dip sticks that test your urine Chloride and use these to estimate how much salt you are eating. If chloride is too high you are eating too much salt. 5. Measure my blood pressure every day for 2 weeks. Then do the DASH diet (strictly as tho your life depended on it) for 2 weeks and check BP daily. If your BP goes down you are eating too much salt for your health. Discuss with your medical care team as the BP may fall a lot if you are salt sensitive and taking BP meds. It will start down in a day or two in many.6. Have your team measure a Na, K and creatinine in a spot urine (random sample). If Na is not lower than K then you are eating too much salt and not enough potassium. Use the creatinine to estimate your 24 hr intake of Na. If high then find out where the salt is coming from.7. Have your team measure your Na and K and creatinine in a 24 hour urine. This is the gold standard way. On Mar 14, 2012, at 10:20 AM, Clare Farrand wrote: <image001.jpg>Dear WASH members,As part of World Salt Awareness Week, WASH is holding a #lesssalt chat on twitter to discuss some of the issues we currently face with salt in the UK and around the world. We are planning one for every day of the week, with a UK focus on Thursday 29th March.We need you and your followers to help with discussion points, lead the chat or just take part. If you are interested to participate and have any topic ideas relating to salt and health that we could add to our discussion topics I would be delighted to hear from you. So far discussion points include:- who should be responsible for salt reduction?- Voluntary vs. mandatory salt targets- how can we get consumers to take action against salt?- Importance of food labelling- Highest contributors of salt to the dietWorld Salt Awareness Week is just 11 days away, please let me know as soon as possible if you would like to get involved. Please let me know if you would like to lead a discussion on a particular topic. I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards,ClareClare Farrand APHNutrWorld Action on Salt and Health CoordinatorWolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine,Queen , University of London, EC1M 6BQTel: 020 7882 6229 | email: c.e.farrand@...http://www.worldactiononsalt.com/