| Unknown to many, unprocessed, or natural foods | | | | 3. Juice drinks that have minimal content as far real |
| already contain sodium chloride sufficient enough for | | | | juice is concerned. Check the label for artificial flavors |
| our body's needs, hence, obtaining salt through natural | | | | and colors as well as its sugary ingredients. |
| food is not a problem. It is with the intake of processed | | | | 4. Processed meats use high proportions of salt in their |
| foods that our body gets to encounter sodium chloride | | | | preparation. Specifically, avoid processed beef foods |
| content that causes high blood pressure problems. | | | | like corned beef, beef burgundy, breakfast strips, |
| Returning to natural diets is one of the effective | | | | frozen meatloaf, and frozen or canned sliced beef, |
| solutions in treating or preventing high blood pressure | | | | Salisbury steak and chipped beef. |
| attacks. Accordingly, natural foods would mean | | | | Processed pork to avoid includes cured bacon and |
| anything derived from natural food sources grown | | | | ham, bacon bits, ham loaf, bacon bits, sweet and sour |
| from the soil, from trees, or derived from animals | | | | pork, ham steaks and sausages. Special preparations |
| without need to add sauces or coatings. | | | | like frozen veal parmigiana should also be avoided. |
| In purchasing food supplies from supermarkets, reading | | | | You should also consider excluding spreads, luncheon |
| the labels of low-sodium foods can help us determine | | | | meats, franks, bologna, corned beef loaf, barbecue |
| the processed foods to avoid. An example would be a | | | | loaf, salami, mortadella, sandwich spreads, Vienna |
| low-sodium salad dressing that contains 2 milligrams | | | | sausage and turkey ham. |
| (mg) of sodium and 32 mg of potassium. | | | | 5. Seafood are too high in sodium content although |
| If this were to be analyzed further regarding the | | | | some may be eaten occasionally and with caution. |
| balance of sodium to potassium content, or in | | | | Processed seafood however are best avoided since |
| determining its K-factor, the resulting proportion would | | | | their preparation uses additional salt for processing. |
| be 1 mg of salt for every 16 mg of potassium. The | | | | Examples of these processed seafood are deviled |
| prescribed ideal K-factor ratio is 1 mg salt for every 3 | | | | crab, crab cakes, crab imperial, canned crab, fish fillets, |
| mg potassium. | | | | fillet almondine, fish sticks, canned fish, lobster paste, |
| Experts suggest that rather than buy foods with | | | | Newburg lobster, oysters, mussels, clams, sardines and |
| potassium chloride, check the labels for other | | | | shrimps whether breaded or French fried. |
| substitutes like potassium gluconate and potassium | | | | 6. Canned soups are definitely processed foods to |
| bitartrate. Better yet, you can opt for natural or | | | | avoid since most of them contain more than one gram |
| unprocessed foods and use salt substitutes like | | | | of sodium chloride and less than the desirable level of |
| seasonings from spices and herbs. | | | | potassium content. Do not be misled by such |
| Here are some of the processed foods to avoid and | | | | information as "no salt content" or "homemade"; such |
| why they should be avoided: | | | | information does not relieve them of their high level of |
| 1. Cooked cereals with added salt content. | | | | sodium ingredient. |
| 2. Ready-to-eat cereals may have some moderation | | | | 7. Food flavorings with salt. Contain mostly salt blended |
| in sodium but are low in potassium content, hence, the | | | | with other ingredients. |
| addition of milk, increases the sodium level resulting to | | | | As part of dietary measures that can prevent high |
| further disparity between their ratio. Occasionally, this | | | | blood pressure, it is recommended that the |
| type of food can be a part of a hypertension | | | | hypertension sufferer's diet should take into |
| sufferer's diet but other low sodium, high potassium | | | | consideration these processed foods to avoid. |
| foods should be eaten in order to compensate. | | | | |