Shocking Sodium Statistics

It's time for another handout of the week, and this one is all about sodium!Even though the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that people should eat less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day, most people eat far more than that, averaging 3,400 mg per day!Men generally consume more sodium than women. In fact, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans has revealed that “For all adult men, the average intake is 4,240 mg, and for adult women, the average is 2,980 mg per day.”Children are also getting too much sodium every day. Did you know that almost 9 out of 10 kids consume too much sodium daily? This is bad news for their health!So, where is all this sodium hiding?According to the CDC, “Americans get most of their daily sodium, more than 75%, from processed and restaurant foods.”Furthermore, roughly 40% of all the sodium in the American diet comes from just 10 foods, which are…

• Bread and rolls
• Cured meats/cold cuts
• Pizza
• Poultry
• Soup
• Sandwiches
• Cheese
• Pasta dishes
• Meat dishes
• Snacks

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans has some great advice about reducing sodium intake, and a one of the best ideas is to check the Nutrition Facts label and choose the food with the lowest sodium content. They also recommend that people "Choose fresh, frozen (no sauce or seasoning), or no-salt-added canned vegetables, and fresh poultry, seafood, pork, and lean meat, rather than processed meat and poultry."With all these staggering statistics, I just knew that I had to put together a new sodium handout. Check out the printable PDF below...Of course, that's not all I've been doing to help you teach your clients all about sodium. I've also created a fantastic post for Food and Health members: 3 Top Tips to Lower Sodium. It's got a great new handout as well, and the tips are the best of the best.And finally, there are lots of phenomenal sodium resources in the Nutrition Education Store, including a guide to teaching sodium math and a few ways to make salt lessons fun and memorable for your clients...[shopify embed_type="product" shop="nutrition-education-store.myshopify.com" product_handle="sodium-salt-math-poster" show="all"][shopify embed_type="product" shop="nutrition-education-store.myshopify.com" product_handle="salt-dvd-salt-video-salt-and-sodium-education" show="all"][shopify embed_type="product" shop="nutrition-education-store.myshopify.com" product_handle="how-much-salt-is-in-that-freezer-and-restaurant-meals-poster-12x18" show="all"]