Ventura Center

Al Sears, MD

11903 Southern Blvd., Ste. 208, Royal Palm Beach, FL 33411

Dear Linda,

Most people don't need to consume less salt.

You need a good amount of salt for your heart, adrenals, liver and kidneys to function. And if you don't have enough, you can't digest food properly.

Not to mention that salt:

Keeps minerals soluble in your blood; Maintains your bodys balance of fluids; Regulates blood pressure.

So contrary to popular belief, you probably don't need to cut back on your salt intake. But what I recommend is that you make sure youre consuming the right kind of salt. And another overlooked nutrient potassium.

You see, potassium helps keep your sodium levels in check and optimizes your blood pressure.

One study published in the Journal of Hypertension examined 150 Chinese men and women with diets high in salt and low in potassium. Half took a placebo and the other half took a potassium supplement. After 12 weeks of taking the supplement, the blood pressure of the potassium group went down significantly.

But the problem is that most Americans are eating too much processed salt. And not nearly enough potassium. Its estimated that about 75 percent of our salt intake comes from processed foods and processed table salt added to food.

Heres why thats an issue...

Table salt is processed at temperatures over 1,000 degrees. Then an anti-caking ingredient is usually added and its bleached to get the white salt color weve become accustomed to seeing.

This processing changes salts chemical structure and strips it of its natural nutrients. So by the time it gets to your dinner table, its mostly sodium and additives no nutrients whatsoever.

You can lower your blood pressure and improve your health by consuming the right kind of salt and boosting your potassium. Heres a three-step plan to help you do just that:

1. Know how much salt is in your food. Each teaspoon of salt is equal to 2,325 mg of sodium. And most processed foods have even more than that. One packet of dry onion soup mix contains over 3,000 mg of sodium. Even sweet foods have big amounts of processed salt hiding in them. A homemade pie crust can have over 1,300 milligrams. And two small restaurant pancakes have more than 1,100 milligrams!

The best way to know how much sodium is in your food is to read the label. But beware, manufacturers use a variety of different names for salt you may not be aware of. If you see any word with sodium in it, you know its from the salt family. Also be on the lookout for other sneaky salty ingredients like metabisulfite, erythorbate, propionate and guanylate.

2. Replace table salt with real sea salt. Many brands of the sea salt you find at grocery stores are just processed table salt. Generally, if salt is white and pours easily, its probably processed. Natural sea salt is darker in color. Thats because its dried in white and brown layers (the brown layer has most of the nutrients).

Your safest bet is to buy sea salt from a health-food store like Whole Foods or Trader Joes. There are many varieties such as Mediterranean, Himalayan and Pacific. They all have slightly different tastes, so you can find one you like best.

3. Boost your levels of potassium. The best food sources to boost your potassium intake are orange-colored fruits and vegetables like apricots, cantaloupe, oranges, nectarines, peaches, sweet potatoes, and butternut and acorn squash. Other good sources are black and kidney beans, spinach, Swiss chard, artichokes, bananas, kiwi, wild-caught fish, grass-fed meat, free-range poultry and raw milk.

These are just some of the effective and unconventional high blood pressure remedies mentioned in a new report by Craig Anderson, The High Blood Pressure Remedy Report. It reveals the truth behind high blood pressure, how to control it and how to cut your risk of heart attack and stroke without worry, drugs, pain or wasted money.