Sodium And Hidden Salt In Our Foods

Sodium is an important nutrient required by the body to maintain fluid balance and to provide channels for nerve signaling.

Over-consumption of sodium is much more common than deficiencies (which can occur in cases like excessive vomiting and diarrhea) and is often associated with high blood pressure.

WHO recommendation is not more than 2000mg /day but on average Malaysians consume more than 2500mg/day or about 8.7g salt/day.

That's a lot. We consumed a lot more salt than we are supposed to.

And this habit is also reflected in our health statistics where 33% of Malaysians are hypertensive (NHMS 2015).

Maybe we don't deliberately swallow a spoonful of salt but most of the sodium we consumed is hidden and from processed food.

In this study of 1047 Malaysians, it was found that these high sodium foods are the ones most consumed:

Fried vegetables
Bread
Omelet

Are you surprised as I am? These foods are not even what we would consider salty.

Here I compiled some of the common Malaysian food and its sodium content.

Food item	Sodium content (mg) per 100 gram of food
Jacob’s cream crackers	466.66
Nestle Koko Krunch	195.00
KFC nuggets	0.456
McDonald’s nuggets	0.811
McDonald’s fries	1.322
Kueh Teow Goreng Penang	492.00
Mee Sup	302.47
Mee Goreng	653.71
Chicken Frankfurter	1370.00
Keropok ikan goreng	737.22
Keropok kentang (potato chips)	711.11
Fried rice	445.23
Nasi lemak	338.51
Nasi Briyani	267.49
Fried Meehoon	424.02

Okay say for example you don't eat out a lot or don't take processed food, don't take a lot of salt but your BP is still sky-high.

Where does the sodium come from?

The many sauces that we Malaysians loved SO MUCH!

Beware of soy sauce, chili, tomato, oyster, fish sauce, and all other condiments. They have a high amount of sodium!

What are the regularly consumed foods that are high in sodium?

Salted fish
Salted egg
Stock cubes
Bread
Salted snacks/kerepek

My number 1 guilty pleasure. What's yours?

Things You Can Do To Reduce Your Sodium Intake:

avoiding canned foods
avoiding pickled food
choosing low sodium cheeses
substituting herbs and other spices in place of salt
limit processed foods intake

Educate yourselves and always always read nutrition labels to make informed choices.

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