Public Service Announcement

I've declared the month of February to be Sodium Awareness month.

Are you aware of how much sodium is in the food we eat? I was rather startled to discover how many of our foods are chock full of sodium. Two tablespoons of Tostitos Salsa con Queso contains 280 mg of sodium. That's over ten percent of your daily recommended sodium intake. The Tostitos chips that you actually eat the cheese with aren't much better, with 80 mg of sodium for six chips. I had some Ramen noodles last week. The seasoning packet for the noodles by itself, contained the equivalent of 30% of the recommended RDA of sodium. Boston Market lends it's name to some pretty good frozen entrees. I have taken quite a liking to the lasagne in the past couple of months. Unfortunately, that has like 53% of your daily sodium in a handy, dandy 12 ounce plastic container.

In our "quick food" society, the cheapest and easiest way to preserve frozen and canned foods is with salt, the great preservative. Back in the day, people had the time to make ALL their meals fresh, so you may have only needed salt for flavoring. These days, that's not so much the case. I don't got the time to make fresh meals. I'm the guy who eats frozen chicken patties and lipton rice mixes for dinner. But I'm trying to get away from that.

So you may wonder, dude, why the big deal with the sodium? Elevated sodium levels can lead to high blood pressure. I already have one friend on blood pressure meds, and he's my age. I don't want another one. So watch your sodium intake. Get your blood pressure checked once a year. Do it for a friend. Please.