Salt and Blood Pressure

Hiding the Salt Shaker Isn't Enough

Americans are getting part of the message that eating a lot of salt on their food increases their risk of high blood pressure. But they don't seem to understand that the only salt in their diet doesn't come out of a salt shaker.

A lot of it comes from processed food they eat.

52 percent of Americans say they're aware that salt is a contributing factor to hypertension or high blood pressure, according to a recent by the research group Mintel.

The survey also shows that 22 percent are trying to cut out or reduce the amount of table salt they drop on food. But even those people aren't paying much attention to salt from processed and packaged foods and beverages.

In actuality, most of the salt in American diets comes from the latter.

If that news isn't bad enough, here's some that's worse. According to the survey, 34 percent said they don't pay attention to salt at all.

There is some consolation though. 26 percent say they read labels and may make buying decisions based on how much salt is in a product. Mintel also discovered that low sodium offerings jumped about 115 percent between 2005 and 2008.