Americans have a strong preference for salty meals. There is no shortage of sodium-laden items to select from between your local grocery store and favorite restaurant, from pretzels and potato chips to French fries and fried chicken sandwiches. But what about meals that are high in sodium but do not advertise it?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about half of all individuals in the United States have hypertension or high blood pressure (CDC). For people who could receive help from a lower sodium intake, it is critical to understand which foods hold a lot of the salty stuff.
Bread could be a silent, major factor in someone's excessive salt intake, according to experts from the University of Illinois College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences in a recent study.
At a statement, Aubrey Dunteman, a graduate student in the university's Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and primary author on the work, said, "Bread is one of the staple meals in a lot of people's diets, and individuals generally don't stick to just one serving of bread."
Soo-Yeun Lee, a food science professor at the University of Illinois, adds that processed, packaged foods account for 70% of sodium in the US food supply. This is not to argue that if you have hypertension, you should not eat bread. In truth, there are various nutritious bread varieties available; however, they may not be readily available to all.
Dunteman and Lee teamed up to explore if they could lower the sodium content of bread without compromising flavor or texture. They found four alternative strategies in their study published in the International Journal of Food Science and Technology: flavor enhancers, physical modification, salt reduction without further justification, and sodium replacements.
The researchers found that using a mix of all four ways to minimize sodium levels in bread may be the best approach for food makers to take.
"Salt reduction is one of the four categories that is technically involved in all of them," Dunteman explains. "Another area, salt substitution, has already received a lot of attention. More research into physical modification methods and taste enhancement kinds, as well as how to combine each of these strategies with salt reduction, is recommended."
If you want to make your bread at home, the experts recommend cutting the salt by half, but keep in mind that the taste will be slightly altered. If baking is not your thing, or you do not have the time, look for bread that says "low-sodium" right on the package.