The average American woman consumes roughly 3,000mg sodium per day; the average American male consumes more than 4,000mg per day.  The recommended daily intake of sodium for a healthy American is 2400mg per day or less.  What could we save if everyone cut back on their sodium intake by just 1,200 mg?

According to the American Medical Association (AMA), it could prevent 92,000 deaths and 66,000 strokes per year.  It could keep up to 99,000 Americans from having a heart attack and up to 120,000 others from getting heart disease every year.  It could save $10-$24 billion in health care costs every year. 

So why are we eating so much sodium each day?  Unfortunately, unless you are cooking from scratch, 75-80% of the sodium we consume is added to food before we eat it in the form of packaged meals and restaurant meals. Some examples of this added salt are:

• McDonalds Premium Grilled Chicken Sandwich           1,190 mg sodium
• Denny’s All American Slam                                                    2,280 mg sodium
• Chipotle Chicken Burrito                                                         2,120 mg sodium
• Panera Smoked Ham & Swiss on sandwich on Rye       2,350 mg sodium
• Outback Steakhouse Baby Back Ribs                                  2,600 mg sodium
• Olive Garden’s Lasagna                                                            2,830 mg sodium
• PF Chang’s Seasame Chicken & Rice                                  3,060 mg sodium
• California Pizza Kitchen Meat Lovers Pizza                   4,130 mg sodium
• Outback Bloomin Onion                                                           5,510 mg sodium

If eating packaged foods at home, add fresh or frozen veggies to the meal to increase the fiber & potassium, and decrease portion of the packaged salt you will be consuming.  If eating out, leave half on your plate for later, request a side salad instead of salt-laden sides, and drink water with your meal.

Many thanks to our resident Registered Dietician Mindy Black for her submission. You can find out more healthy tips by contacting her.

Mindy Black, Registered Dietitian

Thanks to the hardworking folks at Mission Harvest America

Harrell and Harrell helps Haiti

 and all the wonderful people that have donated relief items to the earthquake victims of Haiti. Another load of much needed aid has left our Sunbeam Rd office headed for Haiti.

Thankfully the donations keep rolling in but we could always use more. Remember the suffering and devastation continues even after the news coverage dies down. Take some time out of your busy day to drive by any of our offices and donate, donate, donate.

www.harrellandharrell.com

We’re very excited about an extraordinary documentary we had the opportunity to be involved with that chronicles the recent football season of the Red Dragons from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.  It is a remarkable story of a team that plays the game of football in complete silence.

As the sponsor of closed captioning for the hearing impaired on all local newscasts over the past 3 years, we felt this was a natural extension of our community involvement efforts.

“The Silent Season” airs Friday, December 18 at 8 pm on WTLV/NBC12 with no commercial interruptions because Harrell & Harrell agreed to be the sole underwriter.

Please watch “The Silent Season.” We believe you’ll be as inspired by these exceptional students as we are.

http://www.harrellandharrell.com