Hello, this is Monica Reinagle, and you're listening to the nutrition divas quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous welcome.

Getting people to reduce their sodium has been a major priority for our public health

agencies for years.

Last year, New York City even passed new legislation that would require restaurants to post

warnings next to menu items that were considered to be high in sodium.

And yet, just a couple of months ago, researchers published a review of existing data in which

they found that following a low sodium diet actually increased the risk of heart attack and stroke

both in people with high blood pressure as well as people with normal blood

pressure. So what is the right amount of sodium for a healthy diet?

A certain amount of sodium is essential for your health.

The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine says that moderately active, healthy adults need about 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day.

But, this number is based both on the amount of sodium that you lose every day through perspiration,

as well as the amount of sodium that you'd need to eat in order to get enough of other minerals that generally ride along with sodium in foods. For example,

iodized salt is the primary source for iodine in the American diet, so restricting

salt too much or using uniodized salt could potentially

lead to an iodine deficiency. But assuming that your intake of other minerals is sufficient, The amount of sodium it would take to prevent an actual

sodium deficiency is probably closer to 500 or maybe 1000 milligrams, depending on how active you are and how much you sweat.

Because people who engage in very strenuous exercise or who spend time in very hot conditions

might need considerably more sodium just to replace what's lost through perspiration.

So where is sodium found in the diet? As you might have heard, packaged and prepared foods

and that includes the meals that we eat in restaurants, account for about

three quarters of the sodium in a typical diet. Now salty snacks like potato

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