When Irvine’s mother first took her daughter to a McDonald’s restaurant 15 years ago, the Daily Mail reports, it was love at first bite. Since then, the British teen has eaten almost nothing but Chicken McNuggets at every meal. A diet like this not only lacks vital nutrients, it also serves up a dangerous amount of salt. A 10-piece order packs in 900 milligrams (mg) of sodium, which is more than half the salt you should consume in a single day. Irvine recently collapsed at work and was rushed to the hospital struggling to breathe. She’s home now, but the amount of salt she’s been eating means she’ll need to clean up her diet faster than a McDonald’s cashier turns around an order at the drive-thru. All that salt can lead to an increased risk of heart attack or stroke, especially as she gets older. “The food industry creates a preference for very salty foods with their products, then creates products to satisfy that preference, and it becomes a feedback loop,” says David Katz, MD, founding director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center. While most people aren’t surprised to hear that a high-sodium diet raises blood pressure, most Americans would be downright shocked if they knew how much salt they were really eating. The US government recommends that adults consume no more than 1,500 mg of sodium a day, about two-thirds of a teaspoon. The average American actually takes in 3,436 mg a day—more than double the recommendation. Before you reassure yourself that you’re in the clear because you banned the saltshaker from your table long ago, remember this: The biggest culprits by a long shot are processed and packaged foods. “The vast majority of salt [we consume], 80% or more, is already in processed and pre-prepared foods,” says Marion Nestle, PhD, professor of nutrition at New York University. Here’s just how fast the salt can add up on a typical day: Breakfast: 1 whole grain bagel (490 mg) with 2 Tbsp fat-free cream cheese (211 mg) and 6 oz yogurt (95 mg) Snack: 2 Tbsp peanut butter (147 mg) on 6 wheat crackers (194 mg) Lunch: Sandwich with 2 slices low-salt turkey (432 mg), 1 slice American cheese (266 mg), and 2 tsp mustard (114 mg) in a flour tortilla (490 mg) with 1 dill pickle spear (306 mg) and 1c vegetable soup (960 mg) Snack: 1 wheat pita (340 mg) with 2 Tbsp hummus (114 mg) Dinner: ½ c pasta (4 mg) with ½ c jarred tomato sauce (480 mg) and 2 meatballs (232 mg), 1 slice garlic bread (400 mg), and salad with reduced fat ranch dressing (336 mg) Dessert: Homemade apple crisp (495 mg) with ½ c vanilla ice cream (53 mg) and 2 Tbsp caramel sauce (60 mg) The grand total: 6,219 mg, more than quadruple the daily recommended amount. So even if you’ve never touched a McNugget, you can still quickly eat more sodium than you should. And all that salt doesn’t only hurt your heart and your waistline. An emerging body of research has also linked excessive sodium intake to cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, dementia, sleep apnea, and kidney disease Scary stuff. Especially when you consider how hard it is to kick a salt habit. Your body only needs about 500 mg of sodium a day to maintain the right balance of fluids, transmit nerve impulses, and move your muscles. When you eat far more than that—as most of us do—it alters your brain chemistry. Research shows that salt triggers the release of the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine, which can make salty foods as addictive as nicotine and alcohol. And just like with any addiction, eating high-sodium foods makes your body crave more. In other words, the more Chicken McNuggets you have, the more you crave them. No matter what the cost. More from Prevention: 6 Ways To Ease A Food Addiction
