10 COMMON SALTY FOODS THAT WILL SURPRISE YOU - NUTRITION - 2024

The most commonly consumed salty foods are soy sauce, canned seafood, mustard sauce, delicatessen products, fruits such as olives and capers, cheeses, potato chips, white loaf bread, and high-fiber cereals.

Also salty foods are anchovies preserved in vegetable oil, canned cockles, salted herring, Serrano ham, jerky, salami, Iberian ham, smoked salmon and smoked bacon, among others.

Most of the salt ingested through these foods is added. Salt is an essential food for life that the body does not manufacture and must be supplied by food. It is an ancient, traditional preservative seasoning of natural origin and normally used as an ingredient to enhance flavors.

The salt commonly used for seasoning is sodium chloride, whose chemical formula is NaCl. Both sodium and chloride are necessary to maintain the water balance in the body.

Salt can be lost through excessive sweating, gastric problems (vomiting or diarrhea) or kidney problems. The loss of salt due to body dehydration can be fatal.

Excess sodium chloride in the diet is related to high blood pressure, one of the main cardiovascular risk factors.

The 10 most common salty foods and their nutritional characteristics

In the Western diet, the amount of salt that is ingested is usually greater than what the body needs for its normal functioning.

The World Health Organization recommends adults an intake of no more than 5 grams (5000 mg) of salt per day, equivalent to one tablespoon of coffee. Those 5 grams of salt equal 2000 mg of sodium.

1- Soy sauce

It is an emblematic condiment of oriental cuisine that originally comes from the fermentation of soybeans.

The low-cost commercial presentation is the product of the chemical hydrolysis of defatted soy flour, and contains caramel coloring, corn syrup and other sweeteners. Soy sauce is the one with the highest salt content (14.5 g / 100 g).

Fish in its natural state is low in salt, but for its conservation it is salted and its composition increases in sodium.

Anchovies in oil have a high salt content: 9.3 g / 100 g of product. Canned cockles have 8.9 g / 100 g of product, salted herring has 6.62 g / 100 g and smoked salmon has 4.7 g / 100 g.

3- Mustard

It is a sauce that serves as a condiment and is made from the seeds of plants of the genus Synapse.

Mustard is low in calories and does not contain cholesterol. Its salt content is 5.7 g / 100 g of product.

4- Olives, capers and pickled gherkins

These three vegetables are produced by lactic fermentation and are presented candied in vinegar and brine.

Of these three foods, capers are the ones with the highest salt content: 7.52 g / 100 g. They are followed by olives with 5.3 g / 100 g; and the gherkins, with 3 g / 100 g

5- Delicatessen

They contain practically no carbohydrates, except if a starchy ingredient was used in their preparation. They have a variable composition in water from 16 to 60 g per 100 g of food. In addition, they are between 13 and 20% protein and 17 to 45% fat.

All delicatessen products contain high amounts of salt. Eating 100 g of serrano ham or jerky in a day exceeds the recommended intake value for sodium chloride, since they contain 5.4 and 5.3 g of salt / 100 g.

Acorn-fed Iberian ham contains 4.9 g of salt / 100 g and smoked bacon contains 4.4 g NaCl / 100 g.

Although these edibles are not on the list of the most common salty foods, their salt contribution to the diet is important.

6- Cheeses

The greatest nutritional interest in cheese is its contribution of calcium, high-quality biological proteins and, in some cases, group B vitamins.

The less ripened the cheese, the higher its moisture content and the lower the percentage of calcium, protein and fat.

Not all cheeses have a high salt content. Those with a higher salt content are Roquefort (4.5 g of sodium chloride / 100 g) and blue cheese (3.5).

Other aged cheeses, such as Brie and cabrales cheese, contain 2.9 and 2.7% salt, respectively.

7- Snacks based on wheat and corn

Crusts, cones and wheels are part of a wide range of fried products made from wheat or corn, which contain fat and salt and present different aromas: meat, bacon, onion, etc.

Its salt content is high: 3.1 g / 100 g in wheat-based snacks and 2.5 g / 100 g in the case of fried corn.

8- Potato chips

Its composition is approximately 6% protein, 43% fat and 51% carbohydrates. The sodium content is 885 mg, which is equivalent to 2.2 g of salt per 100 g of chips.

9- Breakfast cereals rich in fiber

They are rich in carbohydrates (70%) and more than half of this value corresponds to dietary fiber. In addition, they have 9% fat and 21% protein. Its sodium content is 800 mg, which is equivalent to 2 g of salt for every 100 g of cereal.

10- White loaf bread

Contains 650 mg of sodium; that is, 1.65 g of salt for every 100 g of bread. In addition, it contains 80% carbohydrates, 14% protein and 65% fat.

References

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