Top 10 Common Salty Foods

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

Also salted are anchovies preserved in vegetable oil, canned cockles, salted herrings, serrano ham, cecina, salami, Iberian ham, smoked salmon and smoked bacon, among others.

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

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

You can lose salt by excessive sweating, gastric problems (vomiting or diarrhea) or kidney problems. The loss of salt due to body dehydration can have fatal consequences.

The excess of sodium chloride in the diet is related to arterial hypertension, 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 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 equals 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 soybean meal, and contains caramel coloring, corn syrup and other sweeteners. Soy sauce is the one with the highest salt content (14.5 g / 100 g)

2- Canned sea food

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. The canned cockles have 8.9 g / 100 g of product, the salted herring has 6.62 g / 100 g and the smoked salmon has 4.7 g / 100 g.

3- Mustard

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

Mustard is low in calories and contains no cholesterol. Its salt content is 5.7 g / 100 g of product.

4- Olives, capers and gherkins in vinegar

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

Of these three foods, the caper is the one with the highest salt content: 7.52 g / 100 g. Olives follow with 5.3 g / 100 g; and the gherkins, with 3 g / 100 g

5- Delicatessen

They do not contain practically any carbohydrate, except if an amylaceous ingredient was used in its preparation. They have a variable composition in water of 16 to 60 g per 100 g of food. In addition, they have between 13 and 20% of proteins and between 17 to 45% of fats.

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

The Iberian ham of acorn contains 4.9 g of salt / 100 g and the smoked bacon contains 4.4 g NaCl / 100 g.

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

6- Cheeses

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

The less mature the cheese, the more moisture it will have and the percentage content of calcium, protein and fat will be lower.

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

Other matured cheeses, such as Brie cheese and cabrales, 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 fats and salt and have 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 corn chips.

8- Chips of potatoes

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

9- Fiber-rich breakfast cereals

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 per 100 g of cereal.

10- White bar bread

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

References

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