Healthy Lunches

"Just as your family is settling into summer mode, for many, August also marks back-to-school time. That means back to packing school lunches. Between teacher "meet and greets," school supply shopping, and getting back on a routine sleep schedule, lunchbox packing tends to be last on the list. But, what your child eats for lunch matters more than you might realize.

Don't Pack the Salt

A recent CDC Vital Signs report found that about 90 percent of U.S. school-aged children consume too much sodium each day. To put that into perspective, if there are 20 kids in your child's class, 18 of them will be eating too much sodium each day. Which group does your child fall into?..."
Lunches

Where's the Sodium?

"About 90% of Americans eat more sodium than is recommended for a healthy diet. Too much sodium increases a person's risk for high blood pressure. High blood pressure often leads to heart disease and stroke. More than 800,000 people die each year from heart disease, stroke and other vascular diseases, costing the nation $273 billion health care dollars in 2010.."

Sodium Intake Among Adults --- United States, 2005−2006
"Excessive dietary sodium consumption increases blood pressure, which increases the risk for stroke, coronary heart disease, heart failure, and renal disease (1). Based on predictive modeling of the health benefits of reduced salt intake on blood pressure, a population-wide reduction in sodium of 1,200 mg/day would reduce the annual number of new cases of coronary heart disease by 60,000---120,000 cases and stroke by 32,000---66,000 cases (2). Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 recommends that specific groups, including persons with hypertension, all middle-aged and older adults, and all blacks should limit intake to 1,500 mg/day of sodium (3). These specific groups include nearly 70% of the U.S. adult population (4). For all other adults, the recommended limit is <2,300 mg/day of sodium. To estimate the proportion of adults whose sodium consumption was within recommended limits, CDC analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for 2005−2006, the most recent data available. Estimated average sodium intake and sources of sodium and calories by food category also were analyzed. This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which determined that only 5.5% of adults in the ≤1,500 mg/day group, and only 18.8% of all other adults consumed <2,300 mg/day. Overall, 9.6% of all adults met their applicable recommended limit. To help reduce sodium intake to below the recommended limits, food manufacturers and retailers can reduce sodium content in processed and restaurant foods, public health professionals and health-care providers can implement sodium reduction strategies and educate consumers about sodium, and consumers can modify their eating habits..."