SafeGuard Family Health Private Limited

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Diet Modification for Hypertension

Salt in limited quantities is not bad for hypertension but excess salt is bad.
It is advisable to limit your salt intake to no more than 4 grams per day.

The goals of the diet are

▪ Ideal salt intake for high blood pressure patients = 4 grams salt per day. But in a family, how are you going to measure
it only for your meal. So, the rule is avoid excessively salty foods and eat with salt to taste. Eating no salt or very low
salt is bad.
▪ Even for persons with a normal blood pressure, excess salt intake can be adverse.
▪ Sweating can help you lose salt. In some cultures, a hot and spicy meals help them sweat.
▪ For families who eat high salt food:- Reduce salt in cooking by 20-30% of your normal use.
▪ It is better to train your children to eat low-salt foods, as high blood pressure is hereditary.
▪ If some in a family want it, they can add extra salt to the food before eating it, on the table.

Avoid the following food items because they contain a high amount of salt
Salt in food / Salted Biscuits / Salted Nuts./ Any foods with baking soda in it like cakes / Tinned foods / Canned foods /
Popcorn / Soda Bicarbonate / Benzoate added foods / Soft drinks like colas / Large helpings of Pickle / Sauces / Murukku
/ Seedai / Savories / Mixtures / Readymade soup cubes / Bacon / Ham / Sausage / Salted Cheese /Salted Butter / Pappad
/ Appalam / Chips / French fries / Health drinks–Horlicks, Bournvita / Packaged Snack / Cheese balls / Dry fish / Ajinomoto
/ Packed juices. It is impossible to list all the foods and beverages that have a relatively high salt content as the list it
exhaustive. Your tongue will tell you better.

Hypertension with cardiac or renal failure

• This is a special situation where in the hypertensive patients should further limit their salt intake to 2 to 4 grams per
day, depending on the advice of the doctor.
• In this situation it is also advisable to limit the intake of water to 600 to 800 ml per day.

Helpline: +91 63840 62000 No.22, 2 Sardar Patel Road, Kasturba Nagar, Adyar, Chennai - 600 020
Email: care@safeguardfamily.com