Fight Obesity: Trim Salt
from Your Kids’ Diet

If you’re worried about your child’s weight, start shopping for low-salt foods and snacks. Salty foods make people thirsty. Kids and teens tend to reach for sugar-sweetened soft drinks when they get thirsty, says a recent study. So trimming daily salt intake could lower soft drink consumption. Cutting salt intake by half could mean 2.3 fewer soft drinks per week. And that could help children avoid weight gain and obesity. Most of the salt in our diet comes from packaged and prepared foods. So one way to trim salt is to look for grocery items marked “low sodium.”

Hypertension, Vol. 51, No. 3