By now you know that foods high in fat, calories and cholesterol are bad for you.
But very few of us give much consideration to salt.
And the worst of it is, some of your favorite restaurant foods are loaded with hidden sodium.
We all love to go out to eat, when we can afford it. But perhaps we should be asking if our health can afford it?
Popular chain restaurants are serving some dishes loaded with salt. What's the matter with salt?
For one, too much of it can eventually kill you.
"Salt drives up blood pressure – and blood pressure is one of the key components driving coronary heart disease," says Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Dr. Steven Nissen.
Nissen says that's the number one cause of death in this country.
So, how much salt is too much?
The American Heart Association recommends less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day. That's one teaspoon of table salt.
What worries health officials is the salt you can't see.
Dr. Nissen reviewed the sodium content of one piece of Pizza Hut's large Meat Lover's pan pizza. Just two slices put you over the maximum for the whole day.
But that's not the saltiest food out there.
The grilled pork chops at Romano's Macaroni Grill – that dish has 4,040 milligrams of sodium according to the restaurant's web site.
Sometimes it's not even the entree that's gets you.
At Papa John's, 4 cheese sticks along with 2 cups of buffalo sauce = 2,920 milligrams, according to the restaurant's web site.
McDonald's premium Southwest Chicken Salad sounds like a pretty healthy choice, but it has almost 1,000 milligrams of sodium.
Add the Southwest Dressing and it's 1,300. If you do the Balsamic Vinegarette, it's almost 1,700.
At Denny's – just a side of hash browns with onions and gravy – 3,820 milligrams of sodium.
But the saltiest we found was at P.F. Chang’s. A large bowl of Hot & Sour Soup is nearly 6,000 milligrams of sodium.
If all this food is making you hungry – and you're thinking "I don't have high blood pressure" – you might consider these words from Dr. Nissen.
"Over time, you eat enough salt your blood pressure will go up. By age 65 in America, 50% of the population has high blood pressure," says Nissen.
Some health officials would like to see legislation which requires restaurants to include sodium levels and other nutritional information on menus.
Sodium levels for the foods we profiled were easily found on each of the restaurant's web sites.
So, if it's important to you, it's worth the time to do a little research on your own.
