Blood Pressure, Cheese, Salt & Sodium

High Blood pressure is the sixth cause of death.

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Salt (common table salt) or sodium (a mineral that is used by the cells of the body) is one reason blood pressure can be high.

What is high blood pressure, the standard 120/80 is the accepted Western limit anything over this needs to be lower.

Plant-based diets and regular exercise can reduce this number, personally, I would like to see 110/70 than the above.

However some of us are active and are conscious of what we eat, but have high blood pressure. Often hidden sodium levels in some foods can catch you out.

Cheese is the topic of this post.

First let’s look at some quantities:

When reading a food label salt/sodium is measured per 100grams of that food.

The recommended daily intake is 4grams of salt. slightly less than one teaspoon.

Cheese is often quoted in sodium levels, 1000mg is about half a teaspoon.

Here are some cheese levels per 100g servings:

Roquefort: 1800mg

Parmesan: 1500mg

Blue cheese: 1300mg

Feta: 1100mg

Edam: 900mg

Camembert: 800mg

Cheddar: 600mg

Goat: 500mg

Swiss: 200mg

As you can imagine it is easy to consume more than the 4g daily when we take other hidden salt factors.

Processed food, breads, cakes, biscuits, crisps will all have high levels of salt but also look out for things like smoked salmon, olives in brine, oxo cubes, Marmite, Bovril; some nut butters also have extra salt.

Table salt is called sodium chloride and creates a problem for the cells of the body as it retains more water within the cell.

Rock salts (Himalayan pink) and sea salts (Maldon salt) are better as they have other trace minerals such as magnesium. Sodium is used to piggy-back some minerals into the cell and also collects waste products and removes them from the cell, so sodium is an important mineral but too much will cause restrictions to the cardiovascular system; high blood pressure.

get your Cheese Fix without sodium problems

One of my go-to cheesy flavours without the salt issues are Yeast flakes, often having many more vitamins and minerals that our bodies need. Sprinkled on top of any dish or mixed with 100% cashew butter makes for a yummy cheesy paste.