Is your Sunday Roast high in salt?
The Sunday Roast is the focal point for most British families to come together, but results of research released this week have revealed its potentially high salt content.
In a survey of 600 supermarket products, Consensus Action on Salt Health (CASH) found too many readymade items in a Sunday roast contain unnecessary amounts of hidden salt.
For example, by choosing all readymade products for a typical Sunday lunch- meat, vegetables and condiments - your meal could contain nearly 10g of salt, 4g more than an adults daily maximum recommended salt intake.
The study found a portion of stuff beefed joint from ASDA contains 2.3g (already a third of your RDA), and many pre-prepared vegetables, potatoes, gravy and stuffing could contain more than 1g of salt per portion.
But the findings were not all negative, as the survey did also find foods with only a trace of salt, such as ASDA's butter basted chicken breast, Sainsbury's buttered green vegetables and Tesco's Value Yorkshire puddings.
And so how can consumers avoid a salt packed Sunday roast?
"A family roast dinner can be a balanced and healthy meal but you do need to be careful when choosing ready prepared ingredients, which can all contain a lot of salt," says CASH campaign manager, Katherine Jenner.
"Those who want a lower salt option - whether to accompany their Sunday roast or any other meal time occasion - can find one simply by looking at the labels that are found on the front of most products sold in UK supermarkets," says Julian Hunt, director of communications for the Food and Drink Federation.
The key is therefore to make it yourself, buying unseasoned meat and fresh vegetables. This can reduce your salt intake by more than 2g.
And if you really need to add salt, make sure your use a reduced sodium alternative, such as LoSalt.
For full article, go to http://www.actiononsalt.org.uk/news/surveys/2010/roastdinner/index.html
Written December 10th 2010
