A pinch of salt, a dash of problems

For years we have heard doctors, scientists, nutritionists and diet nuts tell us to manage our intake of salt. So many studies have been done and most come to the same conclusion: Too much salt will effect your health.

Currently there are only "suggested guidelines" for people to make the choice to limit their sodium intake. But want to know a scary statistic?

The average American consumes 50 percent more sodium — as much as one and a half teaspoons of salt — than the maximum recommendation. (Elisa Zied, R.D., http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23694159/)

So with so many of us over our sodium intake, what do we do? Even better, what does that have to do with going green?

Sodium doesn't just come from our food and food isn't the only place we are seeing sodium. Our water supplies are becoming contaminated with high levels of sodium. While this may be normal near the coast where salt-water from the ocean can get into the fresh water supply, how about in places like Kansas and Ohio?

Water softeners are the problem. Traditional water softeners, on average, dump 100-150 gallons of heavy salt brine water into septic and sewer systems, leaching heavy amounts of sodium into the fresh water supply. In fact it is so bad, the state of California has a proposal on Governor Arnold's desk that would in part ban the use of salt-based water softeners in the entire state to help curb the increasing levels of sodium in the water.

This assembly bill ( No. 2270) would require that the water systems be cleaned up of sodium. The problem is, water treatment planets do not have the money or the manpower to install giant RO systems (the only way to remove sodium from the water) and thus they must stop the problem at its source, water softeners. Many communities in California already ban salt-based softeners for this very reason.

The truth is, even the FDA has a problem with the amount of sodium we all intake and in a recent article on the Today Show, they are pushing for a federally mandated limit of sodium in foods.

What can reducing sodium intake do for us, well according to the American Heart Association it can do alot.

The American Heart Association and other medical experts want stronger labels on foods with high-salt content and are calling for a 50 percent reduction in the amount of salt in packaged and processed foods. Cutting our sodium intake by half would prevent 150,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease each year, according to estimates from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (Elisa Zied, R.D., http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23694159/)

Bottom line is, consider getting rid of your salt-softener. Not only will it improve your life and your health but you will be helping save our limited fresh water supply. May not seem like much but if everyone did a little, we would all save alot.