As most of us return to campus for the second semester, we get to catch up with friends and enjoy the fun parts of being at college again. But for many, that means going back to eating dining hall food. Upon my return to Boston College, I noticed just how salty the food seemed. So I decided to investigate if this is a problem at other schools too, and how to offset some of the health effects of overconsuming salt.
Before I go any further, I would like to preface that I am not a doctor, nor a nutritionist. I have absolutely no qualifications to give nutritional advice, and nothing I say or recommend should be considered as medical advice. I would always recommend consulting with a professional if you have any questions specific to your dietary needs. This article was written based on internet research and FDA daily value guidelines. At the end of this post, I will link all of the schools I investigated as well as the FDA guidelines I used as my baseline.
Now, into the investigation. I needed to see if this was a widespread problem. To do so, I surfed the Internet to make a rough list of schools, both private and public, varying in size and location. I then organized a spreadsheet with common items across all schools (eggs, grilled chicken, etc.) and one specialty item I found on each menu that I thought would be a popular choice at that school. After doing some math, I came up with a percentage of daily value sodium intake the average college student would have at that school if they ate three meals per day. This was a very nonscientific procedure, and by no means was this research perfectly conducted. However, through my rough estimates, I did find that sodium intake is a problem at some schools, and at others, it is not. Interestingly enough, my school, Boston College, seemed to have foods with a disproportionately high sodium content in the small sample of schools I looked at.
The health effects of consuming too much sodium can be very serious. Over the short term, it can cause high blood pressure and intense thirst. Long-term effects include elevated blood pressure and a high risk of heart disease. Before descending into panic, 4 years of eating salty foods will most likely not cause permanent long-term health effects, especially at the age of a college student. That said, I still think being conscious of your choices is an important habit to build for life, and it won’t hurt to think about choosing healthier foods. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am not an advocate for calorie counting or extreme worry over macro and micronutrients, because I feel like that leads to more destructive behavior than good. However, making conscious choices about what kinds of calories and nutrients you put into your body is where the importance of making healthy food choices comes in. In doing my research, I found an interesting article from Stanford about why their dining hall does not publish nutrition information in a way that is easily accessible. I would recommend giving it a read, as I feel it complements my philosophy on why counting calories can be harmful (I linked it at the bottom of this post).
So, since some college students don’t have kitchens or time to prepare their own food, what can we do to eat a little healthier?
Recommendation 1: Avoid the Extras
In doing my research, I found two of the highest sodium items on most menus were fries and bacon. And I know–they are delicious. But switching those two items for a side of vegetables would greatly decrease the amount of sodium you eat throughout the day. How much, you may wonder? Well, in an extreme case like my school, the fries alone contain nearly twice the recommended daily value of sodium content. I found BC to be an outlier, but still, french fries across the schools I looked at incorporate an average of ⅕ of the daily value of salt. Just in a side of fries! Not to mention that fries are not the healthiest choice to begin with. Instead of choosing high salt extras, pick an alternative, healthier side with less sodium such as vegetables or rice. Another extra to avoid is adding salt to the food. Trust me, it already has plenty.
Recommendation 2: Eat More Potassium
Potassium helps counter the effects of salt. It relaxes the blood vessels and speeds up the process in which your body gets rid of salt, resulting in lower blood pressure. This is an effective way to decrease the risk of consuming a lot of salt, especially when you are in a situation where you can’t control how much salt goes into the food you are eating. Some of the best high-potassium foods include bananas, spinach, kale, apricots, beans, potatoes, salmon, and yogurt.
Recommendation 3: Sweat it Out!
Your body gets rid of sodium through tears, urine, and sweat. One of the best ways to balance out your sodium levels is to sweat it out. Go for a jog, hop on the bike, or just get moving! The best part about this method is that it promotes two healthy lifestyle habits in one go. Not only are you able to get rid of some salt in your body, but you will also get in your daily exercise. While using this method, make sure to drink plenty of water, as it will both help prevent dehydration and move the salt out faster (by providing your body with more liquid to sweat and urinate).
Before I conclude this post, I just want to make a few clarifications. If you are consuming more salt than recommended, it is not something that should keep you up at night. Especially if you are a college student, you are young, and as long as it doesn’t become a lifelong trend then it will most likely have no effect on your health. Also, it is important not to take extreme measures to lower your sodium intake. Salt is an essential part of life, helping maintain a balance of minerals within the body and assisting the nervous system. Additionally, salt is made up of two key electrolytes, giving the body important energy to function. For athletes in particular, electrolytes are crucial and a sodium deficiency can affect performance.
As always, I advocate for conscious choices that have positive effects on health. I will say it again, but I DO NOT think calorie counting or fanatical tracking of micronutrients is healthy. The entire purpose of this is to make conscious and sustainable choices for a healthy life.
Check out The Stanford Daily article right here:
FDA Guidelines on Sodium:
Dining services used in my very unofficial data collection:
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