FOOD ARCHIVES Bread Trumps Chips as the Biggest Source of Salt in Our Diet
by Alexia Nader
Where does most of the salt in our diet come from? Not from potato chips, pretzels, popcorn, or pizza, according to a government report released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Instead, the number-one spot on the list of the top 10 sources of sodium in the American diet belongs to our dear friend, plain old bread.
A CDC official told USA Today that the issue with bread is not that it’s super-salty but that people tend to eat large quantities of it daily. Yes, we all know that stuffing your face with the rolls in the restaurant bread basket is a bad idea. But some of the report’s numbers are a rude awakening: Bread accounts for 7 percent of the salt that an average American eats per day; it’s one of only 10 foods that make up 44 percent of the sodium we consume daily.
The usual suspects, salty snacks like potato chips and pretzels, are actually at the bottom of the list, accounting for about 3 percent of our daily sodium intake.