The holidays offer many salty food choices

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DALLAS, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- People with hypertension can not afford to loosen up on being vigilant about avoiding salty foods during the holidays, a U.S. hypertension specialist says.

Dr. Shawna Nesbitt, a hypertension specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas says about one in four Americans has hypertension -- a disease that elevates blood pressure and can lead to a host of serious problems, including heart attacks and strokes.

Generally speaking, people with hypertension should eat no more than about 1,500 milligrams of salt each day and also need to take prescribed medication throughout the holidays, Nesbitt says.

"I tell patients to allow themselves one special meal for a holiday, but not to continue unhealthy eating habits for several days or weeks -- leftovers are what sabotage people," Nesbitt says in a statement.

"Holidays are a time of tradeoffs. If you know you're going to have an ample dinner with a lot of salt, you need to have a very low-sodium breakfast and lunch and be sure you don't go over your daily salt limit."

Sodium can hide in many holiday foods. The preservative sodium propionate is often used in some breads and cakes to inhibit mold growth and in pasteurized cheese. Sodium sulfite, used to bleach certain fruits such as maraschino cherries and glazed or crystallized fruits that are artificially colored, is also used as a preservative in some dried fruits such as prunes.