Spice Up Your Life! Eat Less Salt and Sodium

Be a smart shopper.

Read the food label to find out more about what is in the foods you eat. This will help you choose foods to limit the amount of sodium you eat to 2,400 mg each day.
Size up your food. Compare the amounts you will eat to the serving size given. If you eat 2 cups and the serving size is 1 cup, you have to double the amounts of nutrients and calories listed.
Read the nutrition information. Use the Percent Daily Value to compare the amount of sodium among brands. Choose those foods that have lower values. One serving of this product contains 28 percent, or about 1/4 of the amount of sodium you should have for the entire day.

Buy foods with these claims more often. The food label may include terms such as:
sodium free
very low sodium
low sodium
reduced (or less) sodium
light in sodium
unsalted

How Many African Americans Have Diabetes?

National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS) conducted between 1963 and 1990 show that African Americans have a rising prevalence of diabetes. (Prevalence is the percentage of cases in a population.) Most African Americans with diabetes have Type 2, or noninsulin-dependent diabetes. Type 2 diabetes usually develops after age 40. However, in high-risk populations, susceptible people may develop it at a younger age. A small number of African Americans have Type I or insulin-dependent diabetes, which usually develops before age 20.

NHIS conducted from 1991 to 1992 indicate higher rates of diabetes among African Americans than among white Americans. At age 45 or older, the prevalence of diabetes is 1.4 to 2.3 times as frequent in blacks as in whites. The greatest difference seen in NHIS was among people aged 65 to 74. Figure 1 details these 1991-92 NHIS statistics. Statistics collected in 1993 indicate that in this age group, 17.4 percent of black Americans had diagnosed diabetes, compared to 9.5 percent of white Americans.