Since 2008, the health and nutrition world has recognized Salt Awareness Week.  This year it is celebrated from Mar 16^th – 22^nd and healthy children is the theme!

Do we really think that too much salt is a problem for most kids?  Do we even pay attention to this issue?  Well, probably not.  It is worth talking about so we can “be aware and use good judgment” (as I always like to say)!  Don’t worry, it won’t be too scary or too complicated …

Let’s cover a few basics and then I’ll tell you about a study that was published in February that looked at sodium intake in kids between 11 and 13 years old, related to the amount they ate on average, the % that came from snack foods and the effect on blood pressure. My previous blog on “Our Love Affair with Salt” was packed with great information.

A few basics in review:
●  Salt is simply Sodium Chloride and it is only the sodium that we commonly link to health issues.
●  Most of the sodium in our diets comes from added salt, either “in” the product or added at the dinner table.
●  The sodium part of a teaspoon of salt equals 2,300mg.
●  The average American adult consumes 3,400mg of sodium daily.
●  A recent study that included adults in 17 countries found that consuming between 3,000mg and 6,000mg daily showed a lower health risk than those who were higher or lower (and that was a big surprise).
●  Low sodium diets are medically recommended for certain heart, kidney and blood pressure issues (less than either 2,100mg or 1,500mg depending on the problem).

There is currently a worldwide effort to reduce the salt in food products to support a goal of 6,000mg/day for the average adult diet (which translates to about 3,500mg of sodium from the salt).

Well, let’s look at the study about kids.  Here are the highlights:
●  high sodium intake is associated with increased blood pressure in adults and the researchers wanted to see if that also held true for children
●  this study looked at boys and girls from 11 to 13 years old
●  the average amount of sodium that they consumed was 3,100mg daily and 1,400mg of that came from snack foods
●  blood pressure was higher in the children who ate more than 2 salty snacks per day or who were in the group who ate the highest amount of total sodium.

So, salt and sodium has an effect on our children’s blood pressure too! Is that a bad thing? No one knows for sure.  It certainly seems reasonable to strive for a total sodium intake that isn’t excessive.  If 6,000mg a day is too high for an adult, we could pretty much guess that it would be bad for the kids too! And snacking contributes to almost half of the sodium they eat!  We all know that snacking is a way of life for most of us. Salty snacks are satisfying.  What to do?  Be aware and use good judgment!  Just keep an eye of what you feed your kids.  Make sure you are getting those fruits and veggies and whole grains (that we always talk about) mixed into the general food plan.  For most of our children, and us too, we don’t need to avoid the salty foods and snacks, we need to control the amounts.  Salt Awareness Week  … OK, thanks for the reminder!  Here’s to healthy, happy and active kids!!

Mission Monday: It’s snack time here at Wild Oats and we’re crazy for these Cinnamon Graham Teddy Bears. Guess how many adorable bear cookies we fit in our jar? Let us know and you could win a Wild Oats prize pack. Comment or reply with your guess on our Twitter or Facebook page and you’re automatically entered!

If you’re playing along on Facebook, simply comment in our Mission Monday post before 11:59 p.m. ET tonight to be entered to win!

If you’d like to play along on Twitter, simply tweet us your answer with #wildoatsmission #sweeps by 11:59 p.m. ET today to be entered to win!

Good luck! Full Sweepstakes rules and details can be found here http://bit.ly/1DoNN9U.

Unlike much of the country, here in the Pacific Northwest the winter has been unusually warm and the trees are in full blossom …. we are officially “in” the seasonal allergy season! So, even though some of us are still digging out of the heavy winter storms, allergy season will be hitting all of us soon.

Whether we call it seasonal allergies, allergic rhinitis or hay fever, it is pretty much the same thing. With seasonal allergies, the symptoms start or worsen at a particular time of year, when the allergen comes from tree pollen, grasses or weeds and other things that bloom.  Hay fever or allergic rhinitis also can occur from exposure to dust, animals and other indoor allergens.

The itchy and watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing, coughing, congestion can definitely make us miserable!  And, on top of all that, those seasonal allergies can also be connected to “anytime” food allergies in a condition called Food-Pollen Allergy Syndrome or Oral Allergy Syndrome.  These types of food allergies are due to a cross-reaction with a component of a particular food being similar enough to a seasonal allergen (like pollen or ragweed) that the food causes an immediate allergic reaction.  Oral Allergy Syndrome always follows the development of hay fever.  A person may have had no problems eating a particular food and then, after the seasonal allergies start, they find that eating cherries suddenly makes their mouth and throat itch or they start sneezing.  Or certain varieties  of apples cause a problem and not others.  These reactions are almost always to certain fruits and vegetables and vary from person to person.

If you think you have Oral Allergy Syndrome mention it to your doctor.  As far as your eating plans, experiment! ….
●  you may need to avoid that food completely
●  you may find that you have symptoms only if you eat a lot of that food, so eating less may be the idea
●  you may find that peeling the fruit will stop your symptoms
●  you may find that cooking the food stops that problem
●  you may find that fresh vs. frozen makes a difference.

Sometimes, once the seasonal allergy/oral allergy syndrome circuit is established, eating the food first can trigger even worse hay fever symptoms!  Seasonal allergies and food allergies don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand but the possibility exists.  One more piece in the puzzle called “us”…

This past week at Expo West, I had the pleasure of attending a dinner thrown by the Organic Center, at which Anna Lappé was the Keynote speaker. Of the many ideas and ingenuities I encountered over the course of the convention, it was an old refrain Lappé echoed that resonated most: standing up for organic is standing up for farmers.

In her speech, Lappé shared her experiences interviewing farmers with Real Food Media, and hearing repeatedly that the move to organic was motivated by illness in the family.  This is an experience shared in common amongst those that grow and harvest our food worldwide. Pesticide exposure is irrefutably dangerous, and prolonged exposure puts farm workers at risk on a daily basis. My colleague Dave Carter has shared his personal experience here, and it’s well worth a read.

Studies from the National Cancer Institute have found higher rates of many types of cancer (such as leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma.. the list goes on) among agricultural workers. They also point to other environmental exposures farm workers face- engine exhausts, solvents, dusts, animal viruses, fertilizers fuels and microbes. Whichever way you slice it, farming is incredibly hard work. Making the environment toxic to workers is an inhumane added burden.

Organic agricultural practices create safer and more sustainable environments for workers, as well as consumers, by reducing pesticide exposure. Choosing organic, whether it be at the shelf or at the poll, demonstrably improves quality of life for agricultural workers. Growing demand for organic produce and products is driving the Industry to expand, and this in turn creates a need for more organic acreage. More organic acreage means more organic farms and farmers operating in better working conditions.

Groups such as Farmworker Justice, Farm Aid, United Farm Workers, alongside a host of others at both the State and National levels, tackle the broad range of challenges that matter most to our food supply, from the ground up. The Organic Trade Association, Organic Consumers Association, and Organic Center advocate, educate, research and/or disseminate to address the same challenges with an organic perspective.  They are all great sources of information and insights on how to stand up for both farmers and organic.

I thank Anna Lappé for reminding me of this truism, an idea worth sharing. Here’s to standing up (and eating delicious organic food to keep up our strength!).