Bread is a staple of the U.S. diet and psyche. Bill Cosby touched on bread's place in American life when he said, "I am proud to be an American. Because an American can eat anything on the face of this earth as long as he has two pieces of bread." Bread's role is not always as positive as its "staff of life" sobriquet suggests. Eating too much bread, as many Americans are found to do, can be detrimental to one's health.
That's a concern in a nation where obesity and associated health issues are increasingly common and costly. Excessive consumption of bread, it turns out, can and does contribute to ill health. Why? About nine of every 10 Americans consume more salt than nutritionists say is healthy, and the top culprit is bread and its salt content.
Current guidelines recommend that the average person eat just 2,300 milligrams of salt daily. Recommended consumption for those over 51, those with high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease and blacks is 1,500 milligrams. Most Americans miss those marks. The Centers for Disease Control says that average U.S. salt consumption is about 3,300 milligrams a day.
That over-consumption directly contributes to an epidemic of high blood pressure, a significant risk factor in heart disease and stroke. Those ailments kill about 800,000 a year and cost the nation about $273 billion annually. Bread's role in that toll should not be dismissed.
The CDC says bread is the top source of salt in the U.S. diet. It accounts for about 7 percent of the salt the average American eats in a day. That's not because bread is overly salty, but because, as Cosby inferred, Americans eat a lot of it.
Bread isn't the only popular food containing lots of salt. The list is long but health officials report that just 10 foods are responsible for 44 percent of the nation's salt consumption. That's an eye-opener.
Bread is followed by cold cuts and cured meats, pizza, fresh and processed poultry, soups, fast-food hamburgers and sandwiches, cheese, spaghetti, pasta dishes and some meats. Salty snacks, i.e. potato chips, that most Americans wrongly would label as the top dietary salt offender ranks 10th. "Who'd," in the immortal words of Mortimer Snerd. "have thunk it?"
Those worried about salt intake don't have to give up bread or other listed foods. Moderation is the key. Reading labels and remembering the cumulative effect of eating salt-laden processed foods can help reduce consumption. Most diets should contain some bread and salt -- the latter is essential to life -- but too much of a good thing can be bad for one's health.