I’ve been watching my sodium intake (and thus, my family’s since three of the four of us eat the same foods) because my blood pressure was on the rise. One of the foods we’ve learned to be very careful on is soup. We use soups in various recipes; I’m a soup person in general anyway. But have you SEEN the sodium levels in your soup lately?

If you use 1/2 a cup of Campbell’s condensed beef broth, that’s 860mg of sodium. The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for sodium is 2400mg! There goes more than a third of all the salt you should have in a day!

I don’t feel bad for singling Campbell’s out because I’m about to praise them. Campbell’s does offer low sodium soups and other smarter choices (look for the “Healthy Request” line). And they just announced that they are lowering the sodium levels of soups marketed to kids. It’s the second salt reduction for these soups in just three years, and will allow Campbell’s to legally label them healthy foods.

Cutting salt may also help to keep children slim, because a new study shows that kids who don’t snack on salty foods don’t drink as much soda, which is a huge source of empty calories (and caffeine kids really don’t need).

My daughter is on a raspberry and strawberry kick right now; you’d better believe I’m all over that! Hopefully she won’t notice that a lot of her old favorite snacks, like the chips we both love, are no longer present in our house. Even if she does, I can deal with the whining, knowing that I’m keeping her healthier whether she likes it or not.

Posted by Sunshine.