The Saltiest Foods in Hungary

Did you know that two thirds of the world’s population consumes twice as much salt as the daily recommended intake? Traditional Hungarian cuisine uses this spice richly, although freshly prepared meals do not contain as much salt as the products of the processing industry, studies as experts say, that we should be worried about our health.

Divany.hu listed some of the foods which threaten our cardio-vascular systems the most, and there are some that might surprise you!

Bread, pastries

More than one third of the breads and pastries do not correspond to the rules of the Hungarian Food Regulations, as theirsalt content crosses the limit. It will be the task of bakermen to reduce this content, as only one slice of bread is enough to cross the recommended daily intake of salt.

An adult needs only 5 gramms, but an average Hungarian consumes 16.5-17.5 gramms of salt per day, and this is partly due tothe general lack of knowledge about the ingredients of our everyday meals.

Meat products

A new study featured in ’Circulation’ states that we risk our health if we eat meat, and the scale is quite scary: consuming processed meat raises the chance of cardio-vascular illnesses by 40%, and the risk of type 2 diabetes by 19%. However, this is not proveable in the case of non-processed meat, probably because these non-conservated, naturally manufactured foods contain 50% less salt than processed goods. Researchers believe this means that it is not the fat content that increases the chance of cardiopathy, but natrium content.

Cheese

All kinds of cheese contains a lot of salt, but blue cheese, feta and cream cheese are types which are especially rich in this compound. Of course, this is true for all products which taste best with some cheese: pizza, lángos (traditional, Hungarian deep-fried dough), spagetti and so on.

Soup

A bowl of hot, tasty chicken soup might even cure cold – but only when prepared with non-processed ingredients! Stock-cubes contain lots of salt, so much so, that half of a concentrate might be salt. „We should only eat powder based, instant food occassionally if we want to eat healthy” says the dietician „these products are usually rich in fat and salt and therefore do not correspond to the principles of healthy foods.”