Surprising sodium

Dietary guidelines recommend that healthy adults get no more than 2,300 mg of sodium a day, the amount in just 1 teaspoon of table salt (sodium chloride). People with hypertension, those middle-aged and older, and African-Americans should aim for less than that—no more than 1,500 mg. But the average American ingests 2,900 to 4,300 mg.

Our food experts hit supermarkets to ferret out products in which sodium might be a surprise. Among them:

• Twizzlers Black Licorice Twists. Four strands have 200 mg. Strangely, four strands of Twizzlers Strawberry Licorice have only 115 mg.
  
  
• Raisin-bran cereals. Kellogg's has 350 mg per cup; Post, 300 mg; Total, 230 mg.
  
  
• Jell-O Instant Pudding & Pie Filling Mix. The chocolate flavor contains 420 mg per serving; lemon, 310 mg; chocolate fudge, 380 mg.
  
  
• Prego Heart Smart Traditional Italian Sauce. An American Heart Association logo on the label means that saturated fat and cholesterol are restricted, but not that the product is low sodium. This sauce has 430 mg per half-cup.
  
  
• Aunt Jemima Original Pancake and Waffle Mix. Prepared as directed, the pancakes have about 200 mg of sodium each. By contrast, pancakes made with Bisquick Heart Smart Pancake and Baking Mix have about 140 mg each.
  
  

Some fast-food fare also has surprising sodium levels. McDonald's Premium Caesar Salad with grilled chicken, for example, has 890 mg of sodium—without dressing. A large order of fries has 350 mg.

Lower-fat products can be higher in sodium than their full-fat counterparts. (When fat is removed, sodium is sometimes added to compensate.) A serving of Ruffles Original Potato Chips has 10 grams of fat and 160 mg of sodium, for example; the baked version, with 7 fewer grams of fat, has 40 mg more sodium. For other surprises, see Think you're cutting back? Think again, or go to www.ConsumerReportsHealth.org.

You might be getting sodium, even if you don't see "sodium chloride" listed as an ingredient, in the form of disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate, sodium caseinate, sodium benzoate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium nitrite, and other combinations. Some of those ingredients are flavor enhancers; others are thickeners, preservatives, or texture enhancers.