Staessen and his colleagues divided the study participants into thirds according to their estimated sodium intake.

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"Only a quarter of sodium intake actually comes from salting our food, " says AHA President Dan Jones, MD.

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Researchers analyzed 247 surveys of adult sodium intake, segmented by age, gender, region and country between 1990 and 2010.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends keeping sodium intake between 2, 300 to 1, 500 milligrams per day for most people, preferably at the lower end of that scale.

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Its focus is on limiting your daily sodium intake.

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The most effective overall strategy to control sodium intake is to cook food at home as often as possible using fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, low-fat dairy products, fresh meat, poultry, and fish.

CNN: How to be sodium savvy

Although this method is considered the gold standard for estimating sodium intake, that lone urine test may not provide an accurate snapshot of the participants' everyday intake over the full eight-year study, as the researchers themselves note.

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Instead, after undergoing in-depth study at a Connecticut sports-medical clinic, she was told to triple her intake of sodium during races.

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