Dishes Contributing to Sodium Intake of Elderly Living in Rural Areas

Moon, Hyun Kyung; Choi, Soon Ok; Kim, Jung Eun

Abstract

Sodium is a necessary element for the body. Excessive intake of sodium is known as one of the risk factors for chronic diseases. Recently, increasing numbers of people in Korea are suffering from chronic diseases. Major causes of deaths were chronic degenerative disease with the rising aging population. Especially, the population of rural areas is growing older fast. In rural areas, it is known that under nutrition and high sodium intake were major nutritional problems. For sodium intake, there were some studies about contributing food items. They were not enough to show diets relate to sodium intakes. Thus, this study analyzed dishes contributing to sodium intakes of elderly living in rural areas. Dietary intakes using "the 24hour recall method" were used. For the analysis for sodium intakes, "Can-pro3.0" was used. Ranking of dishes by contributions of sodium intakes were Korean cabbage, kimchi (19.6%), seasoned soybean paste (5.3%), soybean paste (4.6%), soybean paste soup dried radish leaves (3.5%), hot pork and kimchi stew (3.4%) in order. Ranking of dish groups by sodium intakes was kimchies (28.3%), soup and hot soups (22.8%), stews and casseroles (9.7%), seasonings (8.2%),and seasoned vegetables (6.0%) in order. One-dish meals among cooked rice, wheat noodles among noodle and mandu, soups using the soybean paste, stews using soybean paste and kimchi, salted fish among grilled foods, stir-fried anchovy among stir-fried foods, seasoned spinach, and Korean cabbage kimchi contributed to sodium intakes. As the nutrition deficiency of the elderly living in rural areas could be a problem, and excessive sodium intakes is threatening to their health, it is needed for the senior citizens to have adequate knowledge for diets containing less sodium. And recipes for healthy food and nutrition education based on their diets are needed.