When eating that hearty Thanksgiving meal this Thursday, rest assured that many of the items being eaten will probably have an extra helping of sodium. Are you feeling that blood pressure rise already?

Unfortunately, the majority of processed foods use sodium and other items to give foods that desirable taste after months spent in a box or can (or frozen), but more often than not, there's too much sodium in there. Well, unless you prefer to share those individually-wrapped portions with someone else.

Gravy, potato mixes and other holiday items sometimes contain more than enough sodium for an entire day, so when considering those salty portions this Thanksgiving day, you may want to cut back on some of them if your blood pressure is already above average. And be aware -- the FDA is considering regulation of sodium in foods, which would be to the benefit of those unaware of all the salt they're eating every day.

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Want to lower your blood pressure? Seek out reduced-sodium and low-salt foods and avoid using table salt on everything you eat to liven up the taste.

That, according to new study findings. High salt intake has long been connected to a rise in blood pressure, and the study suggested avoiding pre-salted foods and not adding salt to foods. In a world where all talbes have salt and pepper shakers, that is a toughie, yes?

That sounds pretty easy, until you realize just how bland most foods can be. Try this: use pepper, spices and garlic in place of salt. You'll get the taste and in most cases, almost no sodium!

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Do you like marinading that chicken breast or fish fillet before you bake or grill it? Those two items are generally low in bad fat and are healthy in protein, so they make great entrees or even snacks.

Just don't wash them in a high-sodium marinade filled with high-fructose corn syrup and hundreds of milligrams of sodium. There are other solutions and the end result is just as tasty.

Ever use fresh lemon or dill? How about salt-free seasoning that combines a plethora of spices but zero salt? How about squeezing oranges and limes on that chicken? Forget processed (but albeit, tasty) marinades and go for natural alternatives that won't turn that healthy meal into a high-sodium situation (along with MSG and other components found in some marinades).

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If you eat a lot of processed and restaurant foods these days, my bet is that the single ingredient making many foods "taste" good is sodium. In classic fashion, "dead" foods are generally souped up with high amounts of sodium so, you know, they actually have a taste.

High sodium (salt) intake leads to hypertension and high blood pressure -- no surprise there. But possible gastric ulcers are now being tied to a high-salt diet as well.

This is not the first time I've heard this. If you've ever had an ulcer, you probably are not fond of the experience in any way. One less thing to lead to them would be to not expose yourself to a high amount of salt in your diet. That's a hard battle indeed, though.

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It continues to astound me on how much sodium is in the average processed food product these days. With the nutritional content and most everything else being gone from most processed foods these days -- along with the need for long shelf lives -- sodium seems to be the key to taste.

After all, hydrogenated oils, MSG and sodium are all additives to enhance shelf life and taste for what are considered "dead" foods from natural health advocates. But the actual level of sodium inserted into some foods is plain unhealthy.

Would you like to have 1,500 milligrams of sodium in one sitting? That is more than half of the suggested maximum daily intake -- and way too much for a single meal.

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As Bethany noted earlier, it's been found (again, I think) that diets high in salt can lead to enhanced chances for a heart attack or stroke. The difference with this study is that it is the first long-term study of salt's impact on health .

Most health-conscious nutritionists I've talked to who are big followers of the sodium consumption trend in western society see salt in most processed foods as a leading cause of higher blood pressure among much of the U.S. population.

This newer 15-year study supposedly offers the clearest evidence yet that cutting salt consumption actually saves lives. One of the factors on most foods I buy is looking at the sodium content (per serving) to ensure a single serving does not give me half of the suggested sodium intake I need per day. Have high blood pressure? If so, try looking at your salt intake and see where you are

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Finding the right kinds of foods to lead to a healthy eating regimen is a constant battle that can overwhelm most of us. One of the easy methods to get rid of unhealthy foods is to ensure what you eat is not stocked with tons of sodium -- the classic (and cheap) way to make many foods taste good as the cost of possible hypertension and other sodium-related health issues.

And, this is not just tied to most of the junk foods eaten by U.S. customers -- many Western societies are eating too much sodium in those diets. Take Britain -- the country still eats too much salt according to a new report by the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA).

The overall average salt intake by Britons has fallen from 9.5g to 9.0g a day for women and 10.2g down from 11g in men -- both from 2001 to 2007.

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Are you a fan of salty foods? Most of us are I would suspect -- as sodium is in so many foods these days (and large amounts of it). But, why do we all crave sodium and salt so much?

A new study suggests that some people that are salt cravers may have been born with that in them. With high salt intake being considered a marker for the risk of obesity, reducing the overconsumption of it is probably a good dietary decision for many.

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