Summary: Tammy Lakatos Shames reveals that the culprit may be something you never pay attention to - and that's salt.<br> <br> Host: Gloria Tsang, RD<br> Guest: Tammy Lakatos Shames, RD<br> <br> People often think that they must have eaten too much food or carb, or not doing enough workout that is preventing them for losing those stubborn pounds. But nutritionist Tammy Lakatos Shames, author of a new book called The Secret to Skinny, reveals that the culprit may be something you never pay attention to - and that's salt.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Transcript:<br> Gloria Tsang, RD: Welcome to the Nutrition Tidbits podcast. This is Gloria Tsang, Editor-in-Chief for HealthCastle.com. People often think that they must have eaten too much food or too much carbs, or not doing enough workouts that is preventing them from losing those stubborn pounds. But nutritionist Tammy Lakatos Shames, author of a new book called The Secret to Skinny, revealed that the culprit may be something you never pay attention to - and that is salt. Thank you for joining me Tammy.<br> <br> Tammy Lakatos Shames, RD: You are welcome. Thanks so much for having me.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: Now with regards to weight loss, people often talks about calories or carbs. And now it's salt! Tell us what's the deal?<br> <br> Tammy Lakatos Shames, RD: You know the interesting thing is you are exactly right. We used to always blame carbs or sugar or often whatever else it may be. And sure, these are partially responsible, but now we know that salt is playing a key role as well. First of all, salt makes us both hungrier and thirstier. But an interesting thing that most people don't know that research shows that it actually makes your fat cells fatter. And that is kind of a wake-up call for us all. Most people don't think they have a salt problem and the truth of the matter is, a large percentage of us are actually getting two to three times the salt that we actually should. So the bottom line is most of us do have a salt problem even if you don't thing you do.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: So that is a problem. So how does an average person know if they are eating too much salt? Are there any indicators or symptoms?<br> <br> Tammy Lakatos Shames, RD: That's the thing. For a lot of us, we really don't realize that we are eating too much salt. To be honest, if you live here in this country (US), most likely you are eating too much salt. One way you know that you probably are not getting too much salt, it's just if you are sticking to really wholesome foods like fruits and vegetables, whole grains and beans. You have to keep in mind that even foods like bread contain a lot of salt. Unfortunately, for most of us, we are getting too much sodium. That makes it more of a challenge.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: Tell us some of the worst contenders in terms of high salt foods.<br> <br> Tammy Lakatos Shames, RD: Most of us know about the pickled foods but really it's also those bacons, sausages, the processed meats are really high. Canned foods, processed foods too. Unfortunately, anytime you go to a restaurant or fast food restaurant, usually there is a lot of salt in there as well.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: Sometimes, fry foods are salty. I think they sprinkle salt just to finish off the taste so often times, fry foods are very high in salt.<br> <br> Tammy Lakatos Shames, RD: Yes, they absolutely are. French fries are usually salted. That is a great point.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: It's very easy to say don't eat high salt foods then, but it's not easy to do. You know at HealthCastle.com, we often talk about snacks with our readers, in our polls or in our Facebook group. They often tell us that they crave salty foods. How do we train our taste buds to crave less salt?<br> <br> Tammy Lakatos Shames, RD: That's a great question. The interesting thing is that as babies,
