Elizabeth C. is a 42-year-old African-American woman in
reasonably good health. Her mother has high blood pressure and
recently suffered a mild stroke. Elizabeth—who sometimes has her
mother over for meals—has decided to look more closely at the
sodium content of the food she prepares for her family.

She is planning to prepare a casserole for her family and looks
up the sodium content in milligrams (mg) for the main ingredients:
2 cups roasted chicken (120 mg per cup), 1 can cream of chicken
soup (800 mg sodium per ½ cup serving; 2.5 servings per can), 1 cup
grated cheese (180 mg per ¼ cup), 2 cups frozen broccoli (40 mg per
cup), 1 teaspoon salt (480 mg per ¼ teaspoon), and ¼ teaspoon each
curry powder (0 mg) and pepper (0 mg).

1. According to the 2015- 2020 Dietary Guidelines, what is the
recommendation regarding sodium intake for Elizabeth and her
family?

2. Assuming her recipe serves four, calculate the milligrams
(mg) of sodium in one serving of Elizabeth’s casserole.

3. How does this meal contribute to her family’s daily sodium
goal addressed in question #1?

4.Using the information from the chapter and in the “Table Tips”
feature in this chapter, what general changes might Elizabeth make
to decrease the amount of sodium in this recipe?

5. Assume that Elizabeth has found a lower-sodium soup for her
recipe (528 milligrams sodium per serving; 2 servings per can).
Using this product and other changes you suggested in question #4,
revise her original recipe and recalculate the sodium content of
one serving.