You know salty snacks like chips, pretzels and crackers are loaded with sodium. But do you realize most of the salt you consume comes from the foods you're picking at the grocery store? It's not just the salt shaker, says Rosemary Yurczyk, a dietitian and diabetes educator at the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

Government guidelines recommend that people consume less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day -- about 1 teaspoon of salt. So if you eat three meals a day, you'll want to stay within 800 milligrams of sodium per meal, Yurczyk says.

Trouble is, it's so easy to go overboard, even if you just want to add some extra flavor to your poultry or a little sauce over the pasta. Check out the sodium stats, reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

Dehydrated onion soup mix (1 packet): 3,132 milligrams

Seasoned bread crumbs (1 cup): 2,111 milligrams

Spaghetti sauce (1 cup): 1,203 milligrams

Looking at labels can help you find the sodium in your grocery items. But realize that the sodium listing is for just one serving size, not the whole container, Yurczyk cautions. "If you eat two servings, you'll have to double the amount of sodium."

Source: WebMD