The news that prepackaged food contains a lot of salt is not too surprising considering the fact that salt is often used as a curing agent and prepackaged food is meant to have a long shelf life. But a recent study done by the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention found that most prepackaged foods contain way too much sodium to be healthy.

Over half of the common and popular prepackaged foods that they tested came in at sodium levels in excess of the government recommended limits. Getting too much salt in the diet is not just a case of causing excessive thirst, high levels of sodium can lead to hypertension or high blood pressure can be a factor for developing heart disease.

The research team was lead by Linda Scheib, an epidemiologist at the center’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. Her team looked at ten different types of prepackaged foods for variety, and over 3,800 food products.

“We looked at bread, cold cuts, pizza, poultry, soup, sandwiches, cheese, pasta-mixed dishes, meat-mixed dishes and savory snacks,” she said.

It might come as a surprise to many people that bread is actually a high offender when it comes to salt, and in fact most of the sodium people ingest actually comes from bread.

“A lot of foods that people don’t think taste salty do actually have a lot of sodium in them. So, we recommend people just read those nutrition labels, make comparisons, try to choose lower sodium options, be sure to eat more fresh fruits, vegetables and meats and cook more at home because that way you have more control over the amount of sodium.”

Cold cuts, soups, and sandwiches might make delicious lunch options, but the study found that 70 percent of them have levels of sodium that are just too high. The daily recommendations for salt intake caps out at 2,300 milligrams, or one single teaspoon.