Did you know that it is recommended you only have a teaspoon of salt over the entire day for health? You may also be surprised to know that around 75% of this salt comes from processed foods like breads, cereals and sauces. If you are not aware of the reason why this can be a problem for your health excess salt in your diet can increase your risk of heart attack by increasing the stress in your blood vessels and increasing your blood pressure. Too much sodium in your diet can also put you at greater risk of stomach cancer and possibly osteoporosis and kidney stones.
Here are 5 easy strategies to help reduce the salt in your diet while keeping the flavour:
- Choose herbs and spices over salt.
Herbs and spices are miracle workers for helping improve the taste of foods. On top of this each herb and spice have additional health benefits which add even more bonus points. Try adding some basil and chilli to your eggs or some turmeric to your vegetables. Experimenting with different varieties is key and you can find combinations which work with your taste preferences.
- Select Fresh Produce.
Vegetables and fruit are a counteractive force against salt as they help lower your blood pressure. This is due to the potassium which acts as an opponent to sodium in your blood and pushes your blood pressure down to a healthier range. At each meal aim to include a variety of vegetables to make up around half your plate and for snacks try adding a piece of fruit like a banana or some cut up vegetable sticks like capsicum, carrot, cucumber or celery.
- Be Nutrition Panel Savvy.
Removing all processed foods from your diet is not recommended and not reasonable if you are like many and short for time to prepare food. However, you can learn to be savvy when it comes to selecting the products lowest in salt. Firstly, look at the per 100g column to compare with a gold standard of sodium at 120mg/100g or less and a silver medal to 400mg/100g or less. You may be surprised to discover foods which are incredibly high in sodium don’t taste salty at all. Next time you are in the supermarket have a look at the back of a cornflakes cereal box if you want a rude awakening to how much salt is in this seemingly innocent cereal.
- Salt hiding in names.
Just like sugar it is not always called sugar. This list of ingredients is high in salt and if up the top of the ingredients list are one of the biggest parts of the product as ingredients are ranked from largest to smallest quantity. Baking powder, celery salt, garlic salt, meat/yeast extract, monosodium glutamate, (MSG), onion salt, rock salt, sea salt, sodium, sodium ascorbate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium nitrate/nitrite, stock cubes and vegetable salt.
- Wash Away the Salt.
The canned vegetables and beans are often preserved using salt in the fluid. You are not required to eat this and by draining and rising beans and vegetables you can remove a huge 40% of the salt!
Take Home Message: You are not giving up the taste of foods if you reduce the amount of salt. Try these simple tricks to improve not only the health of your body but possibly increase the taste and flavour of foods.
