A diet high in salt can cause hypertension, often dubbed the ‘silent killer’, which may increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. According to the World Health Organisation, the daily recommended intake of salt for an adult is 6g/day (2.4g sodium) – that’s around 1 teaspoon.
To reduce your salt or sodium intake, try these tips:
- Use less salt.
- Gradually cut back on the amount of salt you add to your food. Your taste buds will adjust and you may even prefer less salt.
- Use herbs & spices to flavor foods.
- Try fresh or dried herbs, spices, pepper and citrus to season your foods instead of reaching to the salt shakers.
- Choose fresh foods over processed foods.
- Fresh fruits, veggies & meats are naturally lower in sodium than canned or processed foods.
- Prepare your own foods.
- Restaurant and convenience foods typically have a lot of salt. When you cook your own food, you control the amount of salt you add.
- Choose low sodium canned foods.
- If you buy processed foods, check the label and pick foods with the lowest level of sodium.
- Limit foods with more than 200mg of sodium per serving.
- Read the Nutrition Facts label for the serving size and consider how many servings you actually eat.
- All fruits, veggies & pulses are allowed, it is just the amount of salt added during the preparation that will make a difference!
- To convert Sodium to Salt, multiply the sodium amount by 2.5 (1g of sodium/100g = 2.5g of salt/100g).
Eat Smart. Be Healthy.