Top 6 Tips on How to Cut Back on Your Sodium Intake for a Healthier, Low Salt Diet
Dangers Of Too Much Sodium
Most of us are guilty of consuming too much sodium, and it can have severe implications for our health. Too much sodium can raise your risk for high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems. In fact, research presented at the recent American Heart Association Annual Conference showed that cutting 1,200 mg of sodium from the average American’s diet could lead to a 6 percent decrease in new cases of cardiovascular disease and an 8 percent reduction in heart attacks.
Most health organizations recommend keeping your sodium intake under 2,400 mg a day, but even that may be too much. Keeping your intake to around 1,500 mg per day is probably a safer bet.
Tips for Reducing Sodium in Your Diet
1. Cut back on processed foods
You can give yourself a pat on the back for cutting back on table salt, but processed foods are the real sodium traps. According to the Mayo Clinic, 77 percent of the sodium in the average American diet comes from packaged or processed foods, not the salt shaker. To reduce your sodium intake from processed foods, choose whole foods over anything that comes in a box or bag. Chips, crackers and other snack foods contain large amounts of sodium, so replace those foods with snacks like carrot sticks, apple slices or low-fat yogurt.
2. Watch out for canned soups
Have you ever read the label on a canned soup? If so, you know that one serving of some canned soups—usually about 1 cup—can contain almost half of your recommend sodium intake for the entire day. Make your own soup at home and flavor it with herbs and spices, or choose one of the low-sodium canned soups.
3. Examine food labels closely
Keep an eye on the ingredient list. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) and disodium phosphate will also add a lot of sodium to your diet and they are typically buried in the ingredient list. The nutrition label will also tell you how much sodium is in a packaged food as a percentage of your recommended daily intake. If that percentage is high, consider choosing an alternative.
4. Choose fresh meat over processed meat
Hot dogs, turkey bacon and lunch meats all contain large amounts of sodium. One measly hot dog can have up to 800 mg of sodium, or a third of your recommended intake, and that’s without ketchup or other condiments. Better choices for lunch include a grilled chicken breast or sliced steak sandwich.
5. Rinse canned beans
Canned beans are another potential sodium trap. Cooking dried beans is a great way to cut back on sodium, but it does take a little time. You can also rinse canned beans with water to reduce some of the sodium content.
6. Make your food at home
Restaurants want to make your food taste good, so they load up their dishes with sodium and other unhealthy ingredients. Matt Goulding uncovers the astronomical sodium content of some restaurant entrees in his popular “Eat This, Not That” books. He found that a large Classic Italian sandwich at Quizno’s has 3,750 mg of sodium, which is more sodium than you should consume in an entire day. Even worse, the fish taco platter at On the Border contains a whopping 4,750 mg of sodium. Eating out can be fun, but it can also be bad for your health and waistline. Instead, prepare your food at home and view dining out as a special treat rather than a regular occurrence.
