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How to Reduce Your Salt Intake
With so much salt all around us where do we even begin to cut down on salt?
And is it really worth it, if it's everywhere anyway?
Of course, it's worth trying to lower your salt intake. Your very health –
perhaps even your life – depends on it. And how do you start? You begin with
what is within your control.
Start with the salt shaker. Don't use it! Don't even put it on the kitchen
table when you eat. That's right. Use any of the many other types of
seasonings that you can easily find in the spices section of your grocery
store.
Once you buy them, don't stuff them in the back of the kitchen cabinet. Make
sure they're available to you and your family. In fact, bring them home and
"advertise" them. Make sure your family knows how they can change the taste of
the food they eat for the better.
Many times, we reach for the salt shaker purely out of habit. Jog your
family's taste buds a little with different flavors. Instead of making the
switch drudgery, promote it is as a positive step for improved food flavoring!
Don't add salt when cooking! Again, the premise here is "out of sight, out of
mind." Instead of reaching for salt when you cook, reach for other types of
seasonings. If you can't bring yourself to do that, then reduce the amount the
recipe calls for by half. You won't be damaging the final taste of the food by
slightly altering this one ingredient.
Avoid salty foods. Don't know which ones are salty? Usually processed meats
and some types of fish are salty. Pickles are salt-laden, as is soy sauce (one
teaspoon can contain as much as 1,000 mg!). Other salty foods include snacks
like potato chips and pretzels as well as salted nuts.
Limit consumption of processed foods. Check out the sodium content on that
frozen dinner before you pop it into the microwave. Be sure to check the
sodium content of that boxed macaroni and cheese before you serve it to your
family. This hidden salt adds up.
Carefully read nutritional levels. Keep in mind that when you read a
nutritional label on any food, it only gives you the salt content for one
serving. Review what the manufacturer considers a serving size. Many times the
serving size is exceedingly small. It may be that you and your family are
eating upwards of two portion sizes. Then you'll have to double the amount of
salt on the label to discover what you're eating.
Choose fresh whenever possible. Instead of reaching for that bag of potato
chips which may contain as much as 1,000 mg of sodium, grab for that apple
which only has on average 1 mg. It'll provide you with lots more energy too!
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