Since the Food Standards Agency introduced its salt campaign in 2004, it has raised public awareness of salt in the diet and the consequences of an intake that exceeds the 6g per day recommendation. Consuming high levels of salt is known to cause fluid retention (bloating) and high blood pressure, which in turn can cause heart disease. But many people shy away from a low-salt diet because they think the taste of their food will suffer.

I’m not suggesting that you banish salt completely from your diet. The components of salt, sodium and chloride, are essential nutrients and, with potassium, they are the main regulators of the body’s water-balance system but I am suggesting that you cut down as the average person in the UK regularly consumes at least double the 6g per day recommendation – 6g of salt is about a teaspoonful. This is not a large amount, especially when you consider that 75% of the salt we eat is already in the food we buy making it easy to overdose on salt without realising it.

Here are some ways to keep your salt intake under control:

• Take the salt cellar off the table.

• Cook without salt, and taste the food before adding it after it’s nearly cooked. Once you’ve cut back on salt, you’ll find most foods actually need very little, if any.

• There are lots of ways to add flavour to your cooking without using any salt. For example:

  • Add fresh herbs to pasta dishes, vegetables and fish.

  • Marinate fish in advance to give it more flavour.

  • Use garlic, ginger, chilli and lime in stir fries.

  • Make your own stock and gravy, instead of using cubes or granules, or look out for reduced-salt varieties.

  • Roast vegetables such as red peppers, courgettes, fennel, parsnips and squash to bring out their flavour.

  • Squeeze lemon juice onto fish or seafood.

  • Try using different types of onion – brown, red, white, spring onions, shallots.

  • Make sauces using ripe flavoursome tomatoes and garlic.

• Retrain your taste buds to appreciate herbs and spices in place of salt. Basil, bay, dill, garlic, lemon juice, marjoram, mint, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, and thyme are particularly good salt replacement herbs.

• Frozen, dried or chopped fresh herbs will add flavour and enhance the taste of your meal e.g. basil, oregano, tarragon, parsley, coriander, mint.

• Freshly ground black pepper, curry powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, chilli powder, ground ginger and ground coriander are just some of the spices you can use to add flavour in place of salt when cooking but watch out for the ready mixed herbs and spices in the supermarket e.g. Cajun mix, as these can be high in salt

• Read labels: There is salt in most of the foods we buy today, especially those that also contain chemicals, additives and preservatives. Some foods claim to be ‘reduced salt’ or ‘low salt’ but this can be misleading. Most manufacturers use the term ‘sodium’ for salt. To find out how much salt there is in the food you buy, multiply the sodium content by 2.5. Aim for less than 6g sodium/salt a day. Watch out especially for tomato-based products and soya sauce as they easily can use up your sodium allowance for a day.

• Use salt substitutes sparingly: If you have to use salt, sea salt is richer in natural minerals and lower in sodium than table salt so fine to use sparingly. Probably best to avoid reduced-sodium alternatives even though they contain less sodium than standard salt and taste similar. But they are not sodium-free, so you will still be adding sodium to your food if you use these products. Also because reduced sodium foods taste salty they don’t help you get used to less salty flavours. It’s better to gradually reduce the amount of salt you add when you’re cooking and eating, until finally you use hardly any – or none at all. It doesn’t take long for your taste buds to get used to less salt and then you might appreciate some other flavours more.

• Avoid all salty foods: These include cured or smoked meats, smoked and pickled fish, tinned meats, salted nuts, salted butter, ready meals and biscuits and vegetables in brine.

• Eat more potassium-rich foods, such as oranges, bananas, mangos, melon and beans- you’ll excrete more sodium in your urine than the average person.

• Don’t go overboard: Although too much salt in the food is not healthy don’t go overboard and ban it completely as a diet too low in salt is also bad news and you do need some salt – about 6g a day – in your diet.

When it comes to the sensible use of salt in your diet moderation, as in everything is key; you need neither too much nor too little.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 2:40 am and is filed under Heart Disease, Nutrition and Healthy Eating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.