Tips for Reducing Sodium

If you would like to cut back on the amount of sodium you and your family consume, keep in mind that a sudden switch from salt-laden foods to foods prepared with no salt will probably win few converts.  Plan to cut back on sodium over the course of a few weeks or even months.  Make the changes where they'll be noticed the least, such as using less salt in baked goods and buying salt-free canned tomatoes and legumes.  However, low-sodium canned soups are not very tasty and tend to be high in fat.  Choose a soup that is "less sodium" or make your own.  After awhile, your taste buds will adjust to less salt, and you'll find that you can enjoy many lower-sodium and salt-free foods.

Remember that your goal is not to reduce your sodium intake to zero.  Sodium occurs naturally in many foods, especially root vegetables and leafy greens.  Keeping your daily sodium intake within the suggested guidelines can be accomplished in a number of ways, depending upon your eating habits.

Seventy-five percent of the sodium in your diet comes from processed, canned or restaurant foods.  If many of your meals come from restaurants or deli counters, you will need to be especially diligent when you cook at home, using no-salt-added products and adding very little, if any, salt during cooking.

If you eat most of your food at home, but rely heavily on processed foods such as canned soups and frozen items, try to balance your meals with simple foods that are naturally low in sodium, such as fresh salads (easy on the dressing), fresh fruit and steamed vegetables sprinkled with lemon juice.

If most of your meals are made in your own kitchen, you have the most control over your sodium intake and can probably add reasonable amounts of salt during cooking or salt your foods lightly at the table and easily stay within the recommended sodium amounts.  When cooking and baking, use the following table to estimate how much sodium (in mg) per serving will be added from salt (for example, a recipe that serves 4 and calls for 1 teaspoon of salt will equal 575 mg of sodium per serving from salt).

The key to a diet low in sodium is balance.  If one item of your menu is high in sodium, complement it with other low-sodium dishes.  For example, if you are fixing a vegetable stir-fry with tamari or soy sauce, serve it atop rice prepared without salt.

Buy salt-free canned tomato products, canned beans and other canned goods.  Larger grocery stores and supermarkets may carry salt-free brands, either in the regular canned goods aisle or in special diet sections.  Natural food stores often have a wide variety of no-salt-added canned legumes.  Because these products have a long shelf life, it is a good idea to stock up on low-sodium varieties when you see them.

If you do not use salt-free canned tomato products, do not automatically add salt to tomato-based recipes.  For example, if you prepare tomato sauce with regular canned crushed tomatoes, each cup of finished sauce will provide 591 mg of sodium without any salt added to the recipe.  If you add a teaspoon of salt, the amount of sodium jumps to 879 mg.  If you use salt-free crushed tomatoes, however, and add one teaspoon of salt, each cup of sauce would contain only 319 mg of sodium.

Dried herbs and spices lose their effectiveness after a few months, so periodically check your spice rack for stale herbs and spices.  Natural food stores often sell dried herbs and spices in bulk quantities, allowing you to buy only as much as you will use within a few weeks.

Try a variety of salt-free herb and seasoning mixes until you find ones you like.  The quality and tastes of different brands vary considerably, so do not give up if you do not like the first one you try.  Salt-Free Spike and Vegit by Modern Products, Inc. of Milwaukee, WI by McCormick offers an extensive line of salt-free seasonings.  Try Salt-Free Garlic and Herb, Salt-Free Onion and Herb or Herbes de Provence.  Penzeys Spices (800) 741-7787 or www.penzeys.com also carries many salt-free seasonings.

Salting foods at the table is not necessarily a bad thing to do, provided you do not add much salt during cooking.  If you do use a salt shaker at the table, try this experiment: salt an empty plate as you usually would if it were full of food, then pour the salt into a measuring spoon.  One-sixteenth of a teaspoon of salt will add only 144 mg of sodium to your meal, while one-eighth of a teaspoon will add 288 mg of sodium.  If the amount is larger than one-eighth teaspoon, use less muscle with the salt shaker.

Light salt or one-third less sodium salt has a filler.  It sill contains sodium, so if you salt to taste, you can get the sodium back to the same amount as using regular salt.

Salt substitutes may not be a good idea, since they do not help you to diminish your taste for salt.  They also have a somewhat bitter taste.  Because of their high potassium content, they should be avoided by people who take certain medications, such as ACE inhibitors, which are used to lower blood pressure.

Finally, unless you are on a salt-restricted diet for medical reasons, do not make sodium restriction an "issue" for your family.  Instead, try to establish healthy low-sodium habits that will in time become second nature.  You and your family may even come to enjoy lower-sodium foods as the norm rather than the exception.

Sodium is an acquired taste.  When you start using less salt, foods will taste bland.  After about six weeks, your palate will be re-adjusted so that foods will taste better.  Your taste buds will become aware of the more subtle flavors that excessive amounts of salt cover up.