Reducing your intake of salt can help lower your blood pressure and lower your risk of heart attack, stroke, heart disease and death.80% of the sodium we consume comes from packaged foods and restaurant food, so cooking your own fresh foods will make the biggest impact on salt reduction. Here are more tips:
1. Limit the number of meals you eat out.
2. Use mostly fresh foods in your cooking.
3. Use frozen vegetables and fruit, as long they are not packaged with salt or sauces.
4. If you buy food in cans, always look for "No salt added" or "Low sodium" versions.
5. When preparing a packaged or canned food, add plenty of fresh vegetables to lower the sodium concentration per serving.
6. Read food labels and check the sodium content.
7. Track your sodium intake for a few days to see how close you are to the recommended levels. The best way to do this is with our Online Nutrition Tracking system. See Nar or Elaine for access.
7. Stock up on spice blends that do not contain salt: many curry, fajita seasoning and poultry seasoning blends do not contain salt.
8. Experiment with different herbs & spices to flavor your food in place of salt.
What do you to to reduce the salt consumption in your family?
Sometimes I crave something salty to eat. It is those times that I am tempted to open a bag of chips. Is it okay to have salted nuts to satisfy my craving?
ReplyDeleteGood question. Salted nuts are definitely healthier than salted chips BUT you have to be very careful about your portion control.
ReplyDeleteDecide how many calories you are willing to spend on the nuts - 100 or 150 is a good number. Then, measure or count out the nuts and then put the container away. It's very easy to eat 500 calories worth of nuts and not even realize it!
You also should be tracking your sodium intake to make sure those nuts aren't putting you into the danger zone. Tracking your sodium with our online nutrition tracking system is the simplest way to do it.
Thank you for the feedback! I forget how high in calorie nuts are....
ReplyDeleteThe online nutrtition tracker really opened my eyes to how much salt I was getting. I don't add salt to anything and I eat lots of fresh foods, but salt seems to be in everything in a box, jar, or carton.
ReplyDelete