Low Salt Diet

Low salt diet helps improve your health, lower your blood pressure and decrease the risk of heart disease and stroke.

You get used to large amounts of salt in processed foods over time and it will be hard to identify the sodium content in them. When you start eating with less salt, food will taste bland. However this will change in a couple of weeks and you will start thinking salty foods do not taste as nice and foods with much less salt taste saltier than they actually are.

You need to multiply the sodium concentration by 2.5 in order to convert it to salt- sodium and chloride. In other words, 1 gram of sodium = 2.5 grams of salt. An adult in UK consumes 10-12 g of salt- 2 teaspoonfuls on average per day, the aim is to reduce it to 5-6g per day.

Importance of Sodium:

Sodium plays an important role in body function. It helps transmit electrical nerve impulses and transport nutrients to cells. It helps maintain the right balance of fluids in your body. Sodium takes part in the relaxation and contraction of muscles.

Your kidneys regulate the amount of sodium kept in your body. When sodium levels are low, your kidneys conserve sodium. When levels are high, they excrete the excess amount in urine. If your kidneys can’t eliminate enough sodium, the sodium starts to accumulate in your blood.

Because sodium attracts and holds water, your blood volume increases. Increased blood volume, in turn, makes your heart work harder to move more blood through your blood vessels, increasing pressure in your arteries. 

Why Low Salt Diet?

The amount of salt that you eat has an impact on your blood pressure and health overall. The more salt you eat the higher your blood pressure will be. A high salt consumption also causes other health damage, such as greater retention of water in your body, which leads to swelling of the ankles and weight gain. Too much salt:

• Can also cause congestive heart failure

• Cirrhosis

• Kidney disease

• Asthma

• Can worsen thinning of the bones- osteoporosis

• And it is related to the cancer of the stomach.

 

Guidelines to help reduce the sodium in your diet:

• Approximately 80% of your salt intake is hidden in foods like cereals, bread, meat products and ready prepared meals.

• Taste alone will not be enough to identify the sodium content in a certain food item, you need to read the labels.

• Do not add salt to cooking.

• Do not add salt to your food at the table. Garlic salt, rock salt and sea salt are no different and watch out for sauces like soy and tomato sauce as they are very high in salt content.

• Instead of salt try herbs, spices, vinegar, wine, lemon or lime juice, garlic, ginger and chillies in cooking.

• Avoid manufactured or processed foods that have salt added.

• Rinse canned vegetables and fish, this will remove much of the salt. 

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