Looking to reduce salt in your diet for optimal health? Check out these practical reduce salt tips that really work, along with these top 10 low salt recipes.
You’ve probably heard the recommendations to cut back on salt intake because it’s bad for your health, especially for your heart. Eat too much salt and you increase your risk of developing high blood pressure, which can trigger a heart attack or stroke. The real culprit is sodium, which makes up 40 percent of the weight of table salt (sodium chloride). In the U.S., the average sodium intake is about 3,500 milligrams (mg) a day (about 1 ½ teaspoons of salt).
How Much Sodium is in Salt?
| Salt | Sodium |
| 1/4 tsp = | 575 mg |
| 1/2 tsp = | 1150 mg |
| 3/4 tsp = | 1725 mg |
| 1 tsp = | 2300 mg |
Note: tsp=teaspoon, mg=milligrams
How Much Sodium per Day?
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that we limit our sodium intake to less than 2,300 mg a day. Both the Dietary Guidelines and the American Heart Association go even further to recommend that those at risk for heart disease limit their sodium intake further to 1,500 mg a day.
Where’s the Sodium?
The lion’s share of sodium in our diets—about 75 percent—comes from restaurant and processed foods. Salty foods are everywhere in supermarkets and restaurants! It’s easy to find single foods that provide more than 1,000 mg per serving, and restaurant menu items that exceed your daily limit of sodium.
According to the CDC, the top sources of sodium in US diets come from:
- Sandwiches
- Rice, pasta, and other grain-based dishes
- Starchy and non-starchy vegetables
- Meat, poultry, and seafood dishes
- Pizza
- Soups
- Chips, crackers, and savory snacks
- Desserts and sweet snacks
How to Shave Salt from Your Diet
In order to shave sodium from your diet, the number one strategy is to try preparing more food at home, and when you do so, use cooking techniques that influence your perception of salt in foods. For example, roasting or caramelizing (slowly cooking until food becomes brown and sweet, as with onions) foods increases the perception of a salty taste. Umami-rich foods—the fifth category of taste in food, besides sweet, sour, salt, and bitter—like tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms also increase your sodium sensory perception. Beyond that, try a few easy practical tips in the kitchen to reduce salt.
Top 4 Tips to Reduce Salt Consumption
Check out these gradually reduced salt tips in your own kitchen.
1. Choose Larger Crystals of Salt
The type of salt can make a different. Larger crystals (such as kosher, diamond, and sea salt) can have a more dramatic taste on your palate, meaning you don’t need to add as much as you do with plain table salt.
2. Before Adding Salt, Taste It
Decide if your recipe or food really needs added salt before your shake it on. This technique can be very useful for cooking. Start by omitting the salt called for in the recipe, then taste test it. If you think it needs salt, add just a pinch, and retaste. Repeat this process until satisfied, aiming for as little added salt as possible in your recipe. You’ll be surprised at how many recipes don’t really need the addition of salt.
3. Finish Your Recipe with Salt
Instead of mixing salt into your recipe during the cooking process, such as a soup, stew, or casserole, take a lesson from chefs and reserve that salt for finishing your recipe. You’ll get a bigger bang for your buck by dusting the outer surface with just a pinch of salt, as you’ll experience more of that flavor compared to when it dissolves into the matrix of your dish.
4. Get Used to the Taste of Real Foods
Research shows you can train your tastebuds to prefer less salt with practice. Start by trying your favorite recipes without the addition of salt or just a pinch of salt, and observe over time how you start enjoying the natural flavor of foods more and more as time goes by. Try experiencing a vine-ripened tomato, juicy seasonal plum, and roasted spring vegetables without the addition of all that crystalline salty stuff. Let their natural beauty shine through, while gaining more health benefits as a result. You might be surprised how restaurant and storebought foods start tasting very salty!
Top 10 Low Salt Recipes
These recipes call for either no, low, or optional amounts of salt, and provide less than 250 milligrams sodium per serving.
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