Low Salt Diet

One step to a healthy life is healthy eating, which includes maintaining a low-salt diet. Salt, a sodium chloride, is a key ingredient in food. It adds flavor, enriches color and is an important part of any seasoning. It is difficult to imagine food without the taste of salt. Salt helps nerves and muscles work properly. It also helps to transmit nerve signals and balance body fluids. However, salt is also a major contributor to high blood pressure. High intake of salt can have many negative health effects, such as hypertension, osteoporosis, kidney failure, stomach cancer, and other heart diseases.

According to The Food and Drug Administration, 2400 milligrams (mg) is the ideal salt intake per day for a healthy adult. On the other hand, people with heart disease and high blood pressure should cut down salt consumption to 1500 mg daily. It’s not easy to reduce the salt intake as our taste bud will not like it. But, we can control the consumption of salt by many other ways, such as:

• We should avoid eating processed and preserved food, like chips, cheese, salted nuts, pickles, etc. as it contains high-level of sodium and can increase the salt intake by almost double.
• Start adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet. Fruits and vegetables generally don’t have a lot of sodium and are good for health.
• Instead of adding salt to your food, use olive oil or balsamic vinaigrette. Add more herbs and fresh spices to your food which would reduce the intake of salt.
• Choose foods with high potassium, such as potatoes, yoghurt, green leafy vegetables, fish, squash, and more. Potassium counters the impact of sodium and help regulating body blood pressure.

The point is, you only can take control of the salt intake. All it takes is the willingness to do it and a little effort. A recent study has shown, people with high sodium intake have a higher risk of death than people with less sodium intake. Learn to read food labels and ingredient list. Always check the label information on food packages to help you pick the best low-sodium choices.

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