Reducing Salt in Your Diet
As much as 80 percent of the salt you eat comes from prepared foods. If you eat mostly unprocessed food, you will have more control over your salt intake. Keep in mind that we can "unlearn" our taste for salt. Food that was once salty enough will seem too salty after a short time of reducing salt intake.
Salt Reduction Tips:
- Taste your food before you add salt. It might not need it,
- Don't put salt shakers on your table. Our response to salt shakers is almost a reflex reaction,
- Take your salt out of the original packaging so it's easier to control how much you use,
- Look for "reduced salt" or "low sodium" versions of prepared foods you buy. You can always add salt, but you can't take it away.
I am often asked if sea salt is healthier than regular salt. They basically have the same nutritional value, but differ in texture and taste. There is virtually no evidence that one type of salt is better than the other.
Sea salt is evaporated from seawater and has no additives. Sea salt comes in either fine or coarse grains, and because of its mineral content, the taste is somewhat different from regular salt.
Table salt is mined from mineral deposits. Fine-grained table salt often contains added iodine, which is good for thyroid functions. Some food companies put an anti-caking ingredient in table salt.
Current Research on Salt
According to a report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a recent study of more than 11,000 European men and women found that people who ingested and excreted more salt had higher blood pressure, regardless of genetics. The good news about this study was that a large group of people participated - one criticism was that the hypothesis was reasonable, but only one gene was tested.
Regardless of the genetic question surrounding high blood pressure, your genes are something you can't change. The study proves that salt intake raises blood pressure and you do have control over how much salt you eat. Left untreated, high blood pressure increases the risk of coronary heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. So think twice before you add all that salt to your next meal or Margarita.
Actually, table salt is produced by a) stripping the minerals (for manufacturing of supplements, the real profit), b) heating to 1000 degrees. This product contributes to high blood pressure. Natural salt, on the other hand, is approximately 17% essential trace minerals, and is essential to life. People who cook from natural ingredients and who avoid processed foods can actually be deficient in (good) salt.