Reducing Sodium Without Reducing Taste
Most Americans have a total sodium intake that is far in excess of what the American Heart Association recommends, which is a maximum of 2300 mg, or 2.3 grams, per day. And avoiding the salt shaker isn’t the fix you might think it is. Many packaged foods, fast food, and even sit-down restaurant foods are heavily salted. In fact, without looking at the nutrition label of everything you eat, you may be surprised to learn the saltiest foods are actually the ones you might least expect.
A diet with too much sodium has been linked to high blood pressure, increased risk of stroke, heart disease, and even stomach cancer, kidney stones, and accelerated bone deterioration. Unfortunately, almost everything on the planet we eat will have at least some sodium. Spinach, broccoli, and milk all have small amounts of naturally occurring sodium, but the truly worst offenders are processed and packaged foods. For the average American, nearly three quarters of total sodium intake comes from packaged, prepared, or restaurant goods. Even more frustratingly, many of the foods with off the chart sodium levels do not taste salty at all. It may surprise you to learn that an ounce of salted peanuts contains just 115 mg of sodium, but a serving of instant chocolate pudding contains around four times as much.
Salted foods like peanuts, pretzels, popcorn and the like taste the saltiest because the salt coating the outside hits your tastebuds first and signals to your brain the taste of salt. But many foods mask the sodium by cooking it in the food, or covering it with other flavors, keeping you from registering it as salty. You could eat your daily allowance of sodium, and much more, without once tasting any salt. This is why it is very common to take in more salt than you think you are.
The American Heart Association has listed six foods they call the “salty six”, the biggest offenders in causing people to eat too much sodium without knowing. They are:
- Bread and rolls
- Pizzas
- Sandwiches
- Cold cuts and cured meats
- Soup
- Burritos and tacos
The good news is there are a number of things you can do to reduce your overall sodium intake. When dining out, you can ask your server to recommend you the low sodium options. There are also a number of words on a menu that usually mean higher sodium, such as pickled, cured, soy sauce, smoked, teriyaki.
Canned foods, even vegetables, are almost always packed in salt water. By draining, and then rinsing beans, corn, and other veggies, you can wash out up to 40% of the sodium levels.
Food labels are a source of much vital information, and if you’ve never paid attention to them before, you may be surprised to learn how much salt most packaged foods contain. Switching to low-sodium versions of premade or canned food when available is a great start, and when it’s not obvious, checking the labels of competing products can help you to find the one with the least sodium.