Tips for reducing your salt intake

If you would like to reduce your salt intake, it’s helpful to have a general idea of how much salt there is in various foods.

Experts recommend eating less than 6 grams (about 1 teaspoon) of salt per day. The following table shows the amount of salt in various foods:

It is not easy to make long-term changes to your eating habits – after all, eating is one of life’s pleasures. The following tips could help you to make changes to your diet:

• Season with herbs: Low-salt food doesn’t necessarily have to be bland. You can season it with fresh or dried herbs instead.
• Gradually reduce your salt intake: How good something tastes to you is partly a matter of what you're used to – so it's often easier to gradually reduce the amount of salt you use over a few weeks instead of doing it all at once. That makes it easier to get used to the natural flavors and not feel like something is missing.
• Choose low-salt alternatives: You can simply compare the salt listed on packaged foods.
• Prepare healthy snacks: Many people like eating snacks like pretzels, salted nuts or potato chips when they watch TV, for example. These foods are not only very salty, but they are high in calories as well. Low-salt, low-calorie alternatives include unsalted nuts, fresh fruit skewers or freshly sliced vegetable sticks (carrots, celery or bell peppers) with a yogurt or sour cream dip.
• Use potassium (low-sodium) salt: You can also lower your blood pressure by switching to low-sodium potassium salt. It is a special diet salt that replaces part of the table salt (sodium chloride) with potassium salt (potassium chloride). Potassium salt is more expensive than conventional table salt, though. Switching to potassium salt can prevent complications of high blood pressure. But talk to your doctor first if you have kidney disease or are taking medications that affect your potassium levels.