20 Ways To Reduce Salt Intake

Taking too much salt into our body is bad for our health. However, controlling the salt intake is never an easy task, especially for working adults.

The following tips are compiled from a panel of food industry experts including chefs and dietitians. I hope these tips may help us reduce our salt intake while eating in and out.

Eating In
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Tip 1 - Season food with herbs, lemon or grapefruit juices, spices and fresh chilli instead of salty seasonings such as stock cubes and soya sauce.

Tip 2 - Salt in the most common food preservative in tinned foods such as tuna, sardine, herring, salmon and mackerel, so rinse thoroughly before you cook with them or eat them.

Tip 3 - Salt's function is to enhance flavour, but it should be added carefully. As water evaporates and the juices reduce, the flavour of salt intensifies. So add salt at the end of the cooking.

Tip 4 - Taste the food before adding salt. Your taste buds change over time and get used to less salt.

Tip 5 - Use fresh, frozen or unprocessed foods when possible.

Tip 6 - Limit your intake of salt-laden cakes, biscuits and commercial bakery products to twice a week. Baked goods are often made by adding baking soda, which has 1.259 mg of sodium per teaspoon.

Tip 7 - Limit intake of obviously salty foods such as potato chips, salted nuts, preserved fruits and cheese-flavoured snacks.

Tip 8 - Make broth from a chicken you cook at home to us as stock, rather than buying canned powdered or bouillon stock cube.

Tip 9 - If you are phoning for a pizza delivery, choose vegetable or chicken toppings instead of salt-heavy pepperoni, bacon or extra cheese.

Tip 10 - Roast vegetables such as red peppers, courgettes, parsnips and squash to bring out their flavour.

Eating Out
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Tip 1 - Taste the food on your plate before adding sauces or salt.

Tip 2 - Try not to eat out too often as restaurants, hawker centres and fast-food restaurants usually use large amount of salt in cooking.

Tip 3 - For working people, take a packed lunch from home at least four times a week. By not eating out, you can control your salt intake.

Tip 4 - For dishes that are cooked to order, request less or no salt, MSG and sauces. Alternatively, you can ask for the sauce or salad dressing to be served on the side.

Tip 5 - Go for plain cooked food like plain rice instead of fried or chicken rice; plain green salad without dressing instead of pre-made coleslaw; and steamed fish instead of sweet and sour fish.

Tip 6 - Avoid dipping foods into salty sauces like soya sauce and chilli sauce.

Tip 7 - If a dish tastes excessively salty, send it back.

Tip 8 - Learn to recognize high-sodium dishes, which means anything with the following descriptions: pickled, smoked, soya sauce, teriyaki sauce, barbecued or broth.

Tip 9 - Go easy with condiments on burgers and sandwiches. And opt for sandwich fillings such as chicken salad or salmon instead of salty ham or cheese.

Tip 10 - Enjoy salads with a twist of lemon or a splash of vinegar rather than with salad dressing.

By cutting down the consumption of salt, people may reduce lower their chance of high blood pressure, which will ultimately lead to heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular disease.

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