Low-salt diet: How to eat less salt

Health authorities have long been warning people to slash the salt in their diets. Yet with restaurant meals and processed foods growing in popularity, the low-salt diet remains elusive. Many of us are consuming more salt than ever - and not just from the salt shaker.

In fact, 75% of the salt in our diets comes from processed foods.

Consuming too much salt is serious business because it's a risk factor for high blood pressure. High blood pressure, in turn, can lead to stroke and heart disease. 

Most British adults consume the equivalent of 9g of salt (3.6g sodium) each day, though we should have no more than 6g salt (2.4g sodium) daily - that’s about one teaspoon.

So how do you go about moving toward a lower-salt lifestyle? One of the best places to start, experts say, is with restaurant meals.

How to follow a low-salt diet when eating out

Since even unprocessed foods such as milk have small amounts of salt, it’s tough to figure out exactly how much salt you're consuming. Eating out makes things even more difficult, since it's hard to know how foods were prepared.

Some of the worst restaurant offenders are fast-food outlets, says registered dietitian Sarah Krieger, a personal chef.

"Fast-food... restaurants have little control over the food because they simply assemble it", rather than cooking from scratch, she says. "So it is harder to request less salt, other than checking the website or asking for a brochure in search of lower-salt options."

Asian restaurants such as Japanese, Thai and Chinese also tend to serve high-salt cuisine, since they use a lot of sauces, chicken stock and soups. Likewise, Italian restaurants often rely on high-salt canned tomato products for their red sauces and use plenty of salt-laden cheese.

If these are some of your favourite restaurants, Sarah Krieger suggests ordering foods as plain as possible and using portion control.

"Ordering wisely and keeping your portions reasonable,” she says, “allows you to scale back on sodium as well as fat and calories."

Sarah Krieger offers these 10 tips to help trim the sodium when dining out:

1. Ask lots of questions to learn as much as you can about the preparation of each food; even a jacket potato may be rolled in salt before cooking. Ask about spices, rubs, marinades and finishing sauces, all of which can be loaded with salt.
2. Frequent locally-owned restaurants where most foods are cooked to order. It may be easier for such restaurants to accommodate requests for less salt.
3. Omit the sauce on your entree, or ask that it be served on the side. For taste without all the sodium, just dip your fork into the sauce, then use it to spear your food (this helps control calories and fat as well as salt).
4. Pass on casseroles and stick to basic foods that are grilled, baked or roasted.
5. Salsa and ketchup may be low in calories and fat but high in salt, so use them sparingly.
6. Taste your food before seasoning and use the salt shaker sparingly.
7. Take along your own low-salt spice mix to flavour your food.
8. Round out your meal with simply prepared fruits and vegetables, which are naturally low in sodium. Ask for steamed vegetables with no sauce, and use a squeeze of lemon to brighten the flavour.
9. Go easy on the cheese, olives, deli meat and croutons in your salad, and ask for salad dressings on the side.
10. Order sorbet or fruit for dessert.