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Salt

Salt is commonly used to flavour and preserve foods. In the UK, salt consumption exceeds the amount we require. Too much salt in out diet is linked to increased risk of high blood pressure, stroke and heart attack. Reducing salt intake has been found to reduce the health risks.

Top Tips To Reducing Your Salt Intake:
1. Get looking- read the labels
Guidelines suggest you should have no more than 6 grams of salt/ day.
Sometimes sodium is listed on food labels instead of salt: 1g sodium = 2.5g salt
So, if the label lists sodium, to work out the amount of salt from the sodium content you should multiply it by 2.5.

2. Get cooking- how to cook without salt
When cooking foods, it is important to cut down on the amount of salt that you add to your food. Some traditional African- Caribbean dishes have salt added during preparation or cooking. When making these dishes why not try adding flavour with some of these alternatives:
  • Herbs and spices
  • Pepper
  • Chillies
  • Ginger
  • Cinnamon
  • Lemon juice
  • Vinegar
  • Curry powder (that does not have salt as one of the ingredients)
3. Get Fresh- Eat less processed foods
75% of the salt in our diets is found in processed foods. Natural foods contain much less salt. Try to start switching from some of the processed options to home made or natural alternatives.

Look at the table on this page for some low salt alternatives
Low salt alternatives
check amount of salt in food
'I have started looking at the amount of salt in foods, especially because my partner has high blood pressure'
check amount of salt in food
'I try to buy more fresh foods, they are low in salt'
Taking the family for a takeaway?

Many fast food meal deals include 12 grams salt/ person. This is twice the recommended daily amount for an adult and four times the recommended daily amount for a young child.
Did you know?

A recent study found that people who were trying to reduce salt intake, did so by not adding salt to their food. However, a lot of our salt intake is ‘hidden’ in foods.
©Weight Concern 2007