Fara 13 March 2009 General Health, Healthy Eating 143 views One Comment/Trackback Print This Post  Email This Post

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Reducing salt – Low sodium diet to prevent diseases

Less sodium means only one thing, a much healthier body and mind. But salt isn’t at all entirely bad. This is because salt indeed is part of the minerals that our body needs – but only in a very small amount.

What happens when we cross that small amount borderline?

Well, that is when many kinds of health problem existed. Most common problem a person may face due to consuming too much of salty foods is dehydration. Yes, bad news for women, too much of normal salt (or what we called ‘table salt’) can cause minor dehydration of the skin.

Other scary facts due to overdosing on sodium are higher risk of heart diseases and elevated blood pressure. Salt is almost a no-no for most high blood pressure and diabetic patients.

Few ways that can help you in reducing the amount of salt used in your diet is by:-

• Consume less of junk and fast foods. These foods are top-ranked for foods high with sodium level and if consumed regularly (just like we do our staple foods), it is almost a guarantee that diseases will come by just as fast. Other than that, you might as well too take less of canned foods, frozen foods, foods with high ingredient of additives, MSG and coloring. The perfect examples are such as salty plums and fish which is incredibly high with sodium level.
• Read the label of the food before buying it. It is not only the calories that you should know but the sodium level as well.
• Minimized and make yourself a limit for the use of taste enhancer such as soy sauce (which contains a considerable amount of salt), ketchup and chili sauce, oyster sauce, fermented beans, shrimp paste and many other examples in your cooking.
• Instead, you may substitute the ingredients mentioned above with multiple choice of spices like garlic, pepper, herbs and many other healthier alternatives. Of course, the taste would be a whole lot different than usual but close up the gap by experimenting with various herbs combination to satisfy your own taste bud, in a healthy way.

Of course, the main point is not to avoid salt once and for all. There are good things about salt that works for the body. It is just that with our current eating style, it is more likely a person tends to over-consumed salt rather than lacking it. Since our body only need small amount of it, maybe we all should consider watching the intake starting from today onwards.

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