Less Salt, More Health

Did you know that a teaspoon of salt a day is all your body requires? Amazing, isn't it? Compare this with your actual daily consumption of salt and you are in for a shock. Most people take up to about.15 gm of salt a day, whereas doctors recommend 6gms. This means you need to cut down consumption of salt by 50%. Here's how to get about it. Salt has been an ingredient from time immemorial. All foods naturally contain sodium. But it is the extra salt added while cooking that causes the problem.

Food items containing more salt Pickles, pappad, sauces, chutneys, butter, bread, cakes and biscuits contain hoards of salt. The figures are mind boggling. 100gm corn flakes contains 2.5 gm salt while two slices of bread contain ½ teaspoon salt. As for the salt in pickles and sauces, it is more than the salt content in sea water! There is so much salt in ajinomoto too. Two pappads contain 2.75 gm salt. 100 gm pickles and chutneys contain 4.3 gm salt, 10 gm cheese contains 0.25 gm salt. 1 teaspoon ketchup contains 0.2 gm salt and 100 gm wafers contains 2.5 gm salt!

For those with high B.P more salt in your diet can cause heart attacks and paralysis! High B.P termed a silent killer has no symptoms as such. In most cases, usage of more salt is the main contributor to high blood pressure. Using osteoporosis, kidney related problems and even cancer. Talk of using less salt and the immediate response is food is so tasteless without salt. This is a very wrong notion. Reduce the amount of salt added to various dishes and though they seem tasteless the first few days, this will be so only until your taste buds get adjusted to the new taste. Once you are well adjusted you find absolutely no problem.


Some tips to reduce salt Instead of stopping the usage of salt at one go, reduce the quantity slowly step by step. Allow your taste buds to get adjusted to the new taste.

1. Cut short on corn flakes, cheese and samosas and eat more fruits.
2. There is no method to calculate the quantum of salt in preserved foods, hence reduce their intake.
3. Use very little salt when cooking. Masala powders and soya sauces, added to dishes contain plenty of salt.
4. Do not keep salt on the dining table. Sauces taken with food contain lots of salt.
5. While cooking, instead of salt, use black pepper, fenugreek, lemon juice, garlic, raw mango, gooseberry, vinegar or curd.
Restaurant and fast foods have a very high content of salt. When eating out, wherever possible request them to serve food with less salt.