Eating Low Sodium Foods for a Healthier Life:
Use this list of low sodium foods if you are planning for low-sodium diet to maintain your optimal health. Salt is the major source of sodium to the human body. 2.5 grams of salt contains 1 gm of sodium. Sodium is also found in other food products like sodium bicarbonate used for baking recipes and monosodium glutamate used as a flavor enhancer. Excess intake of sodium levels in the body leads to severe health disorders that concern the heart. It leads to high blood pressure otherwise known as hypertension that subsequently leads to heart disease. Excess sodium intake raises the chances of developing stomach cancer. It may elevate side effects on the kidney if there is an existing condition of kidney malfunction. High salt intake also causes retention of water resulting in temporary weight gain thus giving you the bloated feeling.
Apart from salt, sodium is a main constituent of food additives like monosodium glutamate, sodium saccharin (a sweetener), sodium nitrate (a preservative), sodium ascorbate (an antioxidant) and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and in some medicinal drugs like antacids. Sodium concentrations are generally high in processed foods on account of its preservative functions. For ages now salts have been used as a preservative, a flavoring agent, color developer, binder, texturiser and fermentation controlling agent. It is thus added in large varieties of food and consumed by us on a regular basis. The normal allowance of sodium in the average human adult should be 3.7 grams per day. When it exceeds this amount it causes major health issues and is thus has to be curbed to limited quantities in order to lead a healthy life.
There are ways by which you can reduce the daily dose of sodium that your body is subjected to on a regular basis. This requires a lot of knowledge about the right kind of diet and substitution of salt with other foods that enhance the flavor as well as salt.
List of Low Sodium Foods for your Low-Sodium Diet
Following are a list of food sources with lower sodium levels:
Meat products:
All fresh or frozen lean meats, poultry, fish, shellfish, unsalted lean pork, egg whites, water packed tuna, canned salmon without added salt, French beef, lamb are some of the recommended non vegetarian foods for a low sodium diet.
Meat substitutes:
This category includes unsalted nuts and seeds, low sodium peanut butter, dried peas, beans and lentils.
Main course items:
Homemade dishes with less salt and sodium containing additives used are a great way to curb the sodium levels in the body. Most restaurant foods and foods from supermarkets are high on salt content to enhance its flavor or for preservative purposes. It is highly advised to avoid outside food and settle for homemade unsalted soups and broths, low sodium bouillon, salads containing fresh vegetables and with no dressing.
Dairy products:
Inclusion of fat-free or low fat milk especially soya milk, low sodium and low fat cheese, low fat yogurt, unsalted dried curd cottage cheese, unsalted low fat butter and so on are perfect substitutes for dairy products that are otherwise high in sodium.
Herbs:
Dried or fresh garlic, garlic/onion powder (no salt), dill, parsley, rosemary, basil, cinnamon, cloves, paprika, oregano, ginger, vinegar, cumin and nutmeg like herbs should be included in our foods that help enhance the flavor of food thus cutting out the need for salt.
Vegetable:
Celery, carrots, beets, spinach, dried beans, peas and so on are low on sodium. You can also opt for frozen or low-sodium canned products, low-sodium tomato juice and other low-sodium vegetable juices, unsalted potato chips according to their availability.
Bread products:
Whole grains or enriched breads and cereals; unsalted crackers, popcorn, pretzels, breadsticks also constitute the low sodium diet.
Seasonings:
Black, cayenne, or lemon pepper, mustard, chili or hot sauce, pepper, spices, vinegar, lemon juice, ketchup and mustard with no added salt, low-sodium pickles, fresh ground horseradish, hot pepper sauce, garlic and onion powders are good flavoring substitutes to salt.
Fruits:
Almost all fresh fruits and fruit juices are included in this category.
Miscellaneous:
Macaroni, pasta, noodles, rice, barley (cooked in unsalted water), honey, sugar, cereals, club soda, coffee, seltzer water and tea are all low in sodium.
Thus it is essential to adopt a healthy lifestyle by the inclusion of low sodium diet in our day-to-day lives.
There’s an interesting post over at the Health Journal Club that makes the case that people should just not eat anything that wasn’t a food 100 years ago. Gets rid of the aspartame, bleached GM flour, high fructose corn syrup garbage they try to pass off as food these days. If interested you can read on it here : healthjournalclub.blogspot.com
“Health is wealth” is known to all and everyone wants good health. That means no one wants to leave this wealth. So, Let us build a food habit discipline, keep pace with work, rest and or exercise to Achieve good health, The ultimate wealth.