Maintaining the right level of salt intake

Salt is a very important ingredient because it adds to the taste of the food, but at the same time salt intake must be properly regulated. According to dieticians, an adult should have no more than 6 grams of salt everyday, but it’s often found that people tend to have about 9.5g of salt a day. This means we are having nearly 60 more salt than what we should have.It’s important to maintain salt intake at the correct levels. This is because if a person eats too much salt, they are more likely to develop blood pressure. People with high blood pressure are three times more likely to develop heart disease or stroke than people with normal blood pressure. When most people think of salt, they think of shaking it on their food, or adding a pinch to cooking. But the salt we add ourselves makes up just a quarter of the salt we eat. Three-quarters (75) comes from processed food, such as some breakfast cereals, soups, sauces, biscuits and ready meals. Salt is made up of sodium and chloride. And it's the sodium in salt that can be bad for your health. Here a few tips on how you can regulate your slat intake. When buying processed foods, such as soups and ready meals check on the label to see if it contains any added salt or sodium. If so then avoid the package. You could try cutting down on salty snacks such as crisps and nuts. Try to avoid heavily salted foods such as bacon, cheese, pickles and smoked fish. When buying tinned vegetables, pulses and fish look for packages that specify “No Salt Added”. This is better for your health. At the time of cooking reduce the amount of salt you add to your food. If you are in the habit of adding salt to your food before eating, stop doing this. Taste the food and then add as little as possible.Choose lower-salt stock cubes, make your own stock, or add herbs and spices for flavor instead when making soups. Cut down on sauces, such as cooking sauces, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, brown sauce and ketchup because these are usually very high in salt. Keeping salt intake at an optimum will regulate your eating habits into becoming one which is healthy for you in the long run.

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