Recently, a number of articles have reported that the amount of sodium intake for a typical urban person is way over the WHO standard of 2,000 mg, which is equivalent to a teaspoon of salt. To reduce the risk of high blood pressure, kidney disease and stroke caused by a prolonged intake of excessive salt, we will now introduce ways of avoiding the “high salt traps” found in daily diets, so that food choices of reduced salt and sodium can be made.

Effects of “High salt diet”

High Salt Traps

Less Salt Campaign

According to World Cancer Institute, it has recently be found out that the reduction of salt intake can reduce the chance of a person suffering from cancer. Please remember that, the more complicated a food item’s processing method is, the higher are the chances of it containing high amount of salt. For example, beef balls will contain more salts than fresh beef, luncheon meat will contain more salt than fresh meat, and smoked salmon will contain more salt than fresh salmon, etc. Although it may not be easy to adopt a low salt diet, we can try some of the recommendations below:

1. Have a high Potassium diet*: apart from balancing the electrolytes within the body, it can lower blood pressure and the chances of stroke
2. Choose foods with fresh ingredients, consume less processed, marinated, smoked, canned, packaged and fast foods
3. Choose natural spices, such as cinnamon, five spice, vanilla, pepper, parsley, onion, garlic, vinegar, lemon juice and the likes to replace soy sauce and salt.
4. When eating out, choose fresh meat to replace beef balls, squid balls, fish balls, fish cakes or wanton dumplings. Do not eat rice with gravy, add less extra sauces such as ginger mesh or soy sauce, and avoid soup with MSG.
5. Look carefully at the nutrition label. Certain food items which is labeled as “no salt” actually means only that there is no additional salt, though there can be a large amount of added MSG. For some food items with “less salt” labeling, such as “Less Salt Luncheon Meat”, there will most likely be a mere 25% reduction of salt, though can still be considered as high salt. As such, in order to purchase genuinely low salt food items, you have to pay extra attention to the nutrition label

*Note:

For people who are suffering from chronic kidney failure, diabetes, or who are taking a certain type of blood pressure medications should not consume too much potassium. This is to prevent having an excessive amount of potassium retaining within your body, which can easily cause problems such as hyperkalemia or irregular heart rate. Please consult your doctor for more details.

DIY Low Salt High Potassium Recipe

Instructions:

1. First, skin and wash purple potato and potato, boil for later use.
2. Remove the skin of banana and cut into cubes, dice the almonds for later use.
3. Cut the avocado into cubes, mesh into paste, add in vinegar and olive oil and stir
4. Add all ingredients (except almonds) into the self-made avocado sauce and stir, sprinkle crushed almonds and ready to serve

Little Tip:

The potassium within fruits and vegetables will not deteriorate due to cooking with high temperature. As such, it is recommended that we should have more fresh fruits and vegetables so as to prevent a loss of potassium due to the freezing process.

References:

Nutrient Data Laboratory of US Department of Agriculture

Centre for Food Safety