Body Care Kits

20 Tips on how to Reduce Salt Intake

Food industry experts suggest ways to reduce the salt in your life while eating in and out.
Contributors are Mr Sebastian Goh, head chef from Szechuan Court, Raffles The Plaza; Mr Thomas Laberer, executive chef from Hilton Singapore; Ms Nehal Kamdar, dietitian from Raffles Hospital; and Ms Yeap Cheng Guat, executive director of Cedele by The Bakery Depot.

Eating In

1. Season foods with herbs, lime, lemon or grapefruit juices, spices and fresh chilli instead of salty seasonings such as stock cubes and soya sauce.
2. Salt is the most common food preservative in tinned foods such as tuna, sardine, herring, salmon and mackerel, so rinse thoroughly before you cook with them or eat them.Put the contents in a sieve and run water over the fish if it is the flaky variety.
3. Salt's function is to enhance flavour, but it should be added carefully. As water evaporates and the juices reduce, the flavour of salt intensifies. So add salt at the end of the cooking.
4. Taste the food before adding salt. Your taste buds change over time and get used to less salt.
5. Use fresh, frozen or unprocessed foods when possible.
6. Limit your intake of salt-laden cakes, biscuits and commercial bakery products to twice a week. Baked goods are often made by adding baking soda, which has 1,259mg of sodium per teaspoon.
7. Limit intake of obviously salty foods such as potato chips, salted nuts, preserved fruits and cheese-flavoured snacks.
8. Make broth from a chicken you cook at home to use as stock, rather than buying canned, powdered or bouillon stock cube.
9. If you are phoning for a pizza delivery, choose vegetable or chicken toppings instead of salt-heavy pepperoni, bacon or extra cheese.
10. Roast vegetables such as red peppers, courgettes, parsnips and squash to bring out their flavour.

Eating Out

1. Taste the food on your plate before adding sauces or salt.
2. Try not to eat out too often as restaurants, hawker centres and fast-food restaurants usually use large amounts of salt in cooking.
3. For working people, take a packed lunch from home at least four times a week. By not eating out, you can control your salt intake.
4. For dishes that are cooked to order, request less or no salt, MSG and sauces. Alternatively, you can ask for the sauce or salad dressing to be served on the side.
5. Go for plain cooked food like plain rice instead of fried or chicken rice; plain green salad without dressing instead of pre-made coleslaw; and steamed fish instead of sweet and sour fish.
6. Avoid dipping foods into salty sauces like soya sauce and chilli sauce.
7. If a dish tastes excessively salty, send it back.
8. Learn to recognise high-sodium dishes, which means anything with the following descriptions: pickled, smoked, soya sauce, teriyaki sauce, barbecued or broth.
9. Go easy with condiments on burgers and sandwiches. And opt for sandwich fillings such as chicken salad or salmon instead of salty ham or cheese.
10. Enjoy salads with a twist of lemon or a splash of vinegar rather than with salad dressing.

Labels: healthy food, reduce salt intake, salt, salt intake, tips