Limiting ultra-processed foods, restaurant meals, and fast foods is the best way to decrease your daily sodium intake, Dr. Wood says. However, prepared foods tend to be more convenient and less expensive than other options, so getting rid of these meals altogether might not be feasible for every American.
When buying packaged and frozen foods, Dr. Wood suggests comparing labels and choosing the item with the lowest amount of salt. Often, companies will specifically make low-sodium versions of foods like crackers or potato chips to cater to individuals looking to lower their salt consumption. When cooking frozen meals, like pastas or stir-fries, “add in a bag of unsalted frozen vegetables,” Dr. Wood says. “Per volume, the amount of salt in the dish will effectively go down.”
Canned products like beans generally have a lot of added salt, so pouring them into a colander and rinsing away the salty liquid can help reduce total sodium, too.
For people cooking at home, “I encourage them to use salt, because it really does improve the flavor of their food. Then, they’ll be more likely to eat more of this home-cooked food, which is generally better than processed food,” Dr. Wood says. “But knowing that most people eat too much salt, the recommendation is, basically, to be judicious.”
To reduce the amount of salt added to home-cooked meals, Dr. Wood has a few different recommendations. First, salting a dish at the end instead of throughout the cooking process can make a dish taste good without being too salty. “Food that has salt on top of it ends up right on your tongue, and you can get away with using less salt overall,” he says.
Next, he advises increasing the use of spices and herbs in a dish. All of these seasonings, including clove, thyme, sage, and oregano, are tasty and packed with healthy antioxidants—a “win-win,” he says. People who don’t have kidney disease and are not at high risk of having too much potassium in their diet can also substitute potassium chloride for sodium chloride. Potassium chloride is a low-sodium salt alternative that has a salt-like taste but with a slightly metallic flavor. Replacing just a portion of the salt in a recipe can prevent the entire dish from being too bitter.
Lastly, a common cooking error Dr. Wood often sees is the failure to add acids, such as vinegar or citrus juice, to meals.
“Acid tickles the same taste buds as your salt receptors on your tongue,” Dr. Wood says. “Most people don’t use any acid unless it’s naturally occurring, like in tomatoes, for instance. But most dishes benefit from a little bit of citrus juice or vinegar. So that’s a big one.”
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