Put down that salt shaker!

Old habits can be hard to break. One of the hardest can be lowering your salt intake. It’s all too easy to get used to the current salt content of food (and even drinks, condiments and sauces) without even noticing it. However, if your caree is on a low-salt diet, their doctor has probably already made you aware of how important following said diet is. Read on to see how you can help them adhere to it painlessly.

Preparing foods at home

One of the places that people don’t realize they’re getting excess salt from is restaurants. It’s often used in the preparation process; then, diners add more salt to their food once it reaches the table. There’s only one sure way to know how much salt goes into your caree’s food, and that’s to prepare it at home. Of course, there may be nothing wrong with eating out once in a while, but home meal preparation is an excellent first step in a low (or no) salt diet.

Fresh is best

In addition to restaurants, many processed foods contain a great deal of salt. Again, this is before it even reaches the table, where the recipient may add more. Try to focus on fresh foods in your cooking, or use processed foods labeled “low salt.”

Seasoning reasonably

Salt isn’t the only way to make meals interesting. Try experimenting with your caree’s meals by using different foods and spices (fresh or dried). A reasonable amount of another type of seasoning may make carees forget that a dish is missing salt at all.

Use a taste test

Are you sure that dish you just prepared needs salt? Is your caree sure? Sometimes, people are so used to automatically adding salt that they don’t realize it isn’t needed. Encourage your caree to taste their food to test whether salt is really required. If they say it is, be sure to add the minimum necessary to flavor the dish.