This was taken from beachbody's newsletter:
Shake the shaker. How many times have you seen yourself or someone you know be served a plate of food and mindlessly begin salting it, before even tasting it? I know I've been guilty of it. I love salt and can think of few meals that couldn't be improved by adding salt. But at least taste your food first before you add salt—especially in restaurants, where, for top chefs to fast-food flippers, salt is often the secret ingredient, and adding more of it is probably unnecessary. If you do think it needs a little salt, shake a little salt into the palm of your hand, so you can at least eyeball the amount you're going to eat (not to mention that it'll save your dish from the old unscrew-the-top-of-the-salt-shaker prank). At home, think about dumping the salt shaker and switching to a saltcellar. A saltcellar is a little covered bowl that holds salt. That way you can visually measure a little pinch and not shake out an unknown amount over your food. You might also consider switching to sea salt, or for the gourmets, one of the fancier fleur de sel products on the market. Sea salts generally contain trace amounts of minerals like iron, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and/or zinc. This doesn't boost the nutritional profile of sea salt (try nutritionals like ActiVit® or Core Cal-Mag™ for effective mineral supplementation), but it offers a more complex flavor, which may make less taste like more.
Take processed meats out of the process. I'm devastated to say that this includes bacon. Just two delicious slices contain about 400 milligrams of sodium. One beef hot dog contains 600 milligrams of sodium (a quarter of the recommended daily allotment) and a turkey dog is only a little less salty, at 500 milligrams. One slice of bologna gets you about 300 milligrams of sodium. Most turkey breast lunch meat is as salt-heavy as bologna. And if it's labeled "smoked," "oven-roasted," "mesquite-flavored," etc., it's usually code for "extra salty." Try looking for low-sodium varieties, or save money by roasting your own whole turkey breast so you can control the salt content.
Soup's off. Soup is a great low-calorie meal or snack. Unless it's a creamy variety, it's usually low in fat and a good vegetable delivery system. But watch out for the salt content! One cup of Campbell's® Chicken Noodle Soup contains 1,780 milligrams of sodium. That's almost three-quarters of your recommended daily maximum. Their Healthy Request® version is better. A cup of that has 940 milligrams of sodium. You might think about making your own chicken broth from scratch using fresh vegetables for flavor instead of salt. Make a big batch and freeze it or can it for later.
Freeze out the frozen dinner. Men's Health® magazine recently published a survey about some of America's saltiest foods and found that Swanson® Hungry-Man® XXL Roasted Carved Turkey packed a whopping 4,480 milligrams of sodium. That's approaching 2 days' worth of the maximum recommended allowance. It also has 1,360 calories and 70 grams (more than a day's worth) of fat, so there're plenty of reasons not to eat this dish. But several of the lean frozen meals on the market also contain high levels of sodium to make up for the lack of fat or sugar for flavor. And frozen pizza? Fuhgeddaboutit! Two slices of pepperoni will run you about 1,000 milligrams of sodium.
Can the canned vegetables. Or at least the ones that aren't low-sodium. Manufacturers add as much as 1,200 milligrams of salt to a can of vegetables for flavor and preservation. Try buying no-salt-added varieties or frozen veggies, which usually have less salt. Or at the very least, make sure to drain the canned veggies well and rinse them in water to try to get some of the salt out.
The usual suspects. I won't even bother depressing you with how much salt fast food restaurants put in their food, even the healthier ones. I found out that a single flame-grilled chicken breast from my much-loved El Pollo Loco® has 617 milligrams of sodium. Adding up the sodium from my sides of pinto beans, mashed potatoes, and trips to the salsa bar, and my "heart-healthy" grilled chicken meal has racked up over 3,300 milligrams of sodium. No wonder I have dry mouth all night when I eat there.
Don't forget to push play and have a shake! :D
~Shayna
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