One of the triggers for hypertension or high blood pressure in the body is the sodium content of the salt we consume every day. It is true, salt is one aspect of spices that cannot be separated from everyday life, especially from the food you eat. Without using salt, the food consumed becomes less flavorful and tends to be bland and less appetizing. This condition makes it difficult for us to reduce salt intake in our daily food.
Not only is it in the original form of salt, we can easily find salt in various spices and instant flavorings that we commonly use every day. Therefore, adding salt to the dishes that we process every day seems to have become a habit that has been carried out from generation to generation by our parents. Even though some studies have only recommended that a person consume as much as 1/2 teaspoon of grams in the total daily salt intake.
Consumption of too much and excessive salt can cause dangerous diseases to appear in the body, one of which is high blood pressure. This disease is now one of the many diseases that are widely feared because high blood pressure is the cause of death that occurs unexpectedly. For that, avoid the causes high blood pressure reducing salt intake is an important thing to always do.
Benefits of Reducing Salt
There are quite a number of benefits that can be felt when you start reducing salt intake in the body. In addition to avoiding high blood pressure or hypertension, a small amount of salt into your body will also help your body fight various other dangerous diseases such as strokes and heart attacks.
In addition, a study reveals that the amount of salt you consume has a direct effect on your blood pressure so that when you eat too much salt this condition will cause additional water to be stored in the body to increase your blood pressure.
This increase makes the blood pressure in the body abnormal and this condition can trigger great pressure on the heart, kidneys, arteries and also parts of the brain. This is what makes people with hypertension more likely to develop complications of stroke, dementia and even kidney disease.
For this reason, reducing salt consumption in the day-to-day will be able to make you avoid some of the risks of dangerous diseases above. However, we understand that it is not easy to reduce your salt consumption, especially if you are already used to tasting delicious and flavorful foods. For this reason, below we will see what are the tips for reducing salt intake into the body. Also read: 6 False Myths and Misconceptions About High Blood Pressure
How to reduce salt intake in the body to prevent high blood pressure
1. Do not prepare the salt at mealtime
The first thing that needs to be done in order to reduce salt intake into the body is not to provide salt at the table or near you. Often times we can easily adjust the salt content in the food we eat because we see salt is close to you.
When the food you cook feels less salt then you are used to thinking of it as a small thing and can be easily overcome by sprinkling more salt. However, actions like this are certainly not a good thing to do if you are in a program to reduce salt intake.
For this reason, from now on, please reduce your salt intake by not providing salt at the dining table. You can put salt anyway in the spice container. So when you feel less salt, you should stick with the natural taste of the food. In addition, whether you realize it or not, the salt that is placed far away from you will make you reluctant to take it, especially when you are about to eat. This is an advantage and can make you reduce your salt intake better.
2. Be a Smart Consumer
Often we don’t realize that packaged foods actually contain a lot of excessive salt. Even if you don’t taste the food you eat, it doesn’t taste too salty. But actually there is a substance in the form of salt contained in these food ingredients. For that, be a smart consumer by always paying attention to the labels printed on instant food packaging that you buy or eat.
3. Reduce Consumption of Processed Foods
Whether we realize it or not, some processed foods have a high salt content. Even though the food is not salty, the salt content in it can be so much. Some meat processed ingredients such as sausages, steaks, corned beef even use salt as an ingredient to preserve these products. For this reason, reduce your food intake for some of these ingredients properly so you can reduce your salt intake better.
4. Reduce Consumption of Instant Food
Instant food or food made in packages that are sold in the market contains a lot of salt which is so excessive. Several types of food such as instant noodles, chips, canned soup and other food ingredients contain a lot of salt. You need to pay close attention to this so that your efforts to reduce salt intake are destroyed because you are still happy to eat some of the foods mentioned above.
5. Add More Spices
It is difficult to change the taste of food, especially when you reduce your salt intake in it. In addition, salt is generally the main cooking spice that can arouse the appetite of a dish. So that when you reduce your intake of these ingredients, maybe the taste of these foods will be reduced and maybe not as enjoyable as before. Well, to get around this you can replace the salt by including more natural spices such as ginger, kencur, turmeric, galangal, coriander, chilies, candlenuts and many more.
6. Increase the Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables
Foods that are processed with a lot of salt are generally heavy foods such as meat or other ingredients. When you don’t put a lot of salt in it or reduce the size of the salt from the amount it should be, the taste of these foods will tend to be less delicious and not even taste at all.
For this reason, other tips that you can do to get around this are to replace the type of your food ingredients with other ingredients that when you don’t add a lot of salt the taste won’t be much different. For example, like fruits and vegetables, you will be able to process these two foods well without worrying that when you reduce the amount of salt it will affect the taste.
In addition, fruits and vegetables are certainly a healthy diet that will be good for your body. Fruits and vegetables will not give you significant weight gain even when you eat them a lot. For that, there is nothing wrong with starting to replace your food ingredients in healthier and better types.
Those are some tips that can be done to reduce salt intake in the body. Reducing and limiting salt into the body will help you avoid high blood pressure which is dangerous for your health.
