High salt intake is harmful for health : Try these tips

High salt intake has been criticized to cause health issues like high blood pressure, water retention, kidney disease and much more. Reduction of sodium, however, poses technical challenges since it plays a role in palatability and safety of food.

Salt in food supply helps in preventing bacterial growth and spoilage of food. It also increases shelf life of food, keeping it fresh for longer.

But, when its content is reduced, both consumer acceptance and palatability of the food decreases. Glutamate, which is a non-essential amino acid, is used to enhance taste and palatability of the food. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the most important glutamate and flavour enhancer, which can reduce overall sodium level in foods while maintaining their palatability.

Sodium in MSG is about 12%, which is one-third of sodium content in table salt-which has 39% sodium.

Deficiency of sodium is rare, but it can occur in people after excessive vomiting or diarrhea or in athletes who consume excessive amounts of water, or in people who fast regularly on juice and water.

Results of the study show that if glutamate were used as a salt substitute in products like meats, frozen foods and soup, every one in the US, who is old than one 1 year of age will benefit from reduction in sodium.

The high salt intake is harmful for you, in more ways than you can imagine. People with high blood pressure are specifically required to include less sodium in their diet. You can replace it by adding a variety of other herbs and spices to add flavour and taste to your food.

There are a variety of healthy salt alternatives, that are delicious to taste, easily available and also pocket-friendly. According to the American Heart Association, you should have nothing more than 2300 mg of sodium in a day, and should try to limit it to 1500 mg per day-which is upto 1 tsp.

The best way to reduce your salt intake is by switching to home-cooked food most of the times. It will automatically lower your overall intake.

Health benefits of eating less salt

Eating less salt can offer multiple health benefits. However, this is given the fact that you don’t entirely go off it. Here are some benefits of reducing your salt intake:

It can help in reducing blood pressure: Studies have shown that reducing your sodium intake can lead to small yet significant reduction in your blood pressure.

Reduces risk of cancer: High-salt diet has been linked to certain kinds of cancer and it is thus important to limit your salt intake.

Can improve your diet: For reducing salt intake, you need to avoid processed, packaged and junk food.

This reduces your consumption of harmful adulterants and food preservatives, thus improving your diet quality.