TCS Wellness Articles

Why follow a sodium restricted diet?

A sodium restricted diet, or a low salt diet, will help you manage your high blood pressure. It will also help you prevent water retention which might be due to some medications or to certain medical problems (kidney, liver, heart disease, etc).

If you follow this diet strictly, your sodium intake will be less than 2000 mg per day, as recommended by doctors.

Food tips

• Avoid adding salt during cooking. Keep in mind that each teaspoon of salt by itself contains 2300 mg of sodium.
• Keep salt shakers away from the table.
• Replace salt with other flavors such as herbs, spices, onion powder, garlic, onion, lemon and vinegar to flavor food instead of salt.
• Read food labels carefully searching for salt, sodium chloride, monosodium glutamate, or brine.
• Avoid using salt substitutes without consulting your doctor. They might be medically contraindicated.
• Use fresh, frozen, no-added-salt canned vegetables, low-sodium soups, and low-sodium lunchmeats.

Health tip

If you are suffering from high blood pressure and you are overweight, you will need to decrease your weight and decrease the salt intake in your diet.

Here’s what to eat and what to avoid

Bread & cereals	Choose	Instead of
	Whole, wheat and white bread, dry & cooked cereals, unsalted crackers, breadsticks & homemade breadcrumbs. Rice, pastas, cracked wheat.	Bread rolls and crackers with salted toppings. Markouk bread. Biscuit mixes and commercially. Prepared rice and pastas. Quick breads made with baking powder or baking soda such as: Biscuits, muffins, and waffles. Mana’eesh and pizza.
Milk products and cheese	Milk (low fat). Yogurt(low fat). Low-salt white cheeses. Unsalted labni (strained yogurt)(low fat). Ice cream(low fat).	Malted and chocolate milk regular salted cheese. Cheese spread and processed cheese.
Meat, poultry, and fish	Fresh or frozen meat, poultry and fish. Eggs.	Smoked, cured, salted or canned meat, fish, or poultry including cold cuts, ham, sausages, tuna and canned sardines. Commercially breaded meat, poultry, and fish.
Fruits & Vegetables	All fresh, frozen or canned fruits. All fruit & veggie juices. All fresh ,frozen, and low-salt canned vegetables.	Canned and pickled vegetables. Commercially prepared vegetable mixes. Canned tomato paste. Canned vegetables juices.
Fats &others	Oils. Low-salt salad dressing. Low salt peanut butter. Low salt condiments (low slat ketchup, chili sauce or mustard). Garlic and onion powder, herbs, spices. Lemon and vinegar. Unsalted seeds, nuts, popcorn and chips. Home prepared unsalted thyme (zaatar).	Salted salad dressings. Olives Regular ketchup, mustard and commercial sauces(steak sauce, barbecue sauce, regular and light soya sauce). Canned and dry soups, bouillon. Salted crackers, seeds and nuts, popcorn, chips and pickles. Commercially prepared thyme (zaatar) and kishek.

References:

"Sodium Restricted Diet." Guidelines for a Low Sodium Diet. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
"Sodium Restricted Diet." Your Sodium-Controlled Diet. N.p., 15 Feb. 2016. Web. 28 Sept.2016.