Do you know how much salt you take in each day?
If you have been advised to go on a low salt or low sodium diet and are reluctant to forgo some salty favourites, tracking your daily sodium intake may be the way to go.
Tracking your salt intake can take quite a lot of effort at the beginning but it becomes easier over time. You may find that you only need to track for a short while until you become familiar with the sodium levels of the foods you eat regularly. Many of us eat the same foods regularly and this makes tracking easier.
Once you have tracked a week or a month you can repeat daily menus as needed and only track when you are eating something out of your daily routine.
Combining tracking with the No Added Salt Diet can also make things easier. You can eat the “no added salt” way most of the time but learn how to track your sodium intake so that you can have more flexibility on special occasions, such as eating out or on holiday.
On the other hand, if you prefer to track most of the time you could, once in a while, make a daily meal plan of no added salt foods you like and forget about tracking for the day.
You can track your intake by manually writing down the salt content of what you eat and adding it up, using online website tools or smartphone apps. There is a Weekly Sodium Tracker and a Favourite Foods Sodium Values booklet that you can print out for this purpose.
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