Nutrition 101: Sodium
Supporting our nutrition goals requires a general knowledge of many key components related to our food choices and methods, as well as how these choices impact the daily nutritional values needed to support a healthy body. As a sustainable nutrition approach, let's open our minds each month to the most important knowledge points for a variety of nutritional components.
One way to improve your heart health and overall diet is to manage your sodium consumption. The great news is that through the use of spices and creative techniques — like meal planning — you can enjoy flavorful dishes and snacks while also helping you save on food expenses. Let's learn more about how sodium impacts our health.
Important Education Takeaways
90% Americans consume too much sodium. We often exceed the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) of 2300 mg per day.
Too much increases your risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke.
65% of the sodium we consume comes from packaged and prepared foods from the store.
25% of our daily sodium intake comes from restaurant foods.
Only 10% of our daily sodium intake comes from home-cooked meals and even salt added at the table.
It is important to make efforts to consume less sodium. Through thoughtful decision making and planning we can adjust our diets to help us reduce our sodium intake.
Eat more fresh foods and homemade meals. Lessen your processed foods and convenience items. Making meals from scratch at home gives you the control over what goes into your food.
Compare food labels and choose lower sodium options when possible.
Limit added sodium coming from the saltshaker and other surprising places like soy sauce, ketchup, and BBQ sauce, as well as salty add-ons like pickles, olives, and cheeses.
Limit restaurant meals and order lower sodium options when you are eating away from home.
Cooking is an investment in your health, as well as your wallet. Streamlining your home meal routine can ease the amount of daily kitchen prep, improving your frequency of eating at home.
Make a weekly meal plan: Look at your schedule each week, plan what meals you might cook and when.
Get the groceries: Know what foods you have on hand, and those that you need to purchase for your weekly meal plan. Designate a grocery shopping day each week to ensure you have everything needed to stay on track.
Prep ahead: Stay ahead of the curve by meal and snack prepping. This may mean washing and chopping produce, making sauces and marinades, or portioning out healthy snacks for the week.
Practice batch cooking: Get in the habit of making larger quantities of food when you are cooking. This way you can cook once but eat two, three, or even four times. This works great for proteins (roasted chicken, grilled salmon, hard boiled eggs), whole grains (oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice), veggies (salads, roasted veggies), casseroles or bakes, and soups or sauces.
Portion and store: Put those leftovers to good use by portioning in clear, air-tight containers and then storing in your fridge or freezer for future use.
Pack to-go: Take homemade meals and snacks to work, to school, or on-the-go. Being prepared with healthy options helps you to stay on track with your nutrition goals instead of turning to salty snacks or fast-food options.
Keep it fresh! Use caution with these typically high sodium foods by choosing their fresh alternatives instead.
Choose fresh or frozen vegetables instead of canned. If canned is what you have on hand, consider draining and rinsing to wash away some of the added sodium.
Roast your own chicken or turkey instead of relying on the deli meat versions.
Eat eggs or Greek yogurt in the morning, as opposed to breakfast meats like bacon, sausage, and ham.
Try homemade pasta sauce or pesto instead of jarred varieties.
Make homemade soups instead of canned or packaged soups.
Make your own salad dressing instead of store-bought.
Create your own taco seasoning blend instead of using the premade packet. This can be done for a variety of pre-made spice blends.
Low sodium doesn’t have to mean low flavor. Find ways to add flavor to your foods without relying on salt or other high sodium condiments.
Start with a few simple DIY items like homemade stock/soups, homemade salad dressings, sauces, marinades, and spice blends.
Herbs & spices: Fresh and dried herbs and spices can add tons of flavor to almost any meal. Learn to make your own seasoning blends such as taco seasoning, garlic and herb, or garam masala.
Oils & vinegars: Extra virgin olive oil, toasted sesame oil, chili oil, apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar, and wine.
Fruits & vegetables: Citrus juice or zest, stone fruits, berries, onions, celery, peppers, and mushrooms.
Sweet & savory: Dijon mustard, honey, maple syrup, and hot sauce.
Recipes
Recipe of the month: Mediterranean Salmon and Greens
As always, this recipe is the showcase of our live taught, virtual cooking class. Our chef and registered dietitian bring the recipe to life as they walk you through food prep, swaps to meet dietary or taste preferences, plus tips and tools to support you being your own healthy chef at home.
Bonus recipe: Vegetable Barley Chicken Soup
From Jamie’s kitchen to yours, our monthly bonus recipes are published on our website and social media the 4th Wednesday of each month. We invite you to browse our recipe collection and come back often to find more flavorful and heart-healthy recipes.
We invite you to join us for the live taught, virtual nutrition classes each month to gather more information on our nutrition topics. This is also an opportunity to ask topic-related questions of our experts as well as connect socially with attendees for idea sharing. As a registered participant for our In the Kitchen program, you receive a few reminders ahead of each scheduled monthly classes, but here’s an easy to remember schedule: Nutrition Education (30-minutes, 2nd Wednesday, 12pm), Cooking Class (up to 60 minutes, 3rd Monday, 12pm).
Contributing authors: Jamie Libera, RD, LD, CCTD, registered dietitian, Providence.