How Do You Limit Salt Intake?

[Chief Pagan]

Restaurant food tends to be very salty as does any sort of processed food you eat at home. Some things are pretty obvious, like potato chips and French fries. Other things not so much. Bread tends to have a lot of salt in it.

I'm not paranoid about it, but I think it would be healthier (over a lifetime) to reduce salt consumption. The frustrating thing is once you get used to a low salt diet, it tastes fine (and the amount of salt in many processed foods makes them taste yucky). I went about a year eating [almost] only low salt foods that I fixed myself. It is a real pain and tends to be anti-social (unless you are living with other students on a similar diet).

The vegan crowd tends to have a lower salt diet, but you can buy your own meat and prepare it without salt.

I also find that I can substitute spices for salt. For instance, if I make pasta sauce at home, I get no salt added tomato paste. Instead of adding salt, add more oregano and little bit of cayenne spice and you don't even know that it doesn't have salt in it.