We all hate retaining water weight. It makes us look rounder and softer, even if we’re in good shape. Hard muscles are hidden under a few soft pounds of water weight, and one of the biggest reasons we retain is the excess of salt most people eat in their diet.
Unfortunately, there are few things that beat the taste of salt. And even if you’re not particularly in love with the taste, salt is used massively in both cooking and preserving our food. Sodium is also the basic cause for various diseases, ranging from hyperthyroidism to high blood pressure. The American Heart Association actually recommends consuming less than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day – at 2,325 milligrams per teaspoon that is less than ONE teaspoon of salt per day.
Sodium is the main element you can find in salt, but you can also find it in a lot of other herbs we use in our cooking. Many spices can act as salt alternatives or salt subtitutes. Things like pepper, garlic, ginger, basil, and cardamom can work as new flavor profiles and good subtitutes for your cooking.
Salt Substitues
To start with is probably the most obvious choices; onions and garlic. Raw or cooked, nearly any savory dish can be eaten with these. Onion as a vegetable is known for its strong pungent taste. However, when using as a salt alternative, make sure that you use it wisely as it has a strong and concentrated taste.
Next may surprise you, but lemon juice can be used as a salt substitute. Mostly used by people for cocktails, water, or salad dressing, lemon juice actually adds a taste that’s capable of replacing salt. You can add a squeeze of lemon to salads, steamed veggies, grilled fish and chicke, sauces, or soups. The same goes for other fruits such as lime, orange, tangering, and grapefruits.
Vinegar is also a viable substitute for salt. A cure-all for any flat tasting dishes can be a dash of acid. Eaten with a sauce, salad dressing, marinade, or salsa- vinegars are more widely useful than most people, including myself, have ever guessed. This goes for white basalmic, rice, red wine, white wine, and champagne vinegars.
Rosemary is the final substitute we’ll discuss in this article (though there are many more). It’s an aromatic herb, with a pine like frangrance and should be used sparingly, because it can easily overpower other flavours. It goes great with roasted or grilled meats, bread, pizza, beans, potatoes or egg dishes. On top of that, it can be grown yourself.
At the end of the day, there’s almost too many different substitutes for salt that could go into this article. But it’s worth studying, because while salt in moderation is bad, it’s hard to avoid nearly overdosing on the stuff since it’s in so many of our foods, either in cooking or preservation. The smart step for you is to take the time to, at least once or twice a day, try one of these different flavor profiles instead– for your heart’s sake.
