Get the Salt Out (6 page)

11
Do not eliminate salt cold turkey.
Getting the salt out of your diet too fast and too drastically can stress the heart and be harmful. Better to substitute unrefined forms of salt for common table salt and …

12
Gradually cut the salt you use in cooking.
First, try reducing the salt in a recipe by one-quarter or one-half. Continue to reduce the salt each time you make the recipe until you eventually use little or no salt in cooking.

13
Add salt to foods
after
cooking for better flavor.
Salt added before or during cooking never tastes as salty as salt that is added after cooking. The flavor dissipates in the cooking process. Make the salt you
do
use go further by adding it later.

14
If you crave salt,
it’s a likely sign that your adrenal glands, which help you deal with stress, are tuckered out. That’s
at least what Douglas Hunt, M.D., says in his book
No More Cravings
(Warner Books, 1987). If “stressed out” sounds like you, you need to strengthen those adrenal glands by being especially good to yourself, learning to relax, and paying particular attention to the tips in the sections Nutrient Necessities and Dealing with Stress in
chapter 10
. (This advice can’t hurt even if you don’t have weakened adrenals.)

15
According to Chinese medicine, salt cravings
can be the body’s attempt to balance too much sugar or alcohol in the diet. Cut down on sugar and alcohol to make it easier for you to get the salt out of your diet and to improve your health in general.

16
An exaggerated appetite for salt
can sometimes be a symptom of impending hypertension as well as an important contributing factor. Have your blood pressure checked regularly no matter what you eat, but especially if you can’t seem to taste salt well and tend to use lots of it on your food.

17
Be sure to get enough sleep and rest.
This is a simple but frequently forgotten prescription for health that can make reducing salt in the diet much easier. It also can help hold salt cravings at bay. You see, when your body is tired, it wants energy. Salt can temporarily increase the metabolism of a tired body, which is why you may crave or even binge on salty foods when you’re fatigued. Unfortunately though, salt does not correct the exhaustion you may feel. The only solution is to give your body proper, balanced nourishment and adequate rest.

18
Eat more meals at home,
where you can oversee the ingredients. When you make simply prepared meals at home, you can avoid the unnecessary salt and sodium that are often hidden in restaurant food.

19
Remember this: a liking for salty food is one of the easiest eating habits to get over.
According to Andrew Weil, M.D., author of
Natural Healthy Natural Medicine
(Houghton
Mifflin Company, 1990), reducing salt in the diet is much easier to do than reducing fat or sugar. Dr. Weil says that many humans have a “fat tooth” in addition to a sweet tooth as a legacy of evolution, but our liking for high amounts of salt is a learned behavior that we can easily unlearn.