Print this pageHow to keep Christmas dinner from raising your blood pressure
19th December
- A Christmas dinner can contain over 15g of salt, or with a little planning, less than your daily maximum of 6g
- Cooking at home this Christmas can be full of festive fun while avoiding the unnecessary salt
- Some shop-bought products are just as low as home-made, so check the label!
Everyone likes to be indulgent at Christmas time, and it’s not just on the day but for the whole of the festive season that we might be treating ourselves to salty food, so our salt intake can really add up and might affect our blood pressure. A Christmas dinner can contain as much as 15.7g of salt, over twice your daily recommended maximum of 6g, but with just a few simple tips and time-savers, your Christmas menu can have up to TEN grams less salt (5.7g of salt); there’s no reason why Christmas should raise your blood pressure. Follow our advice below to see how you can save time and energy AND have a low salt Christmas.
For some foods it’s well worth spending your time on to keep the salt down so for these cook at home, other foods can vary dramatically between brands so check the label, and some foods available to buy are just as low in salt as home-cooked versions so save your time and buy these, these are our time-savers.
Cook at home:
Foods which are best cooked at home as they tend to have a lot of unnecessary salt added when you buy them ready-prepared are
• Vegetables – roasted, mashed or boiled
• Turkey
Check the label:
Similar foods can vary hugely in their salt content so it’s a good idea to check the labels and go for the lower-salt options, these foods include
• Crisps
• Olives - go for black rather than green
• Nuts - go for unsalted mixed nuts or mixed fruit and nut rather than salted
• Smoked salmon
• Cream cheese - supermarket products tend to be lower than branded
• Bread - go for thick rather than thin
• Gravy
• Stuffing
• Mustard
• Bread sauce
• Cheese - go for cheese with fruit in
Time-savers:
There are a number of foods which are low in salt or don’t typically vary between brands so you can save your time and buy these foods (bare in mind it’s always wise to check the label though) These are
• Yorkshire puddings
• Cranberry sauce
• Pigs in blankets (sausages wrapped with bacon) – these are salty but shop-bought options don’t tend to be any higher than home-made.
• Christmas pudding
• Custard
• Biscuits for cheese
The menus below demonstrates how a little planning can cut the salt in your Christmas Dinner by 10g
| High Salt Christmas Menu | Salt (g) per portion | Low Salt Christmas Menu | Salt (g) per portion |
| Pre lunch snacks | 2.2 | Pre lunch snacks | 0.5 |
| Sherry / Champagne | 0 | Sherry / Champagne | 0 |
| Salt & Vinegar Crisps e.g. Kettle Ridge Crisps | 0.7 | Lightly Salted or no added salt crisps e.g. Kettle Chips | 0.2 |
| Green Olives | 0.8 | Black Olives | 0.3 |
| Salted Peanuts | 0.7 | Unsalted Mixed Nuts or Nuts and Dried Fruits | Trace |
| Starter | 3.38 | Starter | 2.12 |
| Smoked Salmon | 2.55 | Smoked Salmon | 1.67 |
| Kraft Light Philadelphia | 0.3 | Supermarket Light Soft Cheese | 0.18 |
| Thick Sliced bread | 0.53 | Medium Sliced bread | 0.27 |
| Main meal | 8.87 | Main meal | 2.24 |
| Prepared, Basted Turkey Breast Joint | 0.79 | Home-cooked Roast Turkey | 0.3 |
| Pork Cocktail Sausages | 0.48 | Ready-prepared Pigs in Blankets | 0.45 |
| Dry Cured Streaky Bacon | 0.60 | ||
| Ready-prepared Roast Potatoes e.g. Essential Waitrose (Frozen) | 1.03 | Home-made Roast Potatoes | Trace |
| Ready-prepared Parsnips | 0.43 | Home-made Roast Parsnips | Trace |
| Ready-prepared Brussels Sprouts | 0.8 | Home-cooked Brussels Sprouts | Trace |
| Ready-prepared Mashed Carrot and Swede e.g. Aunt Bessie's Carrot & Swede Perfectly Mashed (Frozen) | 0.8 | Home-made Mashed Carrot and Swede | Trace |
| Sausage Meat Stuffing | 1.38 | Vegetarian Stuffing e.g. Cranberry & Bramley Apple Stuffing | 0.47 |
| Aunt Bessie's 12 Irresistible Yorkshires (Frozen) | 0.3 | Supermarket Yorkshire Puddings (Frozen) | 0.1 |
| Poultry Gravy e.g. Tesco (Fresh) | 1.1 | Poultry Gravy e.g. Waitrose (Fresh) | 0.27 |
| Colman's Bread Sauce Mix | 0.72 | Marks & Spencer Bread Sauce (Fresh) | 0.33 |
| Cranberry Sauce | 0.03 | Cranberry Sauce | 0.03 |
| Colman's English Mustard | 0.42 | Essential Waitrose English Mustard | 0.25 |
| Dessert | 1.22 | Dessert | 0.88 |
| Christmas pudding | 0.3 | Christmas pudding | 0.3 |
| Fresh Custard | 0.1 | Fresh Custard | 0.1 |
| Stilton e.g. Sainsbury's Creamy Blue Stilton | 0.62 | Cheese with fruit in e.g. Sainsbury's Yorkshire Wensleydale With Apricot | 0.28 |
| Crackers or Biscuits For Cheese | 0.2 | Crackers or Biscuits For Cheese | 0.2 |
| Total Salt Content | 15.67 | Total Salt Content | 5.7 |
Photography by jannoon028, http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2337