'Falta o sal’ – my mum’s go to comment whenever I cooked her a meal. ‘It needs more salt’
When I started working at Action on Salt, I became immediately aware how much salt I had unknowingly been eating, and the damage it would potentially do to my health. 
I say unknowingly, because, well, it’s just that. There were no visible side effects and as I was in my 20’s my blood pressure was ‘normal’. But the damage it can do to us is silent, slowly but surely raising blood pressure[i]and putting us on course to suffer long term.
Most of our salt comes from the foods we buy, and we typically eat a lot more than we should[ii], but, like most, I didn’t think that was the case for my family. At home we cook a lot from scratch and follow a Mediterranean diet - the way to good health, right?
Despite it being one of the healthier lifestyles, rates of heart disease and strokes are still rife in many parts of southern Europe. In Portugal, where my mum is from, the number one cause of death is stroke[iii], a disease that is all too familiar in my family. I soon realised salt had a part to play. Reducing our salt intakes is a sure-fire way to improving our health.
Mum is the main cook of the house, and she prides herself in her abilities (as she should!). Many of her dishes were passed down from her mother, and often come with fond memories of her childhood; the ‘Carne assada’ they would cook on Christmas Day, the ‘Feijoada’ they would make for family gatherings and the ‘Bacalhau à bras’ they would eat on Easter Sunday. Things would have had to be done a certain way, and that included what to season with salt, when and how much. No one ever questioned it, and if anyone found the food too salty, then the problem was likely you and not the food and was easily solved with a glass of water.
Habits are hard to kick, but I knew it was important to start, given our family history. For a while there was resistance to change, but gradually the complaints dwindled and now my family’s love affair with salt has faded. Mum was the hardest nut to crack, but by gradually using less salt all our taste buds have adapted, meaning we need less of it to get the same hit of flavour.
Salt Awareness Week this year is all about ‘More flavour, less salt!’. With most of us spending more time cooking at home and recreating much loved dishes, it may seem as though the only way to add flavour to home-cooked meals is with a big pinch of salt, but there are so many other ways to ensure your food packs a flavoursome punch!
A few tips to break the habit which did the trick for my family:
- Using saltshakers with fewer holes. I find salt just pours out of salt grinders, so we ditched ours and bought one with just 3 holes
- Replacing usual salt with lower sodium salt. Throw out the rock salt (make a fancy salt scrub with it instead) as you often end up using more
- Using half a stock cube
- Soaking salty ingredients like salted cod, in water
- Try different cooking techniques for added flavour - roasting the veg first in herbs adds more flavour to soups
- Resist the urge to constantly taste and season with salt or salty ingredients during cooking. Let sauces and stews simmer for longer so that the sauce is reduced will make the flavour stronger.
- Think about the other ingredients in the dish – olives, cheese, salted cod, chorizo and sauces already have added salt, and that is probably more than enough
- Read food labels and switch to similar foods lower in salt. FoodSwitch is a great app that does just that.
[i] NHS. Salt: the facts. https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/salt-nutrition/#:~:text=A%20diet%20high%20in%20salt,pressure%20do%20not%20know%20it.
[ii] Current salt intakes in England are 8.4g/day for adults. Assessment of salt intake from urinary sodium in adults (aged 19 to 64 years) in England, 2018 to 2019 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-diet-and-nutrition-survey-assessment-of-salt-intake-from-urinary-sodium-in-adults-aged-19-to-64-years-in-england-2018-to-2019
[iii] In Portugal, according to Global Burden of Disease, the number one cause of death in 2019 was stroke, followed, followed by ischaemic heart disease. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for both these conditions http://www.healthdata.org/portugal
