Excessive salt intake is putting you at greater risk for potentially fatal heart disease and stroke according to the WHO. They recently issued fresh guidelines for limiting sodium intake.
On average the Indian diet is high in salt. Forget about pickles and papad, even in your regular cooking, you are using more salt then recommended.
Cutting down on salt is harder than it seems. Our tongues are so desensitized that when we start reducing salt for a week or so we may not taste anything at all. But the good news is that you can re-sensitize your taste buds and enjoy the benefits of good health while still enjoying the food you eat in just 5 days.
Here are three tips to help you:
1. Cut down on deep fried snacks. Chips, namkeen, nachos, etc., have excessive quantities of salt, that's what makes them addictive. Swap them for healthy oil-free baked ones, with low-salt.
2. Pickles and papads are extremely high in salt. You can make fresh pickle at home with low/no-salt with amla, radish, raw mango, etc. If you make papad at home, make zero salt ones, if you're buying, opt for low-salt papads preferably made with whole grains or pulses.
3. Measure and see how much salt you are using. Start reducing from there to the ideal quantities, you can do this by keeping aside a certain amount of salt before you start cooking and use only that much for all your dishes. Add salt at the end of cooking to use less of it.