We eat too much salt! According to the RIVM, 85 percent of Dutch people consume more than the recommended daily amount of salt. So we can reduce it a bit. That’s how you do that!
Find out how much salt you actually eat
If you want to cut back, you first need to know how much salt you actually consume. You can find this out by keeping track of what you eat in a day and how much salt it contains. A person should not consume more than 6 grams of salt daily. Will you get over this? Then it’s time to cut back. Also look at what you eat and what contains the most salt, so you can reduce it in a targeted manner.
Don’t reduce the amount you consume too quickly
Changing your eating habits is difficult. So it is best to do this quietly. If you reduce your salt intake extremely from one day to the next, you will never maintain this. So start small and gradually reduce. This way you make the process a lot less difficult for yourself and it seems much more feasible.
Create a sodium budget
Sometimes you just need a salty snack. And there must be room for that. Set yourself a maximum amount of salt you can eat to meet your daily needs. By this we mean food that does not fall under one of the three important meals. So look at how much salt you consume during meals and then look at how much salt you should still consume from snacks. This way, reducing your salt intake can remain fun.
Order sauces separately
We know this isn’t always fun to do, but when you’re eating out it can be very easy to overdo your salt intake. One way to limit this is to ask the waiter if the kitchen can keep the sauce separate for you. Sauces are often full of salt. By ordering the sauce separately, you have control over how much you get.
Read packaging
This is perhaps the most annoying part of this process. Still, it is very useful to know what is in the products before you buy them. This way you can check whether you are not consuming an unnecessary amount of salt from products for which there are alternatives. So look carefully at the packaging and compare products with each other. After a while you get used to your new eating habit and you have successfully cut down.
