Love eating out? Or just sprinkling a generous helping of salt on your meals at dinner time? Well, you might not want to do that as much anymore. Sodium can cause a lot of potential problems for diabetics, especially when you have a high-sodium diet. Research has found that people with diabetes who eat the highest levels of salt in their diet are two times as likely to develop the complication of cardiovascular disease.

So, cutting back may help you live better and longer without heart problems.

Tips to Cut Out the Salt

It’s surprisingly easy to control most of your sodium intake these days. The majority of salt comes from packaged and processed foods, including fast food. This is because salt is an excellent preservative and adds a lot of flavor. However, it has to go. According to the American Diabetes Association, people should try to limit their salt intake to 2,300 milligrams (mg) daily.

The best thing is to adjust your diet to include more fresh, unprocessed foods prepared at home. This way you won’t be checking the labels on packaged foods to see how much sodium is in the product.

You may also want to consider cutting out bread. Surprisingly, bread is the number one source of sodium in our daily lives. A good alternative is to use low-sodium wraps and lettuce leaves.

Even raw chicken may be an unexpected source of sodium as manufacturers will enhance their meat with a sodium and broth mixture to give it more flavor and plump it up. So, double-check to see if your fresh chicken contains added chicken broth and sea salt.

Salt Alternatives for Your Taste Buds

If you miss the taste of salt, try adding other seasonings to your foods. There are many ways to give your food a punch of flavor, such as adding:

• a squeeze of lemon or lime juice
• a dash of vinegar
• some cooked onion or garlic
• some minced fresh herbs

You can even add some seasoning mixes that are low in sodium, such as lemon pepper, mesquite flavor, and some popular herb and spice seasonings.