Patient/caregiver was educated on measures to be considered for compliance with 2-gram sodium diet recommendation as follows:
- Salt is heavily added in snack items, such as, chips, cheese popcorn, crackers, nuts, trail mixes, pretzels, and granola bars, to enhance the flavor. Avoid these high salt content snacks and make choices for healthier & low sodium content snacks, such as, some fresh fruit, roasted nuts without added salt, air-popped popcorn, a cup of yogurt, fresh raw carrots, celery sticks, and roasted chickpeas without added salt.
- Usually store-bought pickles and jalapeno peppers are very high in added extra sodium, to help increase the shelf-life and enhance the flavor. Read through the label carefully and pick the low sodium or salt free versions of pickles and peppers, to be compliant with the limited salt intake recommendation.
- Salt can act as a preservative, increase the shelf life of food items significantly, and so, is liberally added to many frozen meals and canned foods. Always choosing to have freshly prepared meals over frozen can help with reduced salt consumption.
- Avoid all canned vegetables due to their high added salt content. Choose to have your vegetables freshly cut and soups freshly made, to avoid loading yourself with extra salt from canned foods. Even while choosing to pick canned vegetables from the aisle, pick the products with the label, reduced or low sodium.
