Everybody should get used to no-salt cooking; even if our gluttony leads us to spicy and salty dishes we should really try to diminish the amount of salt added to food.
Indeed the excessive amount of salt inour diet isassociated to different cardiovascular diseases (a New England Journal of Medicine study proves that more than 1,500,000 people die of heart disease). But still salt consumption is too high. In the USA in 2010 the average daily sodium intake was of 3,95gr (equivalent to 10gr of salt) twice the amount recommended by OMS (2gr per day); this could badly affect our blood pressure.
Everybody should lower salt intake, not just those suffering from hypertension; women in particular ought to be careful because salt is related to water retention, which causes cellulite. No-salt, or low salt cooking doesn’t mean unsavoury food: it’s all about learning a correct and healthy diet but we don’t have to give up the taste of food!
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For example, if you don’t want to eliminate salt, one good choice is unrefined salt: it keeps intact its properties, while iodizedsalt provides for the lack of iodine typical of the areas far from the sea.
The best no-salt cooking tips
A smart trick to add savour to your food is to substitute salt with one of these ingredients:
- gomashio
- hot pepper
- ginger
- saffron
- curry
- sesame
Learning to cook with herbs and spices allows lowering the amount of salt; herbs like basil, parsley or sage can be combined with spices in order to bring out the flavour of food and satisfy the palate.
You should try marination to dress vegetables: allows reducing the use of salt adding the palatable taste of lemon or vinegar to small pieces of food.
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Edible seaweed (kombu, wakame, agar agar, nori) can be another useful device to season soups and cook legumes keeping an eye on the amount of salt; they contain important nutrients like mineral salts, vitamins and antioxidants as well.