Trade ready-made meals for homemade meals

8 tips to lower your sodium intake

How much sodium are you consuming on a daily basis? If you're like the average Canadian it's probably twice as much as you need. Follow these tips to reduce your salt intake

By Yuki Hayashi

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2. Trade ready-made meals for homemade meals

Convenience foods are guilty of a myriad of nutritional sins, including sky-high sodium. 

According to Health Canada, “commercially processed foods” account for 77 percent of our daily sodium intake. (“Commercially processed foods” are things you didn’t make from-scratch such as restaurant meals, supermarket-prepared foods, heat-and-serve freezer dishes, jarred sauces and canned foods like soup.)

“Whenever you consume packaged foods, you’re handing over responsibility for controlling the sodium level to someone else,” saysTheresa Albert, a Toronto-based registered nutritionist and food coach.

Albert’s #1 tip for cutting sodium in your diet? Cut your intake of processed foods (or be sure you are choosing best in class). You’ll slash your sodium intake – not to mention sugar and saturated fat, too.