Salt For Low-Sodium Diets Or The Health Conscious

High sodium is an issue for a lot of people, even if we’ve not been advised to lower it. Processed and packaged foods have high amounts of sodium and high sodium diets can raise blood pressure and can increase chances of heart disease, stroke and kidney failure. Too much sodium can also reduce the amount of other nutrients we are able to absorb. Ideally, we shouldn’t really be having more than 2000 milligrams (or 2grams) of sodium per day. But people tend to have problems when they eat more than 4000 milligrams (4 grams) of sodium per day.

There are ‘diet’ salts available, generally salt (sodium chloride) combined with potassium chloride. They can be pretty pricey, and a high potassium intake is also risky to health, especially to those with kindey problems or on certain medications.

So, I’d like to share my recipe/tip, which enables you to still have a wise amount of salt, on the cheap, without sacrificing flavour.

½ cup Salt (whatever you use – sea salt, table salt, even ‘diet’ salt if you wish)
1 cup Sesame Seeds

In a frying pan/skillet, heat the sesame seeds gently, shaking the pan constantly, until they are golden. Pour into Mortar and Pestle and grind well, mixing in the salt as you grind until it is a slightly coarse powder and pour into a salt shaker with a sprinkle of rice (this helps to stop the salt from clumping).
Alternatively, you could put the toasted sesame seeds and rock/coarse salt into a grinder.

This does not alter the taste of foods, but gives everything a slighty more delicious taste. It tastes better than plain salt and kids and the stubborn eldery are none the wiser. It can be used in cooking or as table salt.

Sesame seeds are rich in fibre, calcium, protein and host of amino acids, so the extra nutrients will not go astray.

Note: the amounts can be adjusted, just have 1 part salt to 2 parts sesame seeds.