So you want to embark on a low-sodium diet? Excellent! Now you need to plan *how* to decrease your salt intake. Starting off by cooking healthy, low-salt or salt-free dishes is a great first step. But then in between meals, you start to feel like a little snack…and when you think over the most prominent options in the grocery store…you wonder…are these ok to eat? If not, what might be a better alternative? If you’re trying to decrease your sodium, here are 8 low-sodium snack foods that’ll help you on your low-salt journey!
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1. Stove-top or air-popped popcorn
As a kid, you might remember your parents popping up a nice big bowl of popcorn to enjoy for movie night – sound familiar? Well, you can do this anytime you want a low-salt snack. Just buy a jar of dried corn kernels (in the popcorn aisle) and make your own! Pour a little olive oil in a pot on the stove, drop one kernel in, and wait for it to pop. Once the oil is hot enough and the one kernel is popped open, pour in some more kernels. Popcorn quickly expands, so one layer of corn (or even less) on the bottom of the pan will easily do. (I can fill a large Pyrex bowl when I cover the entire bottom of my 2-quart saucepan with kernels.) Once the sound of the popping slows down, time to take it off the stove and serve! You can choose just how much salt you want to add (I usually add 3-4 shakes from a salt shaker). Or you can add other seasonings, like Cajun, Old Bay, Mrs’s Dash’s, or whatever else suits your fancy. This easily creates a lower-salt alternative to microwave or storebought popcorn.
If the stovetop method isn’t your cup of tea, you can do the same thing with an old-fashioned air popper!
2. Certain kinds of cheese
Cheeses like Swiss, mozzarella, cheddar, and goat cheese are some tasty lower-sodium choices. According to Healthline, each of these particular options contains less than 200 mg of sodium per 1 ounce (or ¼ cup) serving. (Swiss has the lowest by far, at only 53 mg per ounce.) You can toast or broil some cheese on a slice of artisan bread, a bagel, or an English muffin for a quick, yummy snack. Or you can eat it straight without cooking at all! (String cheese, anyone? Always made out of mozzarella!)
3. Homemade baked fries
These are quite simple to make, and easily customizable just like popcorn. Just cut potatoes into wedges and place on a sheet pan (sprayed with Pam). Drizzle some olive oil over the potato wedges, and then add whatever spices you’d like. I love using paprika, cumin, Italian, and Cajun seasoning, or some mixture thereof. I sometimes add just 1-2 shakes of salt and pepper, not much; again, you can control how much salt you add. Then mix it all up with a spatula, and put it in the oven at 400 degrees for a half hour. (You can adjust the time depending on how crispy you like your fries.) This is a wonderful tasty alternative to what you might find in a restaurant or the grocery store.
4. Homemade pita chips with hummus
Similarly to making your own potato fries, you can bake your own pita chips! Just start out with some pita pockets: open up the pockets and split them (this will give you thinner layers to work with). Brush with olive oil, and sprinkle whatever seasonings you’d like on top. Cut into triangular pieces and bake! I haven’t made these in a while, but I sure would like to soon! Here’s a recipe from TheMediterraneanDish.com for the exact how-tos: again, you can customize these however you want. Then enjoy with your favorite dip or hummus, or just eat them by themselves!
5. Hint of Salt Triscuits
For an easy storebought option, check out Triscuit whole wheat crackers in the Hint of Salt variety. These definitely taste less salty than most snacks you’ll find in the grocery store: at first, you may wonder, is there even salt on these? But as you get used to a low-sodium diet, your taste buds will become more finely attuned to the taste of salt. So don’t worry, once that happens, you won’t have any problem tasting the flavor in these. 6 crackers contain 50 mg of sodium, making them a great low-salt storebought snack.
6. Blue Diamond almonds, Lightly Salted
If you’re looking for a snack in nut form, Lightly Salted Blue Diamond almonds are a great choice. A serving of 28 nuts contains only 40 mg of sodium. Definitely a lower-sodium choice than many of the storebought nuts out there!
7. Planters cashews, Lightly Salted
Another tasty nutty snack! One serving, or 23 nuts, has 50 mg of sodium. I like to alternate between the Blue Diamond almonds and the Planters cashews when I want a nut fix.
8. Late July Organic Sea Salt Multigrain Tortilla Chips
If you just really want an old-fashioned tortilla chip, try this variety from Late July. These chips are full of healthy organic whole grains like corn, brown rice, chia seeds, flax, millet, quinoa, and amaranth. In each serving (about 9 chips), there’s only 65mg of sodium, much less than many of the more well-known tortilla chips out there. These are the only tortilla chips I’ll eat now – they’re way less salty, are incredibly healthy, and are heartier than normal chips.
Takeaway
When you initially begin a low-sodium diet, it can be hard to move away from the salty snacks you may be used to. But when you make your own snacks, you’re in full control of the amount of salt in them. You can also add various spices to make them to your liking. Once you’ve maintained a low-salt diet for a while, your body just gets used to a lower-sodium content. Once your taste buds become more attuned to salt, the items mentioned above will taste the exact same as the higher-salt products did previously. Now that I’ve been on a low-sodium diet for quite a few years, I can’t stand to eat the typical snack foods, simply because they have too much salt. I can definitely tell the products mentioned above are better for my body; they taste just as good as the ones I previously indulged in, and I simply feel better when eating these.
With these snacks available to you, you’ll be enjoying the benefits of a healthier self in no time! Best of luck in your low-sodium journey!
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Cover image photo credit: IStockPhoto.com/AndreyPopov
