Can­di­da Khan

Dur­ing this week, salt in­take needs some at­ten­tion, es­pe­cial­ly for women’s health. Salt is im­por­tant for bod­i­ly func­tions, but con­sum­ing too much can af­fect health long-term. As women, our salt in­take is im­por­tant when it comes to man­ag­ing high blood pres­sure, heart health, hor­mon­al bal­ance and main­tain­ing well­ness at every stage in life.

Salt, al­so known as sodi­um chlo­ride, is vi­tal for flu­id bal­ance, nerve func­tion and mus­cle con­trac­tions. We on­ly need an av­er­age of 1 tsp of salt dai­ly. We are large­ly mis­us­ing it in processed and pack­aged foods. Many of us don’t re­alise that the ma­jor­i­ty of salt is hid­den in prod­ucts we con­sume dai­ly, such as bread, ce­re­als, canned prod­ucts, sauces, and snacks.

The lifestyle dis­ease I am most con­cerned with is high blood pres­sure when it comes to salt in­take. Women be­come more vul­ner­a­ble af­ter menopause. Hor­mon­al changes can make it eas­i­er for blood pres­sure to rise. Se­ri­ous health com­pli­ca­tions such as heart dis­ease, stroke and kid­ney prob­lems could arise.

Heart dis­ease is still one of the lead­ing caus­es of health con­cerns among women. Re­duc­ing salt in­take to the rec­om­mend­ed amount is one ef­fec­tive way to low­er blood pres­sure and re­duce heart dis­ease risk. Grad­u­al­ly re­duc­ing salt in­take, rather than mak­ing dras­tic changes overnight, is of­ten more sus­tain­able and ef­fec­tive.

Sur­pris­ing­ly, bone health can be neg­a­tive­ly im­pact­ed by ex­ces­sive salt in­take. This is be­cause it can in­crease cal­ci­um ex­cre­tion and weak­en bones over time. Women do have an in­creased risk of de­vel­op­ing os­teo­poro­sis with age; there­fore, fol­low­ing these tips to re­duce salt in­take and use al­ter­na­tives should be con­sid­ered:

1. Fresh sea­son­ings such as chive, onion, gin­ger, pi­men­to, ban­da­nia

2. Dried herbs such as thyme, rose­mary, pars­ley, and black pep­per

3. Com­bi­na­tions of oth­er in­gre­di­ents from dif­fer­ent food groups, such as veg­eta­bles for flavours like toma­to

Sea salt, al­so known as pink salt, is said to be a “health­i­er” al­ter­na­tive be­cause the sodi­um con­tent is less than that of reg­u­lar salt. It might be more nat­ur­al, but it is equal­ly ca­pa­ble of rais­ing blood pres­sure. Ta­ble salt can be more ben­e­fi­cial if used be­cause of the added io­dine, which can sup­port thy­roid func­tion for women.

As a reg­is­tered di­etit­ian nu­tri­tion­ist, I be­lieve that food with­out a lot of salt added can still be tasty with the sub­sti­tu­tions. By pay­ing at­ten­tion to sodi­um in­take and mak­ing con­scious di­etary choic­es, women can re­duce their risk of chron­ic dis­eases, sup­port their over­all health, and set a pos­i­tive ex­am­ple for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions. As World Salt Aware­ness Week ap­proach­es, take the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­assess your habits, read those la­bels, and em­brace a lifestyle that pri­ori­tis­es bal­ance, flavour, and well-be­ing

Can­di­da Khan, MSc RD, al­so known as Di­di is a Reg­is­tered Di­etit­ian Nu­tri­tion­ist.

She is al­so the CEO of Di­di's Nu­tri­tion Con­sul­tan­cy

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