- 1). Choose fresh foods over frozen, processed, or canned items to reduce the total amount of sodium in your diet. Sodium is often used as a preservative in the latter items, so avoid them whenever possible to keep your sodium intake low. If you absolutely must use frozen, processed, or canned items, wash them completely first to rinse away a lot of sodium before cooking.
- 2). Read the label ingredients on other foods to determine how much sodium is contained in each item. A traditional low sodium diet is around 2,000mg of salt per day, so attempt to spread that out across all of your daily meals to naturally balance the amount of salt in your diet.
- 3). Avoid cooking with potassium rich foods. Potassium rich foods include the following items: broccoli, bananas, chocolate, oranges, coffee, potatoes, salt substitutes, cantaloupe, mushrooms, prunes, tomatoes, bran, greens, raisins, and apricots. Instead, use low potassium alternatives such as beans, apples, rice, cherries, berries, grapes, noodles, cucumber, lettuce, watermelon, breads, and pears.
- 4). Check online to determine the potassium content of other suspect foods. Consult the link in Resources to determine whether your chosen meal item is indeed within your potassium "budget."
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