How to Reduce Salt in Your Diet without Missing Flavour

There’s no denying you have too much salt in your diet (unless you’re in a very small minority of Brits who can boast such as wellness claim). Still, just because it’d be better for your wellbeing if you cut down your salt intake, it doesn’t mean you have to compromise on flavour. Here are some low-sodium meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that taste great without boosting your blood pressure.

 

1. Banana and nut porridge: There is absolutely no sodium in this delicious and comforting breakfast, making it the perfect way to start a winter’s day. Packing your porridge with bananas, nuts, and cinnamon is a great way to rise and shine, being completely devoid of cholesterol and providing just 310 of your daily calorie allowance. Plus, in each serving of this protein-packed breakfast you will find nine grams of fibre, and plenty of blood pressure-lowering potassium in the bananas.

 

2. Granola: While there is a little salt in granola – about 22mg or so – comparatively it’s a little amount and granola is still mega beneficial for your heart. The best thing to do is to cut your prep time down and make a big batch for the week on Sunday night. That way, you can grab this breakfast first thing and not have to think about food again until lunch. As well as being filling and heart-healthy, granola is contains three grams of fibre and three grams of protein per serving.

 

3. Crispy potato hash browns: You don’t have to give up your favourite breakfast side dish, you just need to make a few small changes to make it a little less salty. Using a combination of cooking oil and high heat, rather than the oil traditionally used for frying, this recipe offers the same taste but with only 97mg of sodium.  Plus, each serving of this classic dish yields only 97 calories and less than one gram of fat – what a winner.

 

4. Beetroot, Orange, and Ricotta Salad: When lunchtime rolls around, why not tuck into a nice bit of beetroot? Combining this colourful vegetable with salad, orange and ricotta provides you with 94g protein per serving, even though the calorie count is just 132. This lunch is sweet and salty, despite having only 88mg sodium, so you can satisfy your taste buds without hurting your waistline.

 

5. White bean and roasted garlic dip: If you’re a chips-and-dips kind of snacker, but can’t afford the sodium content, have a go with this 94mg wonder. Grinding up white beans gives you four grams of fibre and seven grams of protein, while using garlic and lemon juice to season this dip cuts the sodium count, which can be sky-high in other savoury dips.

 

6. Pappardelle with lemon gremolata and asparagus: Containing 106mg of sodium, this is the saltiest dish we’ve come across so far but it is dinner we’re talking about here. Combining lemon gremolata with asparagus and pappardelle pasta gives you an amazing burst of vitamin K, five grams of protein and two grams of fibre. Aside from keeping you feeling full all night – and thus helping you to avoid unhealthy snacking – this zesty, fresh dish has only 179 calories per serving.

 

7. Minted gin froth: Bet you didn’t expect to find cocktails on this list! A minted gin froth contains no sodium at all, but that’s not the only reason why you can enjoy it, guilt-free. While being minty and refreshing, a minted gin froth contains no fat and very few calories, so look online for exciting, healthy recipes.

Categories: blood pressure, gin froth, grams, Granola, Hash Browns, lemon gremolata, minted gin, nbsp, Protein, Salt, serving nbsp, sodium

How to Keep Going Until Lunch with These Filling Breakfasts

There are so many reasons as to why breakfast is the most important meal of the day, not least of all because it aids in your weight wellness. Whether you’re trying to maintain the healthy weight you’re at, or get to a better BMI, you need to do breakfast right in order to ensure success.

Let’s start with the right time to munch your morning meal; as early as possible. While you might not feel hungry first thing in the morning, eating it soon after waking up is the best thing you can do for your wellbeing. Leta Shy, Associate Editor for Fitness at PopSugar UK, notes, ‘Studies have found that eating breakfast jump-starts your metabolism, and not only that, it can help ensure that you don’t feel so starved later that you make bad eating choices for lunch or dinner.’ Therefore, you need to eat your breakfast sooner rather than later in order to take advantage of your body’s fat-burning potential.

Not having an early-morning appetite isn’t great, but having too much food is equally as damaging to your weight goals. When you’re making your breakfast, watch out for portion sizes. Sure, a hearty breakfast can help to fill you up until lunchtime, but overdoing it can mean you fill up unnecessarily, and add on extra calories you don’t need. Rather, it’s better to go for smaller, healthy yet still filling options, instead of those foods that are packed with calories or enough sugar to ensure your mid-morning crash. Your breakfast should be full of slow-digesting nutrients to help keep you satisfied throughout the morning, so stock up on high-fibre, high-protein breakfast options for plenty of energy and fullness. Here are a few healthy breakfasts that really fit the bill.

1. Yoghurt, granola, and fruit: When you’re adding foods together, it’s important that you watch out for how the sugar content adds up. Combined, this morning meal contains 14.9 grams of sugar, with six ounces of Chobani plain Greek yoghurt providing seven grams of sugar, a ¼ cup of Bear Naked Fit Vanilla Almond Crunch Granola providing four grams, and ½ a cup of sliced strawberries adding the last 3.9 grams.

2. Vegetable omelette: For this delicious omelette you will need two large eggs (providing 0.4 grams of sugar), five cherry tomatoes (2.2 grams), six broccoli florets (2.4 grams), one cup of spinach (0.1 grams), three medium mushrooms (0.9 grams) and one ounce of shredded monterey jack cheese (adding nothing to your sugar total). Altogether, that makes a fibre- and protein-packed breakfast with only six grams of sugar.

3. Apple cinnamon oatmeal with almonds: This breakfast is a real winter warmer, and you’ll love it once the Christmas season arrives. Combine ½ a cup of organic rolled oats (one gram of sugar), one small apple (15.9 grams), ½ a tablespoon of honey (8.6 grams), eight raw almonds (0.5 grams) and ¼ a teaspoon of cinnamon (0 grams). Together, that makes one of the most sugary breakfasts on this list – coming in at 25.9 grams of sugar – but it’s still full of healthy goodness, and is too delicious to resist.

4. Wheat toast with almond butter and banana: This filling breakfast has such an earthy, wholesome feel to it. Simply spread two slices whole wheat toast (which contain six grams of sugar) with two tablespoons almond butter (two grams) and slice a medium banana (14.4 grams) on top. Again, this one isn’t the least sugary breakfast you can have, but it’s full of fibre and will keep you going until lunch.

Categories: almond butter, breakfast, Filling, grams, Healthy, Morning, morning meal, Portion Size, Sugar, wheat toast