7 surprisingly salty foods

This week is the National Salt Awareness Week in the UK. For this occasion we've decided to share with you a list of surprisingly salty foods and remind you that you need to avoid consumming the excess of salt.

It is well-known that too much salt can be dangerous for your health: it can raise your blood pressure, and therefore cause heart disease or stroke. Cutting down on salt could help you avoid these risks.

According to the NHS, adults should eat no more than 6g of salt per day, and children should eat much less.

It is highly recommended to pay attention to nutrition labels on food packaging, in order to control the intake of salt. As salt is also called sodium chloride, food labels sometimes only give the figure for the latter. To calculate the amount of salt you consume, multiply the figure given for sodium by 2,5. You can easily recognise a salty product by lloking at its label: the ones that are rich in salt are colour-coded red, the ones poor in salt - green. To learn more about how to read the nutrition labels, see the PDF document attached below.

Now, we'd like to share with you a list of surpsisingly salty foods that you have probably never noticed to be particularly salty.

1. Cheese and butter
Adding extras after cooking can not only add calories and saturated fat, but also salt. Avoid adding butter to ‘finish’ sauces or grated cheese to top your dishes and you will avoid the salt that can come with them – and help your waistline too.

2. Sauces
Soy sauce, fish sauce, and even ketchup can all add flavour to your dishes but are often high in salt, so you need to be sparing - and remember that you won’t need to add salt at the table as well.

3. Salty spreads
Spreading fats like margarine usually contain added salt - so read the nutritional information on the label to help you to choose the one with the least added salt. Savoury spreads can also be a salty choice. Be aware and use yeast extracts sparingly and check nutritional information on peanut butter and cream cheese.

4. Salty flavourings
Capers, anchovies and olives are all likely to add salt to food. Using non-salty flavourings is a better way to keep the taste up when you are cutting down on salt. Herbs, spices, lemon, garlic and black pepper are all good choices.

5. Bread
As well as being added to the dough, watch out for extra salty additions. Loaves of bread and rolls that have an additional sprinkling of salt on the top or are studded with olives can easily be high in salt. Read the nutrition information before buying, as there's a lot of variation between different breads.

6. Potatoes
Potato dishes are a common culprit too - watch out for jacket potatoes that have been rubbed with salt before baking, or pre-salted portions of chips or other potatoes, and of course, packets of crisps, which can all add to your daily salt intake.

7. Sweet surprises
The trend for sweet and savoury flavours like salted caramel might taste delicious but it’s adding salt in places that were previously salt-free. Or were they? Make sure you look at food labels - you might be surprised at the amount of salt in sweet foods like biscuits and cakes.

Source: British Heart Foundation

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Do you know how much salt you consume daily? What do you do to try and limit the amount of salt you eat?