Low Sodium Snacks You'll Actually Enjoy
If you’ve received advice from your doctor or registered dietitian to lower your sodium intake, keep reading- this is for you! Sodium intake is not something that everyone needs to be concerned with (see more on sodium sensitivity later!) BUT if you do, it can be hard to know where to start and why it’s important.
WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO LOWER SODIUM INTAKE
Research shows that maintaining sodium within recommended intakes boasts a wide variety of health benefits such as lower risk of kidney and liver disease, stronger bones, increased blood sugar control, and lower blood pressure. For individuals with high blood pressure, or hypertension, managing sodium intake is especially important. If we eat more sodium than is recommended, it increases the fluid in our body, which increases blood pressure. Over time, that damages the heart muscle. Even if you don’t have high blood pressure now, it’s important to know that a family history of heart disease or hypertension puts you at an increased risk.
SODIUM CONTAINING FOODS
Sodium is in just about EVERYTHING. Typically, you will find more sodium in foods that need preservatives, such as canned soups, deli meats, and frozen meals. Foods that contain less sodium have often undergone less processing, such as fresh/frozen produce, raw meat, rice, milk, and eggs.
Keep in mind, processed foods are NOT inherently bad or worse for you than unprocessed foods. See Jenna’s discussion about processed foods if you would like some more information!
GUIDELINES
The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting sodium intake to 2,300 mg per day. To put it in perspective, 2,300 mg is roughly 1 teaspoon. By volume, that’s a really small amount! As a rule of thumb, a food that is low in sodium contains 5% or less of your daily value of sodium.
You can find the sodium content of a food by looking at a nutrition label. The nutrition label will include both the grams of sodium found in a serving of food and the percent daily value. See the image below if you need help locating the sodium content of a food on a nutrition label!
SODIUM BALANCE
Too much salt in the diet can increase a person’s risk of developing high blood pressure and stroke. High salt intake contributes to these conditions by disrupting the body’s sodium balance. Sodium balance is important because it functions to keep our body’s many interrelated systems working and running smoothly. When too much sodium is consumed, our sodium balance is thrown out of whack. This can lead to fluid retention, which is responsible for the increased risk of high blood pressure and stroke in high-salt diets.
Consuming too much salt has been a concern of the American diet for many years. According to the FDA, Americans eat an average of roughly 3,400mg of sodium per day. However, consuming too much AND too little salt can throw our sodium balances out of whack, both resulting in health problems. Too little salt in the diet can lead to electrolyte imbalances, which can cause headaches, confusion, decreased attention spans, and in severe cases, swelling of the brain. Therefore, if you are worried about your salt intake, it is important to focus on lowering the amount you consume to the recommended daily amount of 2,300 mg instead of trying to lower your intake as much as you possibly can. Despite the constant medical noise about how important it is to decrease how much salt you consume; everyone still needs sodium to live and function healthfully!
SALT SENSITIVITY
Before we move on, it is important to note that how a person’s body uses sodium is highly variable! The term for this natural variation is referred to as “salt sensitivity”. Someone who is sensitive to salt will experience a greater increase in their blood pressure after consuming salt. Someone who is less sensitive to salt will experience less of an increase in their blood pressure after salt consumption. Because of this variability in salt sensitivity, individuals with a high salt sensitivity may need to consume less salt than others to produce decreases in their blood pressure. Recent research has shown that certain groups are more at risk for salt sensitivity than others. Individuals 50 or older, African Americans, people with chronic kidney disease, and people who had low birth weights are at a higher risk of having salt sensitivity.
LOW SODIUM SNACKS
Now onto the fun part of the article… some low-sodium snacks! Here at HSH, we teach that a balanced and satisfying snack contains carbohydrates, protein, and color, such as a fruit or a vegetable. Adding protein to your carbohydrate will keep you fuller for longer, and adding a fruit or vegetable will provide your body with a bunch of nutrients and fiber.
Harvest Snaps
Harvest snaps are one of my personal favorite low-sodium snacks! They come in many different flavors and pack a satisfying airy crunch! All the Harvest Snap flavors contain 5% or less of your daily value of salt per serving. My personal favorite is the Parmesan Roasted Garlic flavor! Additionally, this product has 4 grams of fiber per serving, which is a whopping 14% of your daily value. See our article on fiber to learn more about it!
As someone who can’t live without dips, I like to pair this snack with hummus. Add some carrots and/or sliced bell peppers and you have a well-balanced, low-sodium snack!
Chips & Salsa
Chips and salsa are an easy, low-sodium snack, packed full of veggies and nutrients! However, it is important to note that some brands of both chips and salsa may contain high amounts of sodium. This is one where you have to pay attention to the nutrition labels! I have found that low-sodium tortilla chips are often labeled as such, making them easy to find at the store. Finding a low-sodium salsa may be a bit trickier. If you can’t find one that meets your low sodium needs at the store, I highly recommend making your own! Fresh salsa is delicious and whips up in a flash. If a salsa recipe calls for sodium, I have found that the acidic flavors of the lime juice and tomatoes make the salsa so flavorful, you can easily omit the salt completely or get away with just a tiny pinch!
In this snack, the tortilla chips are your carbohydrate, and the salsa is your vegetable. To balance this snack out, add a protein such as a handful of unsalted nuts.
Popcorn
Popcorn is low-sodium snack staple! SkinnyPop is a popular brand that only contains 3% of your daily value of sodium. Most of the pop-in-the-bag varieties contain LOTS of salt. For this reason, I’d recommend buying unseasoned popcorn kernels if you’d like to pop your own popcorn. This way, you can have control over how you season your popcorn. I highly recommend trying a little bit of unsalted butter and some Mrs. Dash seasoning on your freshly popped popcorn! Mrs. Dash currently has 15+ salt-free seasoning blends that are sure to please everyone.
To make this snack more satisfying, consider adding a protein and something colorful! I recommend pairing the popcorn with some fresh strawberries and some lightly sweetened Greek yogurt.
Oatmeal
Oatmeal doesn’t have to only be for breakfast! Today, there are thousands of baked and overnight oat recipes that cover a huge variety of flavors and preferences. Oatmeal is another good source of fiber and is chock full of nutrients. Plain oatmeal typically contains no sodium, making it a perfect candidate for a low-sodium snack. However, pre-flavored oatmeal is often high in sodium and sugar, so be sure to choose plain oats!
Because of the versatility of overnight oats and baked oatmeal, it’s really easy to work in a protein and a fruit/vegetable. Bananas or berries pair perfectly with oatmeal, and a couple spoonfuls of a nut butter makes for an easy addition of protein!
Cheese and Crackers
Cheese and crackers are another quick and easy low-sodium snack. Both cheese and crackers are generally associated with having a higher sodium content, but there are low sodium alternatives for the both of them! Swiss and mozzarella cheeses are known to be low in sodium and high in protein. There are many brands of crackers that offer reduced sodium varieties, and my personal favorites are reduced-sodium Wheat Thins. I think that the flavor of Wheat Thins pairs super well with cheese, and you aren’t missing anything with the reduced sodium version!
Add a banana or some veggies + dip for a well-balanced snack.
To finish off our low-sodium snack list, here are a few more ideas to add to your snack rotations:
Bada Beans
Seapoint Farms Dried Edamame
Peanut butter and apple slices
Lärabars, KIND Bars, Nature’s Bakery Fig Bars
Unsalted nuts
Even in consideration of your health goals, all foods can fit on your plate no matter their sodium content! Enjoying your favorite foods without guilt or stress is just as important as your health goals. And as I said previously, you need sodium to live! You don’t have to completely cut out your favorite salty foods and sacks in order to reap the health benefits of consuming less sodium. If you’re interested in lowering the amount of sodium in your diet, focus on finding low-sodium foods and snacks that you genuinely enjoy instead of trying to cut out as much as you can.
If you’re finding yourself in need of a dietitian to help guide you in making health promoting decisions that honor your tastebuds, check out our HSH offerings! We are here to help!
https://www.denverhealthmedicalplan.org/blog/benefits-low-sodium-diet
https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-education-resources-materials/sodium-your-diet
https://www.actiononsalt.org.uk/salthealth/factsheets/pressure/
Written by Sarah Haaser
Hey, I'm Sarah!
I am an undergraduate senior at Purdue University majoring in Nutrition & Dietetics. I enjoy trying new recipes and thrifting when I’m not in class or studying! Learn more about the HSH offerings here.
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