Dr. Ahmed Starting your day with a low-sodium breakfast is probably one of the important lifestyle changes that can help a person avoid spikes in blood pressure, fluid retention, headaches, and frequent urination during daytime and especially during office hours.
Even though most of the foods that are rich in sodium taste incredibly delicious, they still do more harm than provide benefit. As much as we love salted peanuts or French fries, it is better to stay away from such foods.
Nowadays, the consumption of sodium-rich foods has risen to its peak, and so has the number of medical disorders associated with their high intake.
So, you may want to think twice before reaching for that bag of chips.
Recommended Dietary Allowance for Sodium
Research keeps investigating the proper amount of sodium that can be recommended to people for daily use.
The set recommended dietary allowance for sodium is 2300 mg per day (2.3 g per day or roughly half a teaspoon of salt per day).
Staying within this limit can provide you with many health benefits; however, for most people, this is a difficult task.
Switching to low-sodium bread and cereal can cut the total daily salt by 0.6 g to 0.9 g [Ref].
Restricting salt in your breakfast might be the only option you have since most people take their daytime meals while at work.
Therefore, minimizing salt in your breakfast could be the only way to lower your risks of developing hypertension and heart disease.
For people who suffer from disorders like hypertension, it may be better to reduce the intake even lower to 1500mg per day. Reducing it to 2g per day may not be achievable and is not recommended either.
Consequences of Consuming Sodium-Rich Foods
It is better to stay within the limits that are recommended as RDA because overdosing on any nutrient can lead to its toxicity in the body.
In some other cases, the existence of diseases like hypertension may call for a reduction in total sodium intake.
Excessive consumption of sodium can lead to the following clinical disorders
- Headaches
- Heart failure
- Hypertension
- Osteoporosis
- Enlarged heart muscles
- Kidney stones
- Kidney failure
- Stomach cancer
- Stroke
Low-sodium foods are usually a better idea when taking care of one’s health, and since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, there is no chance of compromising on its healthy nutrient composition.
So, here we have a list of low-sodium breakfasts that you can use to start your day with.
Egg and lettuce sandwich
On top of fulfilling your protein requirement, this dish is also quite low in sodium and delivers many other essential nutrients.
Eggs are generally taken as a low-sodium food item as they contain less than 140mg of sodium.
The other item included is lettuce, which is not only low in sodium but is also a low-calorie vegetable that gives you many minerals like potassium and magnesium, and vitamins like vitamin C and vitamin K.
To include this in your breakfast, you can take 2 slices of bread and place the lettuce leaves in it, boil an egg and mash it, then spread it on top of the lettuce.
Corn and tomato salad
Boiled corn is generally low in sodium, and on top of that, it is rich in vitamin C, which is an antioxidant, so it serves to protect you from any oxidative damage, which can otherwise lead to a number of diseases, including cancer. One more benefit is the fiber content of corn.
Tomatoes, on the other hand, have a sodium content even lower than corn. A large raw tomato contains about 9 milligrams of sodium only so it falls into the category of very low sodium vegetables. This one has an antioxidant called lycopene, which protects from serious diseases as well.
So, all in all, a ‘corn and tomato salad’ is the perfect dish to start your day with.
Strawberry and banana smoothie
When it comes to being low in sodium, strawberries are sodium-free, meaning that no harm is done, yet your taste buds are satisfied with this delight. Similarly, banana falls under the low-sodium category.
Both of these fruits are rich in many vitamins and minerals as well as fiber, leading to an increase in HDL (the good cholesterol) and a reduction in blood pressure.
To make this smoothie, you can take chopped strawberries and bananas and mix them together in a blender, adding a little sugar for an extra taste.
Mashed potatoes with corn
Potatoes have a low sodium composition, but the way they are cooked or processed can really increase the sodium content, e.g., French fries or potato chips etc.
A healthy way to include potatoes in your diet is by mashing some boiled potatoes. In this way, you do not add any extra sodium and retain its healthy composition.
They are loaded with fiber, meaning they will be of great benefit to those who are looking to lose weight.
Eating mashed potatoes as it is can be a little boring so adding a cup of boiled corn can add some taste, and you can also choose to season it with olive oil or oregano.
Whole grain pasta
Whole grains do not really contain high sodium content unless they are cooked in a way that includes processing or cooking them with salt.
Although this is more of a lunch or dinner meal, there is no harm in including this in your breakfast when you are looking to try something new yet healthy.
Pasta can be made in a variety of ways; you can add chicken to it or vegetables, or even fruits to make a salad. It is full of fiber, helping with GIT problems.
Fruit salad
Every fruit offers a ton of various benefits, and eating a fruit salad is equivalent to getting all of those benefits together. Fruits have little to no sodium, so they are harmless.
There is no restriction on what fruits you can add, so just include whichever fruits you have available and mix them up.
Mixed vegetable salad
Similarly, vegetables are also generally low in sodium, which allows you to delve into this however you want.
Tips for Controlling Sodium Intake
Importantly, you have to review the food labels to minimize the chances of accidental intake of sodium.
Specifically, the nutrition labels, the information given there tells you about all of the nutrients included in the making and how much of each one is added to it.
So, if you look for sodium content on the label and how many milligrams of it are added, then you can easily pick the one that has the minimum or the appropriate amount of salt or sodium in it.
Another tip is to make food at your home, food items in the market are mostly processed and have added salt or sugar in them.
Therefore, it is much better to cook it at home because this way you can control the amount of salt you include in it.
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