Yu Kang, Associate Professor of the Department of Nutrition at Peking Union Medical College Hospital and a renowned nutrition expert in China, said that authoritative institutions stipulate that the total daily intake of sodium salt should not exceed 6 grams, and patients with chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and kidney disease should reduce their intake even more.
A survey shows that the average sodium salt intake in the Beijing area is 12 grams or more. An increase in sodium salt intake inadvertently raises the risk of developing chronic diseases such as hypertension. There is a theoretical risk for people with salt—the more they eat, the more they want. We have found that as some people age, their taste buds become less sensitive to salt. When people get older, several spoonfuls of salt may not taste as salty as one spoonful did in their youth, which inadvertently leads to a progressively higher salt intake. It should be emphasized that the so-called "6 grams of salt" is our total daily intake, with 2 grams coming from general food and the remaining 4 grams added during cooking. A beer bottle cap is close to 4 grams of salt, which is the total amount we add to our dishes for cooking each day.
Some people say, "I have a preference for salty food and can't do without salt. Can I switch to soy sauce?" Soy sauce also contains salt, and consuming large amounts of it can also lead to excessive sodium intake. Pickled mustard tubers, pickled vegetables, yellow bean paste, pickled suan cai (a type of pickled green vegetable), sausages, and ham are all high-salt foods and should be appropriately limited. A hypertension patient who uses shredded pork stir-fried with pickled mustard tubers as a main meal will find it difficult to achieve proper blood pressure control even with medication. Therefore, starting from a young age to cultivate a light-eating habit is a matter that everyone of us must pay attention to.
Changing from a preference for salty food to a lighter palate. Some small methods can be adopted, such as using the natural flavor of vegetables for seasoning. Enjoying the "original flavor" of a dish may be more appealing than "adorn" it with soy sauce. You can also use white vinegar, lemon juice, fruit juice, etc., for seasoning, or choose high-potassium, low-sodium salt available on the market as a substitute for sodium salt.