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| What about salt? |
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| “I thought breakfast cereal were high in salt. Would I not be better giving my daughter toast?” |
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| Fact? | | |  | In the last IUNA national nutrition study published in 2005, approximately 5% of salt in the diets of Irish children aged 5-12 years came from breakfast cereals. |
| | This has been reducing significantly in recent years as all of the big manufacturers have reduced salt in their breakfast cereals - in fact, there has been a reduction of approximately 44% in this category. |
| | | | Recommended action? | | | | Pick a cereal that is a good source of fibre. Also make sure the sugar and salt levels are as low as possible. Use the GDAs to help you compare cereals. I prefer a good cereal to toast because many children eat fortified cereals, where they not only get some added B vitamins but they also get the protein and calcium in low fat milk. The toast on the other hand can often be white, with little or no fibre. If it’s smothered in an unhealthy fat, then the cereal is a better option.
Try to reduce the salt in your daughter’s diet by limiting the amount of high-salt foods that you eat as a family. |
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| Food high in salt |
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| All these foods have higher than average salt levels, either because of their flavouring or because salt is used in the curing and preserving process: |
Anchovies
Bacon
Cheese
Crisps
Olives
Pickles
Pretzels | Salted and dry roasted nuts
Sausages
Smoked meat and fish
Soya sauce
Stock cubes
Tinned soup |
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| Less salt doesn’t have to mean less flavour |
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| Like other strong flavours, salt is something we acquire a taste for, usually in our early childhood. The good news is, children’s taste buds can be ‘trained’ to get used to the taste of food with less salt. If you gradually reduce the amount of salt they eat, their taste buds will adapt as the sodium receptors on the tongue become more sensitive to salt. This usually takes about 2-3 weeks. Inevitably, there may be the odd temper tantrum at the table, so if food with less salt is too bland for them at first, try using other strong flavourings such as herbs and spices, lemon or mustard to flavour their foods. |
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| 5 ways to reduce salt intake |
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| Choose ‘no added sugar and salt’ varieties of canned foods such as kidney beans, chick-peas and sweetcorn. If you can’t find beans packed in unsalted water, rinsing them thoroughly before use will help to remove some of the salt. |
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| Give cooked vegetables a bit of a lift by adding the zest and juice of a lemon instead of salt. |
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| Use spices such as coriander, caraway and fennel seeds to add flavour to fish dishes and cooked vegetables. Freshly ground spices have a much stronger flavour so get hold of a pestle and mortar and grind your own. Dry frying the spices before you grind them will enhance the flavour. |
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| Keep pots of growing herbs, like mint and coriander, in your kitchen so you’ve always got them to hand. |
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| Processed foods like canned soups often contain high levels of salt. So why not invest in a hand blender so you can make your own? |
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