If you need or want to get less sodium in your diet, replacing the salt in your shaker with a substitute can help.

The most important strategy for getting less sodium is avoiding packaged or prepared foods loaded with salt sodium chloride since they account for 75 percent of the average person’s daily intake. Reading labels in the grocery store and asking questions in restaurants can help you eliminate a fair amount of stealth salt. What you do at home can make a difference, too.

Low- or no-sodium salts

Sodium and potassium are in the same chemical family. Their similarities make potassium chloride close enough in size, shape and chemical configuration to trigger taste buds designed for sodium chloride. Because potassium chloride isn’t a perfect fit, it isn’t quite as salty as table salt. It also has a bitter aftertaste, especially when heated. Some companies claim to have masked or neutralized the off taste by adding L-lysine, a common amino acid.

Some potassium-based substitutes are “lite” salt. These replace up to half of the table salt with potassium chloride. Sodium-free versions contain only potassium chloride.

Potassium-based salt substitutes are a double-edged sword. Most Americans get too little potassium. Increasing intake could protect against stroke, high blood pressure, heart-rhythm problems, kidney trouble and even osteoporosis. But extra potassium can be dangerous for people who have trouble flushing out any excess or who are taking medications that can increase potassium levels in the bloodstream.

Warning: Talk with your doctor before trying a potassium-based salt substitute. Too much potassium in the blood can lead to potentially deadly disturbances of the heart’s rhythm. This can be a problem if you have diabetes or kidney disease, if you have had a blocked urinary flow, or if you are taking an ACE inhibitor, angiotensin-receptor blocker, potassium-sparing diuretic or daily doses of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.

Spice it up

Instead of trying to mimic the taste of salt, light up your taste buds with something completely different. Using spices, herbs and other flavorings is a safer, tastier and healthier alternative to salt. Herbs and spices offer a world of flavors that salt can’t begin to match. And there’s growing evidence that substances in herbs and spices may fight cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other chronic conditions.

Ready-made blends are available in most grocery stores, and the Internet abounds with recipes for herb and spice salt substitutes.

Start slow, get help

The taste for salt is partly hard-wired but mostly learned or acquired. So you can train your taste buds to be satisfied with less salt. Instead of stopping cold turkey, gradually cut back on salt in favor of lemon, pepper, vinegar, herbs and spices, and other sodium- free flavorings. Over time, you might rediscover the true flavor of food and the subtle or super sizzle that herbs and spices have to offer.

You don’t have to figure out how to use substitutes on your own. Help is available from cookbooks such as the American Heart Association’s “Low-Salt Cookbook,” now in its third edition, and dozens of other books like it. You might also check out Salt-Free Life, an independent bimonthly magazine that’s full of cooking, shopping and dining tips (877-667-2588 toll free or saltfreelife.com).

(c) 2007 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.