Salt

Another name for salt is sodium.

Eating too much salt is a problem because:

1. It can make you feel thirsty. Being thirsty makes it difficult to control your fluid intake between dialysis sessions.

2. It can cause high blood pressure.

How can I cut down salt?

1. Don't add salt to food at the table or when cooking food.

2. Avoid eating high salt foods and condiments like vegemite, soy sauce, potato chips, powdered stock, ham, bacon, feta cheese, Jatz or other savoury crackers.

3. Read food labels and look for products with less than 120mg per 100g of sodium.

4. Choose fresh foods wherever possible such as fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables, and fresh meat, fish and chicken. Packages or tinned foods may contain lots of salt.

5. Use herbs such as parsely, coriander and chivers and spices such as suman, garlic, cumin, chilli and lemon instead of salt to add flabour to foods.

6. At the grocery store, avoid high-salt foods like tortillas, potato chips and stock cubes. Instead look for unsalted popcorn, low-salt stock or low-salt canned foods

Reading food labels to check for salt