The Complete No/Reduced Added Salt Guide to WFPB Cooking

If you were skeptical about oil-free cooking, you might be flat-out against—or even outraged by—the idea of reducing, or *gasp* eliminating added salt from your food.

However, you might be getting too much sodium already, since almost everything packaged has added sodium. The minimum daily sodium intake is around 200-500 mg whereas most people eat closer to ten times more at around 5,000 milligrams of salt daily! High salt intake has been linked to heart disease, cancers, and more.

The good news is that cooking without added salt doesn’t mean sacrificing flavor. By employing proper techniques and utilizing a variety of herbs, spices, acids, and other whole food plant-based ingredients and hacks, you can create delicious, satisfying meals, that heal instead of harm.

Why No-Added Salt?

Excessive salt intake is linked with everything from heart disease to cancer. But studies have found that most health recommendations for salt intake are still too high and lower intakes could lower chances of death and disease even further.

Is Too Much Salt Really That Bad For You?

The World Health Organization emphasizes that limiting salt intake could prevent up to “2.5 million deaths” annually, while the World Cancer Research Fund highlights that reducing salt can “significantly decrease the risk of stomach cancer.”

The CDC (Center for Disease Control) says that “too much sodium can increase blood pressure and the risk for heart disease and stroke. Together, heart disease and stroke kill more Americans each year than any other cause.”

Most whole plant foods have some sodium in them already, so you generally get enough sodium without adding any to your food. Afterall, the minimum 200-500mg of sodium can be met without too much effort.

What’s The Right Amount Then?

This meta-analysis from 2003 that looked at the dose response between salt reduction and fall in blood pressure, said that health recommendations for salt intake “values are based on what is feasible rather than the maximum effect of salt reduction.” And that a reduction to only 5-6g (500-600mg) daily shows great benefits, and they (conservatively) estimate that it would “reduce strokes by 13% and ischemic heart disease (IHD) by 10%.”

But going to 300mg per day would “reduce strokes by approximately one third and IHD [heart disease] by one quarter”

So even going to 500-600mg daily can reduce stroke and heart disease by 13% and 10%, but going down to 300mg per could reduce strokes by 33% and heart disease by 25%. That’s huge!

Addressing Common Salt-Free Misconceptions

There’s a lot of confusion about salt and how much you actually need in a day.

Where Do You Get Your Salt? – AKA: Don’t You Need To Shake On Salt To Survive?

Many people believe that food has no natural sodium and that you need to add salt with a shaker, to all food, or you won’t get enough sodium. But most food has sodium in it, naturally. For example, A cup of carrots or celery each have about 80mg of sodium, broccoli has about 30mg, and even lettuce has 10mg of sodium per cup!

Yes, not getting enough sodium overall can be serious, but it’s not too difficult to get enough daily sodium even without adding it (remember, it’s only 200-500mg; with about 300mg being the sweet spot, it would seem). A sodium deficiency is rare, and usually due to a different underlying medical issue that makes it harder for that person to get/retain enough sodium.

So 1 cup of tomato paste, say for pasta sauce, has over 150mg of sodium. Add celery, carrot, and onion (mirepoix) to the sauce base and that’s well over 300mg already!

What About Iodine?

Most people these days use sea salt which is usually iodine free.

Similar to salt, many foods already contain iodine. You can get enough iodine (~150mcg daily) by eating things like whole grains, potatoes (~24mcg/cup), nori (42mcg/sheet), navy beans (64mcg/cup), and many others. Most plant foods have all the things your body needs and craves, variety of plant foods is key. See the Serving Sizes Made Simple: Aligning with the Universal Food Guide for science-backed info on what to eat in a day.

Getting Started: The First Steps To Reducing Sodium

The best way to reduce or even go totally salt-free is to do it gradually. If done right you won’t even notice you’re eating less salt (or none at all), since your tastebuds adapt and heal as the amount of salt is reduced, gradually, over time, tricking you into thinking your food is just as salty.

But how do you reduce salt gradually without noticing?

Kick Salt To The Curb, One Shake At A Time: Salt Hacks

Do you like to add salt at the table?

The best trick to reduce adding salt at the table, in my opinion, is to grind your salt finer and finer over time and add it to the top/surface of the food. The finer the salt is ground the saltier it will taste! And if the salt is on top of the food then it will be more prominent—both making you need to use less salt to get the flavors your expect.

So if you are someone who loves the salt shaker, then grinding your salt will make it taste saltier without adding more salt.

The best way is to first just pulse your salt in a grinder a couple of times, then next week do the same thing, again, to the salt you already pulsed, and keep doing this every week until the salt is as fine as possible. You will have to use less each time because of how salty your salt becomes as it gets finer and finer.

Do you like to add salt directly to food?

Then I suggest trying to add high sodium foods, as well as follow the vinegar tips below, before you taste and then optionally still add (less) salt.

High sodium foods: like tomato paste, celery, celery seeds, nori/kombu, cooked carrots, spinach, and even white miso (which is also considered wfpb sos-free) even though it’s loaded with sodium—use miso in moderation—are all whole healthy plant-based foods to add sodium (again, go easy on the miso!).

Using apple cider vinegar when cooking to season food will also help you to use less and less sodium.

Why Acids Like Apple Cider Vinegar Work

A lot of this is based on classical cooking correction techniques, such as fixing an over-salted dish by adding something sweet or sour; or fixing an overly sweet dish by adding something bitter or sour.

A great example of this sweetness correction is seen in soft drinks like Coke or Pepsi. The amount of sugar is disgustingly sweet in many soft drinks—even sweeter than they actually taste!—but the addition of the sour citric acid makes it palatable and reduces the sweetness, while “seasoning” the drink.

Have you ever noticed how flat Coke is sweeter and carbonated water is bitter? The bitter taste from carbonation also makes the impossible amount of sugar in drinks like these less sickening and possible to drink.

In a similar way, the acid and sweetness from the vinegar does a similar trick to make the dish seem saltier when cooked with a splash of vinegar. Really, it works in a similar way to salt, to bring out the natural flavors, already present in the food.

You can read more about using different types of vinegar to season different foods in my Substack exclusive (free) mini guide: A Pinch of Vinegar, but the key points are to make sure you stir in the vinegar well and cook the food for at least 60 seconds, on medium-heat, before tasting so that acid can do it’s magic, and before adding more apple cider vinegar.

Using Apple Cider Vinegar To Season Food

Apple cider vinegar is truly magical both for health and cooking. Apple cider vinegar is amazing as a seasoning replacement for salt, since it also brings out the flavors naturally in food.

I find that starting with about 1 tsp (~5ml) for every cup of liquid works well when seasoning sauces.

For deglazing (adding saltiness/seasoning to things like onions or mushrooms) start with about 1 tbsp (~15ml) per half cup of the dry ingredients.

These seem to work well with most everything I’ve tried it with. Some dishes may require much more or way less though so use your discretion, or reach out and ask me! I’m always happy to connect and see if I can help others in the community.

Salt-Free Superpowers!

When you reduce salt your taste buds become more sensitive to more subtle flavors. Highening your sense of taste will seem like a superpower because you’ll taste things in food that you never knew were even there. Sure, salt/sodium will taste saltier, but sweet will also taste sweeter, and the same for all the tongue sensations a tastes.

You’ll be surprised what you’ve been missing out on, seriously.

Still Struggling? Try Some Temporary Yellow Light Foods

Yellow light foods are not exactly healthy, but they are healthier than red light foods (highly processed and refined foods) like table salt.

These are good transitional foods for you to use to eventually become free from, or to reduce, your added salt intake. Again, these ingredients should be used sparingly, as they are very high in sodium.

Yellow Light (Limited/Transition) Foods:

• soy sauce
• capers
• liquid aminos
• tamari
• olives

Again, these should be used as transitional foods and used sparingly if you do indeed want to reduce your sodium intake.

Additional or Important Tips, Tricks, and Hacks

Some extra tricks and hacks

• Dried Mushroom Powders: Enhance savory flavors similar to how salt or apple cider vinegar works for seasoning.
• Tomato Paste Tubes: These are great for adding a quick hit of sodium and savory to a dish without having to open a can.
• Tomato Flakes or Tomato Powder: These are even more useful than tomato paste since it’s in a dried form and also has no additional liquid. Highly recommended if you can find either one.
• Use Mirepoix: There’s a reason that chefs start most dishes with carrots, celery, and onions: they all add natural sodium.

Conclusion

While going totally salt-free might seem difficult, or even impossible for some, there is a dose-response relationship with salt and heart disease and stroke—so any reduction is good and will lower your chances of having either a stroke or a heart attack. By using modified traditional cooking techniques (like using vinegars and sodium rich ingredients to season foods) or modern hacks (like using ground salt) we can at least manage to reduce our salt intake which might just save our lives.

If you plan to remove added salt completely like I have, then I know it seems scary and restricting, but it’s also so liberating since you’ll be able to taste things in food that you never knew were even there, because your taste buds are damaged from too much salt. It’s like access to a secret club of foodies who can taste what others can’t. It’s a wild and crazy ride if you’re ready for it! Buckle-up!

For Salt-Free recipe inspiration check out some of the other Salt-Free WFPB Recipes to try some amazingly delicious food without any added salt.

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