With such a variety of pre packaged and canned foods available for our hectic lifestyles, it is no wonder that most people are consuming too much salt. Even a can of vegetable soup which claims to be healthy and “trans fat free” should be avoided because of excess sodium content. Natural food has about 10% of your salt already in it, and the food industry is loading their food with salt and taxing our bodies. Although sodium is critical to our lives as it maintains your blood’s water contents, balances acids in blood, and is necessary for the movement of electric charges in the nerves, too much of it can increase blood pressure and put a strain on arteries. Here are three tips to avoid salt.

1. Cook with fresh ingredients. Although you may think you are feeding your family a healthy meal, many frozen veggies have excess salt. If you must buy them look for ones that have no salt added. Other canned goods such as beans or soup have extremely high amounts of sodium in order to preserve them. By rinsing foods from a can you can decrease your sodium intake while still benefiting from the convenience of canned food.

2. Cook rice and pasta without adding salt. Many people think that you have to add salt to boiling water before cooking pasta or rice. The fact is eliminating that teaspoon or so of salt and substituting a flavorful sauce filled with herbs is a great way to keep the flavor but lose the salt.

3. Limit junk food. Chips have such a high amount of sodium that it is extremely unforgiving to both your waist line, and your blood pressure. Even so call “healthy vegetable chips” have excruciatingly high amounts of salt. Beat your cravings by looking for other healthy alternatives such as an apple or cheese stick.

Removing salt from your diet can be hard at first because many people’s bodies are so used to having it in high amounts. You may experience withdrawal symptoms such as headaches at first, but after a few weeks you will feel great. Your blood pressure will drop and you will have a much better chance of living a longer and healthier life.