How to get involved
Reduce your own salt intake
Follow our 6 steps to 6 grams
- Slowly reduce the amount of salt you use while cooking – your taste buds will adapt
- Use herbs, spices, lemon, garlic and fresh chilli when cooking to add flavour in place of salt
- Drain and rinse canned vegetables and beans – they may be stored in salted water!
- Check food labels to check salt levels and choose the lower salt option. No nutrition labels? Write to the manufacturer to ask why!
- Take salt shakers and salty sauces off the table so younger family members don’t develop the habit of adding salt to their food
- Use the FREE FoodSwitch app to help you choose the healthier option! FoodSwitch is a simple to use app for smartphones to help you find out what’s in the food you’re eating, so you can make simple switches to healthier options. FoodSwitch allows you to scan the barcodes of your food and drinks products and instantly see whether they are high (red), medium (amber) or low (green) in fat, saturates, sugars and salt per 100g. It also searches the database for similar but healthier alternative products, making it easier than ever to switch to healthier food choices. Click here to download the app for iPhone and Android
Swap high salt ingredients for lower salt alternatives
- Tinned tuna in brine → tinned tuna in water
- Smoked salmon → fresh oily fish
- Ham and cheese sandwich filling → fresh sliced chicken and salad
- Salted butter → unsalted butter
- Prepacked salted popcorn → fresh popped unflavoured popcorn
- Salad dressings or mayonnaise → Fresh herbs, balsamic vinegar or lemon juice
- Instant noodles → make your own with plain noodles, vegetables and fish or meat
- Pizza with high salt toppings e.g. anchovies, olives, pepperoni, marinated meats → Pizza with lower salt topping e.g. grilled chicken, peppers, mushrooms, sweetcorn
Talk to us
Throughout the week we will be communicating via our social media channels
Use the hashtag #SaltAwarenessWeek so that we can see your posts!
Have you reduced the amount of salt in your diet? Was it easy to do or did you find it challenging? Share your story with us – it might be featured on our website and we’ll share these stories with manufacturers during our meetings with them.
Get writing!
- Write to your MP and ask them what they are doing to reduce salt in food
- Write to the Department of Health and Social Care to demand a strong salt reduction programme to benefit your health, and the health of the next generation!
- Write to your local health authority to ask how they are addressing levels of salt in food sold in your community
- Write to your favourite restaurants and ask them to provide lower salt options
- Write to your favourite brands and ask them to reduce salt in their products
Run a Local Event
- Try running some cookery demonstrations with taste testing sessions and provide some low salt recipes to convince people that LOW salt doesn’t mean LOW flavour
- Organise a quiz on the effects that salt has on health and the simple ways to reduce salt intake
- Create a notice board in your school canteen, your workplace or a local library. Use our poster (coming soon!) and other materials to raise awareness of salt
- Set up a stall or information point in your local supermarket. Engage people in conversations to raise awareness of salt in food and the effect of salt on health. Share tips on how to reduce salt intake and use our resources – available here!
- If you are trained in blood pressure measurements, offer free blood pressure readings at your workplace and encourage people to lower their salt intake
- Run practical activities! [PDF 645KB]
- guessing how much salt is in a meal*
- arranging a selection of meals from highest to lowest salt content*
- spooning out how much salt you think is 6g or how much is in a meal*
* Use products such as ready meals, pizza, cheese and pickle sandwich, ham roll or a bowl of breakfast cereal with milk
If you do hold a local event, make sure you email us some photos cash@qmul.ac.uk or tweet us @actiononsalt
Click here for information on World Salt Awareness Week 2019
Know Your Numbers!
Eating too much salt puts us at risk of high blood pressure. However many people do not know they have high blood pressure as it has no symptoms, so visit your GP and make sure you #KnowYourNumbers!
For more information on dealing with high blood pressure, please visit the Blood Pressure UK website: http://www.bloodpressureuk.org/Home
