Health & Fitness

Hidden Salt in Your Diet

If you're consuming too much salt, try cutting back on these everyday high-in-salt foods

By Wellness Matters /

Credit: iStock

If you’ve got too much salt in your diet, don’t just blame the usual suspects

Chances are, you’re consuming too much salt without even knowing it. Here are some everyday foods that contain a surprising amount of sodium

Canadians eat too much salt, largely due to our over-consumption of fast foods, processed meats, deli meats and canned foods.

However, these obvious offenders aren’t the only sources of excess salt. In fact, sodium occurs naturally in many healthy foods – even in our water.

Check out the sodium in these everyday foods:


  • Soy sauce – 1000 mg /1 Tbsp. (15 mL)

  • Low-fat cottage cheese – 400 mg/½ c. (125 mL)

  • Blue cheese – 237 mg/½ oz. (17 g)

  • Salted butter – 90 mg/1 Tbsp. (15 mL)

  • Cornflakes – 1170 mg/1 oz. (30 g)
  • 
Whole-grain bagel – 440 mg per bagel
  • 
Buttermilk – 130 mg/3.5 oz. (100 g)

  • Tomato juice – 130 mg /3.5 oz. (100 g)
  • 
Whole-wheat bread – 135 mg/1.5 oz. (40 g) slice

  • Oysters – 177 mg/3 oz. (85 g)

  • Crab – 836 mg/3.5 oz. (100 g)
  • 
Beets, collard, dandelion, mustard or turnip – 
174 mg/½ c. (125 mL)

  • Swiss chard – 158 mg/½ c. (125 mL)

  • Wakame – 244 mg/1 oz. (30 g)



An easy way to identify high-salt foods is to read labels and watch for words like pickled, cured, smoked or soy sauce. Look for the % Daily Value (DV) on the label; if it contains less than 5% sodium per serving, it’s low in salt.

Originally published in Wellness Matters, Canada Wide Media’s quarterly newsletter on health and wellness.