You might even experiment with a vegetarian diet, even if it's only a couple of days a week. Vegetable super stars, such as sweet potatoes, spinach, and broccoli, can be dimmed if they're buried in butter and salt. Instead, season vegetables with lemon juice plus a sprinkle of oregano, an herb-spice mixture, basil or dill, or even nothing at all. Try low-fat salad dressing on steamed broccoli. Eat three half-cup servings of vegetables with every dinner.
Salt is ubiquitous.
Most of us became accustomed to salty foods in infancy . . . and continue eating salty processed foods all our lives. Processed foods provide about 75 percent of the sodium in the average diet. After all, salt is much cheaper than flavorful natural ingredients. Restaurant foods, too, are loaded with salt. And you often can't tell the sodium content by taste.