More herbs, Less salt

“Herbs are the friend of the physician and the pride of cooks,” Charlemagne

Hello! 🙂 Apologies for dodging last week’s post. I had reached my wits end and was feeling much uninspired and knew I would not give you a post of the quality and Siro touch you have been accustomed. It definitely would not be fair to give you a half-baked post just to fill in the Monday post slot, you deserve the best from me. Though after the break, which I believe I needed, today’s post is on a healthier note!

Can you imagine there is such a holiday as ‘More herbs, less salt day’? Well, it exists and that day is today. It basically promotes the use of natural herbs to make your food tastier as opposed to using salt as the main flavour enhancer. Arguably salt is the best ‘spice’ since food without it is bland. Though we are only meant to consume 1,500-2,300 milligrammes of salt a day, roughly a half to one teaspoon, unfortunately, on average we consume triple that amount. Worse still, up to 70% of the sodium in our diets comes from processed foods and not the salt we add, even foods that we do not feel are salty such as bread and breakfast cereals. Excessive salt consumption negatively affects your blood vessels, heart, brain, kidneys and can give you cancer. Scary right? You thought hypertension was the worst yet all these other issues can come from salt.

The best way to avoid over consumption of salt is to stop adding it to our foods, but c’mon most of us can’t, so adding more herbs to food to avoid a lot of salts is the next practical option. Fresh herbs are rich in essential oils, vitamins, antioxidants and much more nutritive substances that help the body fight against illnesses. But remember sodium chloride is an essential part of our diet, everything in moderation. There are so many ways to pair your favourite food with different herbs, so no excuses. Do not underestimate the herbs you use in your kitchen, coriander is actually one of the richest herbal sources of vitamin K, garlic’s phytonutrients reduce cholesterol and even rosemary is a great source of iron. Herbs are in reality medicine in small doses, we must eat our food as medicine or be forced to eat medicine as food. It’s a win-win situation, flavour and health!

So without further ado here are some tasty recipes to try out on this healthy Monday! I will most definitely be trying some recipes this week so follow me on social media to find out what recipes I tried and liked.

Keep Smiling 🙂

Simply Siro

chicken and poatoes

Crispy rosemary chicken and potatoes recipe

lemon tilapia

Lemon garlic tilapia recipe

salad

Israeli tomato and cucumber salad recipe

Pictures courtesy of allrecipes.com