Trying to cut down on salt but the food tastes bland? You can retrain your taste buds in 21 days

How often do you find food too bland for your liking, while your friends or colleagues are tucking into the exact same dish with gusto?

It’s not a figment of your imagination if food always seems to taste like the cook is stingy with the seasoning. It could be because your salt taste threshold or STT, which determines the minimum concentration of salt detectable by taste, is higher than others, explained senior dietitian Natalie Yeo from Singapore Heart Foundation. In other words, you require more salt in your food for your taste buds to detect it compared to other people.

Dining-out inconvenience aside, the more important role that your STT plays is in your health. “The STT can influence your salt appetite and possibly, be a marker for sodium intake,” said Jaclyn Reutens, a clinical and sports dietitian from Aptima Nutrition & Sports Consultants.

By now, you’d already know that less is best when it comes to salt as a high-salt or high-sodium intake is linked to hypertension, heart disease and stroke. In fact, the latest Ministry of Health's National Population Health Survey 2022 and Health Promotion Board's National Nutrition Survey 2022 released on Sep 27 appeared to demonstrate this relationship. 

The daily sodium intake of Singapore residents was found to have increased from 3,480mg in 2019 to 3,620mg in 2022 (for context, the recommended daily sodium limit is 2,000mg, which is just under one teaspoon). Meanwhile, there has also been a rise (a near-doubling) in the number of hypertension cases since 2010.

ARE YOU BORN WITH A FIXED SALT TASTE THRESHOLD?

Your food preferences are formed in childhood, according to Yeo, and they form the foundation for the foods you like throughout your life.

But these preferences aren’t set in stone. For instance, children usually prefer sweet and salty foods over sour and bitter ones. But through repeated exposure to the various flavours in their mothers’ breast milk and later through solid foods, those preferences can be modified, said Yeo.

She added that cultural and familial beliefs and practices surrounding food and eating environments can also influence your taste perceptions and STT over time.

The good news is, your taste buds can be retrained to be accustomed to foods with less salt, said Yeo, by gradually reducing the amount of sodium in your diet. But be patient as your taste buds might take about 21 days to adjust, said Reutens. 

WHAT CAN AFFECT YOUR SALT TASTE THRESHOLD?

The STT varies from person to person and it might be easier for someone with a low STT to reduce their sodium intake. Furthermore, “consuming foods with high salt contents for a long period of time can dull your taste buds’ sensitivity”, said Yeo, resulting in a need for a higher salt concentration for you to detect saltiness.

There are also other factors that can influence your salt taste sensitivity, including age, medical history, oral health and smoking, said Yeo.

Take age, for instance. “After 45, your taste buds begin to degenerate,” said Reutens. “If a 20-year-old needed one teaspoon of soya sauce for his food to be tasty, he may need two to three teaspoons to get the same effect at the age of 50.”

Certain medicines can also have an impact. “Drugs secreted into the salivary glands can cause adverse effects on the taste system, modifying mechanisms that influence the conversion of chemical signals into taste sensations, or producing a taste on their own that influences taste perception,” said Yeo.

Your dental situation is another factor. “Deterioration in oral health status, oral hygiene and prosthetic treatments can influence taste ability. Periodontal disease, too, can influence taste perceptions,” said Yeo.

And if you’re a smoker or have recently recovered from a cold, you’ll know that your ability to detect saltiness is reduced. “A smoker’s taste buds are in direct contact with chemical compounds from the cigarette that greatly reduces your ability to taste salt,” said Reutens.

As for a cold, flu or allergy, “our sense of smell is responsible for up to 80 per cent of our ability to taste. Hence, the obstruction of nasal passages reduces olfactory perception that is a key component of taste”, she said.

WHAT CAN YOU DO IF THE DISH YOU ORDERED IS TOO SALTY?

You could send the dish back – or not. If you opted for the latter, pair the dish with plain rice or noodles to reduce the saltiness, said Reutens. Drain, scrape or reduce the amount of gravy that you spoon onto your rice or noodles.

Next, order a plain vegetable dish cooked with less salt. “The potassium in the vegetables can help to offset the effects of sodium in the over-salted dish,” she said. Finally, end your meal with one serving of fruit that is also rich in potassium and fibre such as apricot, banana, honeydew melon, kiwi, mango or orange.

Other than not dousing your food in soya sauce, gravy, ketchup or chilli sauce to reduce your salt intake, you can also try to eat your food while it’s still warm. “A food’s increased temperature makes it taste saltier,” said Reutens, so you don’t have to rely on condiments.

When dining out, steer clear of foods that contain a lot of acid or vinegar such as pickled vegetables, she said, as well as creamy dishes. “Cream casseroles, stews and pasta sauces may not taste obviously salty because of the texture.”

HOW CAN YOU REDUCE YOUR SALT INTAKE?

Here’s what Reutens and Yeo recommended you can do to cut down on your salt intake:

When eating out:

• Choose plain rice over flavoured rice.
• Opt for rice noodles such as bee hoon and kway teow instead of yellow noodles that have a higher sodium content.
• Don’t finish the curry, sauce, gravy and soup in local dishes such as bak chor mee, Hokkien mee, lor mee, laksa and lontong.

When cooking:

• Look for the Healthier Choice symbol with “Lower in Sodium”. It indicates that the food contains 25 per cent less sodium than other foods in the same category.
• Choose reduced-sodium sauces such as soya sauce, oyster sauce and teriyaki sauce. When using sauces, omit the salt.
• Avoid double seasoning. After marinating food, don’t add more salt when cooking.
• Use spices and herbs such as green onion, garlic and ginger instead of salt.
• Choose fresh instead of processed foods.

When snacking:

• Opt for products labelled “no added salt”, “low in salt” or “reduced salt”.
• Choose snacks with less than 120mg sodium per 100g.
• Consider unsalted baked nuts, roasted chickpeas or plain popcorn.