7. Make Your Own Salad Dressing

Drenching salads with bottled dressing is pretty much akin to sprinkling salt on your mixed greens since most dressings pack as much as 300 to 500 mg sodium in a 2-tablespoon serving. And most of us don’t stop at just 2 tablespoons. But the core ingredients in salad dressing, oil and vinegar, are sodium free. Mix the two with a dab of mustard, any kind works but Dijon is the usual choice, and the sodium numbers are so minimal it’s not even worth counting.

Kitchen tip: Whisk together 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard for a low-fat vinaigrette. Optional add-ins: dried herbs, chopped shallots, lemon zest, fresh ground pepper. See how step-by-step in Making a Basic Vinaigrette.