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If you already use a slow cooker as part of your weekly meal planning routine, then you know all of the benefits of this type of cooking. It requires no more than 15-20 minutes of prep time, food tastes great when it’s slow-cooked and you can make plenty of healthy and hearty meals that are rich in veggies and proteins.
And we’ve found a hack you should try every time you cook with a slow cooker to help improve your health and speed up weight loss.
Many recipes for slow cooker meals will tell you to add salt to your food in the beginning of the meal prep, when you add the ingredients to the cooker. But oftentimes when you slow cook food, adding salt in the beginning can lead to having too much sodium in the meal.
“If too much stock, sauce, or seasonings are added to the slow-cooker before or during the cooking process, a dish that seemed properly seasoned may end up tasting too salty,” corporate chef Christopher M. Wilmoth told Self.
If you are one of the many home chefs who salts your food once you put it into the slow cooker, you are probably guilty of over seasoning your food. You should always add salt to taste to be sure you have the perfect amount for your meal. This would mean waiting until the very end of the slow cooking process to add any salt, and tasting the food as you add the salt to determine when you’ve added enough.
You never want to put too much salt into anything you cook. While a normal amount of salt is perfectly fine for your health, having too much sodium can hinder your weight loss goals. Having too much sodium in your diet can increase your level of water weight, plus increase your appetite.
