Best foods for low sodium

Sodium is essential for fluid balance and nerve signaling, but most American diets deliver far more than the body needs, largely from processed and restaurant food rather than the salt shaker. Building meals around naturally low-sodium whole foods is one of the simplest ways to bring the total down without tracking every milligram, and it leaves room for the potassium and fiber that help offset sodium's effects.

This ranking covers the 754 foods in our database that qualify as low sodium, then orders them by our Nutrient Density Score, a 1 to 100 relative measure of nutrition delivered per calorie. That two-step approach matters: plenty of foods are low in sodium yet thin on nutrients, so we surface the ones that are both. Leafy greens dominate the top. Spinach, raw and Kale, raw score 100 and 99 while carrying only 79 mg and 53 mg of sodium per 100 grams, and fresh herbs like Basil, fresh come in near the floor at 4 mg. Watercress, raw pairs a perfect density score with just 41 mg.

One caveat

These figures are for raw, unsalted foods from USDA FoodData Central. Cooking, canning, dressings, and seasoning can multiply the sodium several times over, so how you prepare a food often matters more than the food itself. Individual sodium needs vary, and this is a reference tool, not medical advice.