salt-free diet
1
3.1
- noun
- /sɔlt-fri daɪət/
:
dieta sin sal
- After being diagnosed with hypertension, she started following a strict salt-free diet to manage her condition.
Examples
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Switching to a salt-free diet can help reduce fluid retention and improve overall health.
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Many doctors recommend a salt-free diet for patients with high blood pressure.
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"I've been on a salt-free diet so long," he joked.
Academic text (2007)
Synonyms
1
3.4
A diet that limits how much salt you eat to help control blood pressure
1
2.8
A way of eating that limits salt to help control high blood pressure
How Salty
1
2.8
1
3.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
salt-free + diet
The meaning 'a diet that restricts or eliminates salt' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'salt-free' (without salt) with 'diet' (a planned way of eating). This adjective+noun composition follows common English compounding patterns and has clear cross-linguistic parallels (e.g. 'dieta sin sal', 'régime sans sel'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
The term salt-free diet comes from the simple idea of taking the common seasoning salt out of your food so the diet is 'without salt'. Doctors began to advise people with high blood pressure to eat this way because salt makes the body hold water and can raise blood pressure, so today the phrase means eating 'without salt' for health.