Low Sodium Breakfast Meat: What to Buy, Make, and Skip

Two slices of cured pork bacon contain about 386 mg of sodium and two pork sausage links about 374 mg. Ham runs higher at roughly 456 mg for two slices, and canned meats are higher still.

On the other hand, fresh, unprocessed ground pork and turkey have much lower sodium totals by a wide margin, at under 50 mg per three ounces. So by starting with this meat and seasoning and cooking it yourself, you can still enjoy the breakfast meat taste you love with far less salt.

Here’s a comparison of the sodium in popular breakfast meats. All figures come from USDA FoodData Central, calculated using the USDA's own portion weights*.

If you’re watching your sodium and want to eat bacon, reduced-sodium bacon is the way to go. The USDA puts it at about 165 mg for two cooked slices compared to 386 mg for regular bacon, so you’re roughly halving the sodium while keeping the flavor you crave. But keep in mind that all brands aren’t the same, so read labels carefully.

It’s also important to understand what claims mean on the packaging, because the terms are legally defined and they don’t mean what most people assume.

"Low sodium" means 140 mg or less per serving. That’s a hard number set by the FDA, and it’s the only sodium claim on the front of a package that guarantees you a low figure.

"Reduced sodium" means that the product contains at least 25% less sodium than the regular version. It’s a comparison, not a threshold, so a reduced-sodium product can still be a high sodium product. Keep in mind that a "reduced sodium" claim can’t legally be used if the regular version already qualifies as low sodium, so the presence of the claim tells you that the original was high enough that a 25% cut was worth advertising.

"No salt added" and "unsalted" mean no salt was added during processing. It doesn’t mean the food is sodium free, and the FDA describes these terms as potentially misleading for exactly that reason. If the product is not sodium free, the label is required to carry a line reading "not a sodium free food" or "not for control of sodium in the diet." Look for it.

You can get very close to the taste of bacon without the sodium that comes from buying bacon, and it’s easier than it sounds.

Ask at the butcher counter for pork belly and have them slice it thin, or slice it yourself half-frozen, which is much easier than slicing it soft. Then marinate the slices in liquid smoke with a little maple syrup, and either bake them on a rack or fry them until crisp.

What you get is the smoke, the fat, the crispy edges, and the sweetness, which between them are most of what your palate reads as bacon. What you leave out is the curing salt, which is where most of the sodium comes from. Fresh pork belly has roughly the same sodium content as any other fresh pork, so the amount of sodium you end up eating depends almost entirely on what you add.

Two notes to keep in mind:

• Liquid smoke is potent and there’s no sodium in it, so use it sparingly for taste reasons rather than health ones.
• Since you’ll be using fresh pork, not cured pork, treat it like any raw meat: cook it through and use it within a couple of days.

When it comes to sausage options, pork sausage links run about 374 mg for two and fresh turkey sausage about 379 mg for a two-ounce serving. The lower-sodium chicken and turkey Italian sausages that do exist aren’t widely stocked so they may be hard to find.

Meanwhile, fresh ground pork is 48 mg for three ounces, and fresh ground turkey is 49 mg. The entire difference between those numbers and the sausage numbers is seasoning, and seasoning is the one part you control when you make your own sausage.

But there’s a catch that almost nobody mentions, and it undoes the advice to make your own sausage if you don’t know about it.

Roughly 90% of pork sold in the United States is injected with a solution before it reaches the case, according to the USDA. Retail pork typically carries 7 to 12% of an injection solution made from water, sodium lactate, sodium phosphates, potassium lactate, or sodium diacetate. And at injection levels up to 10%, the label is permitted to say "deep basted" or "marinated" rather than declaring the solution prominently.

So, buying ground pork to make your own low sodium sausage only works if the pork hasn’t already been salted. Read the package for the words “solution”, “basted”, or “marinated”, or any ingredient containing "phosphate." If you see them, look for a plain unenhanced pack or ask the butcher counter to grind a shoulder fresh for you.

Once you have unenhanced ground pork or ground turkey, the seasoning is the easy part. For one pound of meat, start with:

- 2 teaspoons dried sage, the flavor that makes sausage taste like sausage
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- A pinch of crushed red pepper, if you want heat

That works out to roughly one to two tablespoons of dry blend per pound, which is the ratio home sausage makers tend to land on. Mix it through the meat with your hands, then let it rest covered in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. Form into patties and cook.

For a chorizo-style sausage, drop the sage and maple and lean on cumin, smoked paprika, garlic, and a little vinegar instead. Our low sodium taco seasoning is 22 mg per tablespoon and is also a great way to season your sausage.

A few food safety notes from USDA FSIS to keep in mind:

• Fresh sausage made with pork, beef, lamb, or veal needs to reach 160°F internally. Sausage made with ground turkey or chicken needs to be 165°F. Use a food thermometer rather than judging by color, because sausage browns before it’s safe to eat.
• Fresh raw sausage keeps only one to two days refrigerated and cooked sausage keeps three to four days. Both freeze well, so a pound made on Sunday can be portioned and frozen in patties.

Canadian bacon is the middle ground when it comes to sodium, clocking in at about 274 mg for two slices. It comes from the loin rather than the belly, so it’s much leaner than bacon, but it’s still cured so it has a decent amount of sodium. We take a fuller look at where it lands in our guide to whether Canadian bacon is healthy.

Ham is higher in sodium, hitting around 456 mg for two slices of regular slices. And although not necessarily a breakfast meat, deli turkey breast has even more sodium, at roughly 512 mg for two ounces, which surprises people who assume turkey is the healthier choice. Low-salt deli turkey drops the sodium content to around 216 mg per one-ounce slice. Canned luncheon meat sits at the top of the sodium list at about 790 mg for two ounces, and there’s no version that fits comfortably into a 1,500 mg sodium day.

If deli meat is what you want to eat, start with a thicker slice of low-sodium ham or turkey and brown it in a dry hot pan. You’ll get a crisp savory edge that reads a little bit like bacon, and by doing this, a smaller portion satisfies.

If you still want to enjoy breakfast meat, but prefer less sodium, keep these tips in mind:

• Use meat as a seasoning. Take a smaller portion of the bacon or sausage you would normally eat, chop it small, and stir it through scrambled eggs or an omelette with peppers and onions. You get the flavor in every bite from a fraction of the sodium, which is a far better trade than a few whole slices sitting next to a plain egg.
• Try bacon bits. A tablespoon of real bacon bits scattered over eggs or a baked potato delivers the smoky, salty hit for a fraction of the sodium that a slice costs you. Check the label, since brands vary widely, and buy real bacon bits rather than imitation ones for the best flavor.
• Cut slices into halves or thirds. Just like the other tips that encourage you to eat less, this is a great way to spread out the taste throughout a meal instead of eating a full piece at a time.
• Boil cured meat first. A study published in the Journal of Renal Nutrition found that boiling a hot dog for three minutes cut its sodium by 39%. The same leaching principle applies to other cured meats, but the effect hasn’t been measured specifically on bacon, so treat it as a technique with an unquantifiable benefit. It will cost you some crispness and taste, however.
• Lean on smoke and spice instead of salt. Smoked paprika is a great spice because it delivers the smoky note your palate associates with bacon with no sodium at all. Black pepper, fresh herbs, and a little heat do similar work.
• Don’t forget the rest of the plate. Bread, cheese, and condiments often have more sodium than the meat. An English muffin can run over 200 mg on its own. If you’re auditing the sodium in your breakfast, pay attention to all of it.

This is one place where low sodium advice can cause real harm, and it comes up constantly in low sodium communities without anyone flagging it.

Most salt substitutes replace sodium chloride with potassium chloride. For a lot of people, that’s a reasonable trade. For anyone with kidney disease, it isn’t.

Healthy kidneys clear excess potassium. Kidneys that aren’t working properly can’t, so potassium builds up in the blood. This condition, called hyperkalemia, can cause dangerous heart rhythm problems.

The National Kidney Foundation's guidance is direct: if you have been told to limit potassium, avoid salt substitutes such as potassium chloride, and avoid specialty low-sodium foods made with them, because they’re high in potassium. Check with your doctor or kidney dietitian before using any salt substitute.

This isn’t a fringe concern. When the FDA proposed a rule that would permit wider use of potassium-based salt substitutes in foods, the National Kidney Foundation, the American Association of Kidney Patients, and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics filed a joint objection, warning about hidden potassium entering the food supply.

The safe alternative is a salt-free seasoning blend, which consists of herbs and spices with no sodium and no potassium chloride. Our homemade Mrs. Dash seasoning blend has 1 mg of sodium per serving and is great mixed into eggs, potatoes, and homemade sausage.

If you’re cooking with kidney health in mind, our renal diet recipes list potassium and phosphorus alongside sodium on every recipe.

When you’re looking for alternatives to a plate filled with breakfast meat, these recipes from our collection are a good place to start. They help keep your breakfast high in protein and delicious, without loading up on salt.

When you want protein without meat at all: Honey Yogurt Berry Parfaits have just 36 mg of sodium with 15 grams of protein. Greek yogurt is a great way to add protein to your breakfast, and this is the version worth making.

When you want meat, but not cured meat: Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken isn’t just for lunch or dinner. With only 100 mg of sodium and 17 grams of protein, it’s one of the most underrated breakfast proteins there is. Make a batch, keep it in the fridge, and add a little to eggs or breakfast burritos through the week.

When you want a vegetarian breakfast:  Our Tofu Breakfast Burrito is a protein-rich breakfast with only 242 mg of sodium. Instead of the punch you get from breakfast meat, this grab-and-go breakfast is filled with savory spices that satisfy.

Here are some more breakfast options with their corresponding sodium and protein totals:

Asparagus Frittata with Cottage Cheese  | 88 mg | 14 g |
GLP-1 Berry Oatmeal | 100 mg | 17 g |
Fruity Oatmeal | 70 mg | 10 g |
Oatmeal Breakfast Bars | 81 mg | 8 g |
Pecan Muffins | 76 mg | 10 g |
Avocado Deviled Eggs | 97 mg | 6 g |
Hash Brown Patties | 62 mg | 4 g |

An omelette is the most forgiving option of all, because the vegetables do the flavoring. Peppers, onions, mushrooms, and fresh herbs carry an egg perfectly well, and a small amount of chopped low-sodium meat folded through goes a long way.

For more morning meal inspiration, see our 19 heart healthy breakfast ideas and 8 easy high protein breakfast recipes.