Low Sodium

Question
Because of fluid retention, my doctor has reduced my sodium intake to no more than 2000-2500 mg a day, but would prefer less.  Food is nasty without salt, yak!. I need to know how to spice up food and/or receipts.  I'm so tired of salad, raw veggie, and baked meats with no taste.  The fruit I enjoy.  Please help.....  

Answer
Hi Glenda,

You are going though what every person who restricts their sodium goes through.  First of all, food is great without salt.  Using salt you cannot even taste the food.

First thing to keep in mind is that you are going to need to retrain your tastebuds to taste food, not just salt.  It does take a while so you need to stick with it.  There are tons of really good products available from my store and others which you can use instead of the high salt varieties available at most large grocery stores.  Be sure to use fresh high quality seasonings.  And add a portion of them at the end of the cooking cycle.  Be careful with the meat you buy.  I drive west out of town to an old fashioned meat market and get fresh meats.  What you find in the grocery stores in generally very old and very processed.  My butchers joke that they did not run from the back room to the display case fast enough so the meat is less than fresh.  A few seconds less fresh.  It makes a hugh difference.

Next you need recipes that are developed for a low sodium diet.  My favorite book is by Don Gazzaniga titled "The No-Salt Lowest-Sodium Cookbook".  He developed the recipes from scratch with no salt in mind.  He also has a low sodium baking book out now.  You can visit his web page for more information at www.megaheart.com.  Also visit Dick's site at www.lowsodiumcooking.com for more tips and recipes.  Another good source is www.nosalt.com.

Keep a journel for a week or two listing all the foods that you eat and their sodium content.  You will need a food guide.  I like "Food Counts".  That is also available at www.healthyheartmarket.com.  It is a pain to do this but you can really learn where you are getting your sodium from and where you can cut back.  You will be very surprised at what you learn.

Your doctor presribed a level of sodium that is recommended for a healthy person.  Once you reach that goal you can go down further.  Many people are able with little effort to stay at around 500mg a day.

Best of luck,

Pete

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