Low Salt / No Salt

[Don___Barb_Bogu]

Got out of the Hospital last Sunday. Another bout of almost a dirt nap. When your told to lower or remove salt from your food pay attention. And no cheating no reward for being good for a week. As it was explained to me one trip to In-and Out could be my last. No or low salt food is boring. I am not a happy camper....

[mama_sylvia]

Most foods that you make yourself can be very low sodium. You just need to understand the purpose of salt in a recipe to know how much you can reduce it. In most recipes, it's to add flavor, so of course can be deleted and maybe add more non-sodium spices or herbs. Occasionally, it serves other purposes, such as being a stabilizer in bread recipes. But even there, I reduced the usual 1 tsp salt in a 3-cups-of-flour recipe down to 1/2 tsp and no one even noticed. If I was still making bread, I'd try cutting it down even further.

[Don___Barb_Bogu]

We found a web site called healthy hart all kinds of stuff that is low or no salt.We are looking at buying a portable oxygen. machine Direct home medical is having a really good sale right now. We will have to cancel a few trips but worth the money, in the long run...

[mama_sylvia]

Dang, Don, that was a lousy way to spend eclipse day.

I found an interesting product at the store the other day. Swanson now makes a totally unsalted chicken broth. Twice the price of regular broth, of course, but I bought some to try. (Making my own isn't difficult but it's such a bother, and then straining all the stuff out to leave just the broth is another bother.)

[Don___Barb_Bogu]

Well in and out of that hospital. agin this time kidneys got infected as well. picked up the infection in the hospital wouldn't respond to antibiotics was in isolation for over 24 hours, what a mess. I am going to beat this congestive heart problem and the COPD. Nurse is coming by 1or 2 times a week to help the DW and I beat this. Thanks to all for the advice on spices, started using some food is tasting better.

[toedtoes]

mama.sylvia wrote:
> Dang......start looking at labels and EVERYTHING has carbs and sodium

No kidding! Some sodium is tolerable (in fact, your body needs a little, just way less than most people take in) but the amounts in some items are incredible! And often the low-sodium version tastes like cardboard.

Someone makes a low-sodium catsup that is actually pretty good (but probably has too much sugar for a low-carb diet). Like you, I find making my own is usually easier as well as healthier.

Yeah, it's tough. You don't realize how hard it is to shop until you have to watch two or more levels. And if you don't cook, you're really limited in what will work. And even things like flavored water drops will surprise you - one flavor will have nothing, another will have sodium or caffeine. You have to check each flavor and each brand each time you shop (because of course, they change the formula without telling you).

[mama_sylvia]

> Dang......start looking at labels and EVERYTHING has carbs and sodium

No kidding! Some sodium is tolerable (in fact, your body needs a little, just way less than most people take in) but the amounts in some items are incredible! And often the low-sodium version tastes like cardboard.

Someone makes a low-sodium catsup that is actually pretty good (but probably has too much sugar for a low-carb diet). Like you, I find making my own is usually easier as well as healthier.

[Old-Biscuit]

Never have liked a lot of salt. Most foods have too much already.

I use pepper for seasoning...fresh ground pepper corns, hot pepper sauces, roasted peppers etc.

Quit smoking 3 yrs ago and gained some weight,,,then some more and the again more.
:S
Started a LOW Carb diet beginning of April......shed 40# to date.
Dang......start looking at labels and EVERYTHING has carbs and sodium

Never paid much attention before..now WE look and don't buy.
Doing a lot more 'home cooking' where we control seasoning (very little salt) and carbs by what we use/limit

Dang...getting healthier/staying healthy is a FULL TIME adventure :B

[mama_sylvia]

Not that I know of, but I don't care for popcorn without salt. I'd rather skip it entirely. If you like it without salt, it should be fine.

[Rice]

mama.sylvia wrote:
Bye-bye popcorn as well.

Why no popcorn? I make my own and don't put salt on it. Is there sodium in the corn itself?

[mr__ed]

Expyinflight wrote:
For an occasional treat, if you can find it, try maple pepper....with a few things. On a piece of grilled salmon, especially. Wow!

Never heard of "maple pepper". I'll have to look into it. 😉

[mama_sylvia]

Welcome to the low sodium lifestyle. 😉 I only have one kidney left and it is in stage 3 kidney failure, so I'm very motivated to baby it as much as possible. Like others have said, most seasoning blends are not salt-free. But making your own is pretty easy, and so is using individual spices. Ground rosemary is fabulous on potatoes. Garlic and paprika are great on almost everything. I like fresh cilantro in some dishes (not all). Vinegar and lemon juice are also flavor options (check the label, some are higher in sodium than others).

You also need to experiment to see what you can completely give up and what you really want but will have to accept limited amounts of. I love ham and bacon but have completely given up ham and only have a small amount of bacon once in a blue moon. Bye-bye popcorn as well. But I really prefer salted to unsalted butter so I use small amounts of butter. If you and your DW like bread, look into a breadmaker. I found that recipes calling for 2 tsp (or more!) of salt tasted just fine cut down to 1/2 tsp or even 1/4 tsp of salt.

No idea whether you can look forward to getting off oxygen. You didn't say what almost put you in a dirt nap, and it's unlikely anyone here could even make a guess anyway. It depends on whether your heart or lungs suffered permanent damage or whether the damage is reversible and to what degree. I had to come home on oxygen when I suffered a pulmonary embolus but I got off it within a few days.

BTW, my last bloodwork, my creatinine was 1.2. It will probably never get down to normal level again but my lone kidney is doing a bang-up job.

[Expyinflight]

For an occasional treat, if you can find it, try maple pepper....with a few things. On a piece of grilled salmon, especially. Wow!

[mr__ed]

I'm not on a salt-restricted diet but I use Morton Lite Salt, which has 50% less sodium than table salt and, as a bonus, is also a good source of potassium. I believe there is also a sodium free salt available, but if it's mostly potassium, I would be concerned. I think the 50% sodium lite salt is a good tradeoff.

[toedtoes]

jesseannie wrote:

toedtoes wrote:

jesseannie wrote:
Low salt/low fat is the wrong approach!
The problem with the American diet is sugar, grain products and starchy vegetables. All the carbohydrates.
My lovely and I are on a high fat, high salt, very low carb nutrition plan. We have lost 200 pounds together and she has reversed her type 2 diabetes. She no longer injects insulin or takes the very expensive diabetic prescriptions at all. Our blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels are all within normal ranges with no statins. My lovely does take one small dose of high blood pressure medicine per day.
This is all under a MDs recommendation and supervision.
We have been mislead about nutrition for years and it is fattening us and the pocketbooks of the pharmaceutical industry
Jesseannie

A low carb low sugar diet is definitely beneficial for folks with diabetes. However, heart conditions like congestive heart failure, are not the same disease.

It's great you've been able to get healthy, but your medical advice to others is severely dangerous. As my father had congestive heart failure, it concerns me when folks post on the internet that a low salt low fat diet is not beneficial or healthy and that all you have to do is eliminate sugar and carbs. Please keep the medical advice to yourself.

So it is ok for other people to express their *medical advice* only if you agree, thanks but no tganks....
I am 5 bypass heart surgery survivor I have done the research and I will stand by my own experience. I was not giving medical advice I was telling my experience. Just like everyone else has done on this thread. So Mister Toes Back off.
Jesseannie

Nobody else has expressed medical advice. Everyone else has simply made suggestions on how to flavor in a low salt diet.

However, your very first statement was addressing the OP's medical need for a low salt diet and you then proceeded to tell the OP that his doctor's instructions were bad and that he is being misleaded into something that is not good for him.

As I said, I'm glad your health is on track, but comparing diabetes to heart disease is not helpful. Leave the medical advice at home and just address the question asked - how to make a low salt diet taste good.

P.S. I am not a Mister.