Low sodium
Replies
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missysippy930 wrote: »sollyn23l2 wrote: »missysippy930 wrote: »Use fresh food and prepare your own food as much as possible. Use herbs and spices with no salt for flavoring. There are many sites on the internet with low sodium recipes.
I would argue use a little bit of salt rather than no salt. Most people will find food nearly inedible with no salt. Plus, we do actually need salt to live, it's part of our basic bodily functions.
There’s sodium in many unprocessed foods, which occurs naturally. Meats, dairy, eggs, vegetables for instance. Not very likely that anyone would be able to totally avoid sodium. I disagree that not adding salt makes food inedible. Quite the contrary. I cook without adding salt, using herbs and spices. Average Americans eat about 3400 mg daily, 2300 mg is the recommended amount of sodium.
Yeah, and the amount of sodium occurring naturally in unprocessed foods is so high that ancient civilizations never bothered to mine it or view it as so valuable that they paid their soldiers with it.2 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »missysippy930 wrote: »sollyn23l2 wrote: »missysippy930 wrote: »Use fresh food and prepare your own food as much as possible. Use herbs and spices with no salt for flavoring. There are many sites on the internet with low sodium recipes.
I would argue use a little bit of salt rather than no salt. Most people will find food nearly inedible with no salt. Plus, we do actually need salt to live, it's part of our basic bodily functions.
There’s sodium in many unprocessed foods, which occurs naturally. Meats, dairy, eggs, vegetables for instance. Not very likely that anyone would be able to totally avoid sodium. I disagree that not adding salt makes food inedible. Quite the contrary. I cook without adding salt, using herbs and spices. Average Americans eat about 3400 mg daily, 2300 mg is the recommended amount of sodium.
Yeah, and the amount of sodium occurring naturally in unprocessed foods is so high that ancient civilizations never bothered to mine it or view it as so valuable that they paid their soldiers with it.
Agreed, and a pretty interesting story line for sure. Cheers.1 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »missysippy930 wrote: »sollyn23l2 wrote: »missysippy930 wrote: »Use fresh food and prepare your own food as much as possible. Use herbs and spices with no salt for flavoring. There are many sites on the internet with low sodium recipes.
I would argue use a little bit of salt rather than no salt. Most people will find food nearly inedible with no salt. Plus, we do actually need salt to live, it's part of our basic bodily functions.
There’s sodium in many unprocessed foods, which occurs naturally. Meats, dairy, eggs, vegetables for instance. Not very likely that anyone would be able to totally avoid sodium. I disagree that not adding salt makes food inedible. Quite the contrary. I cook without adding salt, using herbs and spices. Average Americans eat about 3400 mg daily, 2300 mg is the recommended amount of sodium.
This is pretty subjective though and recommendations don't really take into account lifestyle. I'm hypertensive and the first thing my Dr. told me was lower my sodium which I did and kept it around 1800-2000 Mg. It did absolutely nothing for my hypertension as I was a non-responder to that and not sodium sensitive...I'm recreationally active and at the time was also doing a lot of training for endurance cycling and had major cramping issues all of the time, not only while training, but also waking up in the middle of the night to charlie horses in my calves and the like.
Problem was I wasn't taking in enough sodium to replace what I was losing when I workout. Even without deliberate training, I'm pretty active recreationally and live in the desert where it's over 100* in the summer and I sweat a lot. Just going for a walk my shirt will be soaked with sweat and when it dries it's caked white with salt.
I'm very much an advocate for whole foods and that's primarily what I eat, but I do need to really make sure that I'm getting enough sodium, especially in the summer months, which I largely "supplement" with pickles and pickle juice.
My hypertension doesn't really respond to how much sodium I'm taking in...I
normalized my hypertension just with losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight and regular exercise.
Everyone is different, and there are exceptions to everything. In fact, my health has improved by limiting sodium. I never claimed anyone should eliminate sodium.
The truth is, you are your own best advocate. Do what’s best for you! I’ve been here a very long time. Lost a lot of weight and have kept it off for years now.
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lynn_glenmont wrote: »missysippy930 wrote: »sollyn23l2 wrote: »missysippy930 wrote: »Use fresh food and prepare your own food as much as possible. Use herbs and spices with no salt for flavoring. There are many sites on the internet with low sodium recipes.
I would argue use a little bit of salt rather than no salt. Most people will find food nearly inedible with no salt. Plus, we do actually need salt to live, it's part of our basic bodily functions.
There’s sodium in many unprocessed foods, which occurs naturally. Meats, dairy, eggs, vegetables for instance. Not very likely that anyone would be able to totally avoid sodium. I disagree that not adding salt makes food inedible. Quite the contrary. I cook without adding salt, using herbs and spices. Average Americans eat about 3400 mg daily, 2300 mg is the recommended amount of sodium.
Yeah, and the amount of sodium occurring naturally in unprocessed foods is so high that ancient civilizations never bothered to mine it or view it as so valuable that they
paid their soldiers with it.
They used a lot of salt to preserve meat and fish. BTW, what was the average life expectancy? Comparing now to then is pointless. My opinion only, of course.
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missysippy930 wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »missysippy930 wrote: »sollyn23l2 wrote: »missysippy930 wrote: »Use fresh food and prepare your own food as much as possible. Use herbs and spices with no salt for flavoring. There are many sites on the internet with low sodium recipes.
I would argue use a little bit of salt rather than no salt. Most people will find food nearly inedible with no salt. Plus, we do actually need salt to live, it's part of our basic bodily functions.
There’s sodium in many unprocessed foods, which occurs naturally. Meats, dairy, eggs, vegetables for instance. Not very likely that anyone would be able to totally avoid sodium. I disagree that not adding salt makes food inedible. Quite the contrary. I cook without adding salt, using herbs and spices. Average Americans eat about 3400 mg daily, 2300 mg is the recommended amount of sodium.
Yeah, and the amount of sodium occurring naturally in unprocessed foods is so high that ancient civilizations never bothered to mine it or view it as so valuable that they
paid their soldiers with it.
They used a lot of salt to preserve meat and fish. BTW, what was the average life expectancy? Comparing now to then is pointless. My opinion only, of course.
Life expectancy is different than life span and the 2 are confused all the time.2 -
brandyzent21 wrote: »Looking for low sodium meal & snack ideas.
I hope you got helpful information. Best of luck to you!
I apologize for my part in hijacking your post.
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I'm one of those whose salt intake actually DOES impact my blood pressure; limiting salt took me from borderline needing meds to rock solid normal. If a food has a low-sodium version on the supermarket shelf I grab it, and I avoid microwave meals, but otherwise the biggest factor for me was learning the TIMING of adding salt, rather than the AMOUNT. I used to add salt while food was cooking, then again at the table because the flavor had soaked into the food and wasn't as easily identifiable on the surface. But if I wait until the very last second to add salt right before serving, it's still sitting on the surface and I don't need to add additional salt at the table. (Other spices/herbs I still add earlier in the cooking process.)5
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Not to hijack the hijacked but I've always wondered..,
I don't cook or bake but what happens if a recipe calls for salt and you just...don't...put...it...in? Like in cake or something!
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Salt in baking is added to alter the chemistry (specifically to slow down yeast) and brighten the other flavors, make them more intense. Without the salt, the dough would rise faster than anticipated, but not evenly meaning a less stable texture throughout, while being less flavorful than anticipated.1
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Not to hijack the hijacked but I've always wondered..,
I don't cook or bake but what happens if a recipe calls for salt and you just...don't...put...it...in? Like in cake or something!
I don't bake, but according to my wife, nothing good comes from that in regards to the final product...not just the taste, it just doesn't come out right or set right or whatever.
I cook a lot and I'm pretty sensitive to salt taste so I don't add much salt to my cooking and if I'm using a recipe I never use even close to the amount of salt they recommend and I find that I can still taste a bit of the saltiness but only enough to bring out the rest of the flavors of the food...wife on the other hand thinks everything I make is good, but nowhere near enough salt so she's constantly adding it. But that's the good thing if you don't cook with much, people can always add...can't ever take it back it you put too much in.
Unfortunately a lot of restaurants (mostly chains) that I can't really eat at because they over-salt things and that's all I taste...especially pasta.0 -
Not to hijack the hijacked but I've always wondered..,
I don't cook or bake but what happens if a recipe calls for salt and you just...don't...put...it...in? Like in cake or something!
I do add it to some baking (bread comes to mind) because I am always afraid that it's an essential chemical element for some magical process in the bake and I don't want to screw up the final product. I just use way less than the recipe calls for.0 -
When I was on Weight Watchers, every day was a salt bomb. I mostly lived off frozen dinners and fast food (LOTS of salt in a 6" subway sandwich and a bowl of soup) and, once I hit a plateau, too much sodium was one of things I looked at. (I didn't have mfp then and OF COURSE that wasn't why I plateaued). But I've tried to stay lower sodium ever since and silly things like that cross my mind so thanks! 0
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Not to hijack the hijacked but I've always wondered..,
I don't cook or bake but what happens if a recipe calls for salt and you just...don't...put...it...in? Like in cake or something!
Varies. If you're interested in questions like that, look for a food-science oriented cooking book. I like Shirley Corriher's "Cookwise: The Hows & Whys of Successful Cooking" which goes into things like that, plus has a bunch of amazing recipes. (The buttermilk biscuit alone is worth the price of the book, IMO.) It's an applied food science book, not just theory. Maybe your library has it, or something similar.
Here's the index entry for salt, to give you a hint of what salt does:
Here's part of the entry about salt in bread, p 88, just to give you a feel:
Yes, I am a nerd/geek.
Apologies for the digression, OP.
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Not to hijack the hijacked but I've always wondered..,
I don't cook or bake but what happens if a recipe calls for salt and you just...don't...put...it...in? Like in cake or something!
Depends on what you're cooking. In some recipes, it's mostly there for flavor. In baking with yeast (i.e., mostly bread), it helps control the yeast so it doesn't cause too much raising too fast. I think in cakes it's mostly about flavor. Even though it doesn't salty, it won't taste quite right without it. It brings out some flavors and balances others.0 -
This was written in 2013. Dietitians and cardiologists in 2022 recommend eating between 1500-2000 mg of sodium for heart failure patients and people with high blood pressure. Your information is outdated and wrong. People should get sodium advice from dietitians and physicians, not from some person on MFP.neanderthin wrote: »Just thought I'd leave this here because posters recommending people to forgo salt is misguided and dangerous.
https://amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(13)00594-9/fulltext
“There is no conclusive evidence that a low sodium diet reduces cardiovascular events in normotensive and pre-hypertensive or hypertensive individuals. On the contrary, there is sound evidence that a low sodium diet leads to a worse cardiovascular prognosis in patients with systolic congestive heart failure or type 2 diabetes mellitus…Advising low sodium diets seems misguided and potentially dangerous and illustrates the problem of guidelines based on flawed studies using surrogate measures."
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njitaliana wrote: »This was written in 2013. Dietitians and cardiologists in 2022 recommend eating between 1500-2000 mg of sodium for heart failure patients and people with high blood pressure. Your information is outdated and wrong. People should get sodium advice from dietitians and physicians, not from some person on MFP.neanderthin wrote: »Just thought I'd leave this here because posters recommending people to forgo salt is misguided and dangerous.
https://amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(13)00594-9/fulltext
“There is no conclusive evidence that a low sodium diet reduces cardiovascular events in normotensive and pre-hypertensive or hypertensive individuals. On the contrary, there is sound evidence that a low sodium diet leads to a worse cardiovascular prognosis in patients with systolic congestive heart failure or type 2 diabetes mellitus…Advising low sodium diets seems misguided and potentially dangerous and illustrates the problem of guidelines based on flawed studies using surrogate measures."njitaliana wrote: »This was written in 2013. Dietitians and cardiologists in 2022 recommend eating between 1500-2000 mg of sodium for heart failure patients and people with high blood pressure. Your information is outdated and wrong. People should get sodium advice from dietitians and physicians, not from some person on MFP.neanderthin wrote: »Just thought I'd leave this here because posters recommending people to forgo salt is misguided and dangerous.
https://amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(13)00594-9/fulltext
“There is no conclusive evidence that a low sodium diet reduces cardiovascular events in normotensive and pre-hypertensive or hypertensive individuals. On the contrary, there is sound evidence that a low sodium diet leads to a worse cardiovascular prognosis in patients with systolic congestive heart failure or type 2 diabetes mellitus…Advising low sodium diets seems misguided and potentially dangerous and illustrates the problem of guidelines based on flawed studies using surrogate measures."
The moral of this story is, read, before you put your foot into it and what's the saying, remove all doubt. Btw I have about as much faith in the average dietitian or physician to actually research before I blindly do something they may recommend, which I strongly advise anyone to do and it's exactly how this study got linked into this discussion, because removing all salt from ones diet just might not be the healthiest thing someone might do. cheers
The American Heart Association recently strongly recommended a dietary sodium intake of <1500 mg/d for all Americans to achieve “Ideal Cardiovascular Health” by 2020. However, low sodium diets have not been shown to reduce cardiovascular events in normotensive individuals or in individuals with pre-hypertension or hypertension. Moreover, there is evidence that a low sodium diet may lead to a worse cardiovascular prognosis in patients with cardiometabolic risk and established cardiovascular disease
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Once you lower your salt intake for a little while, your taste adapts and will detect smaller amounts just fine.
Always check because many foods are packed with salt - it's astonishing.
Many recipes are also packed with sodium, so check and adjust. Most things you make really can do with reduced sodium, and still taste great.
There are low-salt Ritz and Triscit crackers, a newer discovery for me.
Breads tend to be high in salt. I make my own no-knead bread (it's easy) and after experimenting, use about a quarter of what commercial breads have. Removing salt from the recipe proved to be unpalatable.
There are low-sodium groups on social media, too, that can help answer questions you have, or put you on to new foods that become available.
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As mentioned before, how much sodium you're aiming for in your diet depends on your health. Those without heart conditions could stand to check in with their diet to ensure they are not consuming enormous amounts of sodium daily, but needn't go overboard when reducing. Those with heart failure, like my husband, need to be more careful. He swells up within hours if his sodium intake is above 2000, which makes it hard for him to breath. For most though, moderation is more than sufficient.0
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