Help! Too much sodium!

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  • SailorKnightWing
    SailorKnightWing Posts: 875 Member
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    Use sea salt. It has a lot less sodium with pretty much the same benefit flavor wise as adding table salt.
    Not true. All salt, sea or table, is NaCl and contains the same amount of sodium. The difference is how much of other minerals there are, and the presence of beneficial iodine. Sea salt usually has more beneficial minerals, but less iodine. Table salt has fewer additional minerals, but has iodine.
  • nitenichiryu
    nitenichiryu Posts: 17
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    Some really good information at this site. OP, if you are using processed foods, you could probably cut some there and be able to use salt on your veggies. Look at the chart on that page. :smile:

    http://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/sodium.htm
    Too much sodium is bad for your health. It can increase your blood pressure and your risk for a heart attack and stroke.
    ...
    Nearly everyone benefits from reduced sodium consumption. Eating less sodium can help prevent, or control, high blood pressure.

    Look at the chart on this page: http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/2013-04-21/heart-disease-deaths-5-times-higher-with-low-salt-jama-study/
    The associations between systolic pressure and sodium excretion did not translate into less morbidity or improved survival. On the contrary, low sodium excretion predicted higher cardiovascular mortality. Taken together, our current findings refute the estimates of computer models of lives saved and health care costs reduced with lower salt intake.

    Source Study: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=899663

    Takeaway: Eat salt.
  • diolpah
    diolpah Posts: 134 Member
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    Who cares? Unless a doctor specifically indicated you as having severe chronic hypertension, eat as much sodium as you like. The "salt is bad" broscience of the 1970s is about as dated as the "fat is bad" broscience of the 1980s.
  • peejay65pj
    peejay65pj Posts: 15
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    since I'm battling hypertension, I too share your pain..lol.

    here's some pointers I've come up with.

    use a bread maker to make your own low-sodium bread, half the quantities of salt asked for in recipes

    use 1% sour cream with mrs. dash, hot sauce, fennel seed or lemon juice added for veggie dip

    Mexican food- look for low sodium cheeses, tortillas, canned tomatoes, beans in the grocery store

    unsalted butter, and substitute apple sauce in baking

    make your own salad dressings so there's no salt added

    I actually found that after a while with low sodium, you miss it less and some really salty stuff becomes unpleasant.

    Good Luck
  • socajam
    socajam Posts: 2,530 Member
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    Hey all,

    Really struggling to overcome my awful habit that I've gained of putting vegetable stock, salt, soy sauce etc etc anything with salt on my veggies that I have for dinner every night!
    Does anyone know any low sodium options that would give me a salty sort of edge? Started the habit in the first place because I eat veggies for dinner every night and got sick of the taste of normal veggies by themselves :(
    Such an awful habit I'd love some advice.

    Cheers :)


    Fresh Lemon juice: 1 tbs of olive oil and 1 tbs of balsamic vinegar (no salt) along with any no salt seasoning (Mrs. Dash) or Costco have a really nice no salt one, to me much nicer than Mrs. Dash.
  • jclark0523
    jclark0523 Posts: 47 Member
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    Use sea salt. It has a lot less sodium with pretty much the same benefit flavor wise as adding table salt.
    Not true. All salt, sea or table, is NaCl and contains the same amount of sodium. The difference is how much of other minerals there are, and the presence of beneficial iodine. Sea salt usually has more beneficial minerals, but less iodine. Table salt has fewer additional minerals, but has iodine.

    Good to know. Guess I was misinformed.
  • FourIsCompany
    FourIsCompany Posts: 269 Member
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    Look at the chart on this page: http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/2013-04-21/heart-disease-deaths-5-times-higher-with-low-salt-jama-study/
    ...
    Takeaway: Eat salt.

    I'm afraid that study is hugely flawed. It doesn't say anything else about the subjects' lifestyles. If the high salt intake group were otherwise healthy marathon runners and the low salt intake group were slovenly couch potatoes, it would skew the results quite a bit. Here's an article from Harvard edu that explains why the JAMA study is flawed.

    http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/jama-sodium-study-flawed/
    A new study would have you believe that low-salt diets raise your risk of dying from heart disease—a surprising finding, and one that’s sure to grab headlines worldwide. The only problem is that the study’s conclusions are most certainly wrong.

    It's true, we can all find resources on the internet that support our opinions. And I have a history of sodium/blood pressure issues, so that is the position I speak from. The OP was looking for ways to decrease their sodium intake, not asking if they should or not. The chart I linked to shows that most sodium in the diet comes from restaurant and processed foods.

    My takeaway: If you WANT to reduce sodium, eat less restaurant and processed foods.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,134 Member
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    Or unless you have a medical issue, like high blood pressure, just don't worry about going over on sodium. I don't track sodium or sugar. There is no need to.

    +1

    I have HBP and it sucks to monitor sodium intake and not be able to eat what everyone else eats because of the salt/sodium content.
  • nena49659
    nena49659 Posts: 260 Member
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    I have HBP and started trying to limit my intake of sodium, as well. It's been hard to do since my family salts EVERYTHING. About the 50th time I asked them if they were trying to kill me when they would taste test something I was cooking and grab the salt shaker and pour it in our food, they finally quit. I told them to add salt to their own food AFTER it was on their plates.

    This has really helped me cut down on processed foods and makes me cook more. Because, eating some of those high sodium foods can be really unpleasant when you start getting used to your new diet.
  • amsipub
    amsipub Posts: 84 Member
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    I really like to have roasted veggies, especially this time of the year. You can just use a pinch of sea salt, black pepper and olive oil. I also like to change things up and put in leeks sometimes or garlic with the veggies.
  • ItsAnIllusion
    ItsAnIllusion Posts: 63 Member
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    I monitor sodium intake, and I find the things that will make me go over 1500 are almost always processed foods, not my own cooking. I still salt food I am making, as I always have, at reasonable amounts. I do avoid soy sauce.

    So I would say go ahead and use salt on your on cooking and don't worry about it. If you want some other ideas, I love Parmesan cheese on veggies, or thyme. Fresh rosemary is also good with root veggies.
  • jennaworksout
    jennaworksout Posts: 1,739 Member
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    blaghhhh, I never add salt to anything, I love the flavors of my food already.. I must be a good cook hahahahaha....but seriously I watch my sodium intake because I don't want the water retention... makes me feel like poop, I use herbs, basil, oregano, thyme, pepper.
  • SailorKnightWing
    SailorKnightWing Posts: 875 Member
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    blaghhhh, I never add salt to anything, I love the flavors of my food already.. I must be a good cook hahahahaha....
    Same. I almost never add salt to anything I cook because everything that's supposed to be salty has some kind of salty ingredient in it already, whether it be soy sauce, chicken stock, cheese, etc. I don't like most restaurant foods because they're just too salty! My mom learned how to cook without salt because of my dad's high blood pressure, so I never developed a taste for it. Which is bad because I have low blood pressure due to unrelated health problems...
  • jennaworksout
    jennaworksout Posts: 1,739 Member
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    blaghhhh, I never add salt to anything, I love the flavors of my food already.. I must be a good cook hahahahaha....
    Same. I almost never add salt to anything I cook because everything that's supposed to be salty has some kind of salty ingredient in it already, whether it be soy sauce, chicken stock, cheese, etc. I don't like most restaurant foods because they're just too salty! My mom learned how to cook without salt because of my dad's high blood pressure, so I never developed a taste for it. Which is bad because I have low blood pressure due to unrelated health problems...

    plus my sodium intake is low anyways, as I cook everything from scratch, I don't eat packaged, processed foods. If I do add any , its sea salt, and still a fraction at what is in packaged foods.
  • sobriquet84
    sobriquet84 Posts: 607 Member
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    I love flavoring food with the following:

    fresh lemon juice or lemon zest
    fresh lime juice or lime zest
    garlic
    fresh ground pepper

    especially lemon. freaking love using lemon on food.

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