Just as it takes years of practice for a limbo dancer to get his body under a flaming pole without injury, it will take a long time for anyone trying to reduce sodium to get themselves to a consistently low intake. But it IS possible, with a little discipline, planning, and knowledge. It's all about the decisions we make every meal, every day.
Here's a little exercise I like to call "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!"
Let's look at an average day's worth of meals- breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack in the morning and the afternoon. Snacks are important because they help prevent us from overeating at mealtime!
This exercise shows that on a normal day, you can eat the foods you like and still stay under 1,500 mg of sodium. A breakfast sandwich, soup and salad for lunch, and a spaghetti dinner. It's all in how you get there!
It all starts with a good breakfast, right? So our "Good" breakfast is a sandwich made with egg whites and a whole wheat roll, and some easy to prepare frozen hash browns. Our "Bad" breakfast would probably be okay for people without hypertension, but it has too much sodium and fat for us. And the "Ugly" breakfast is just not healthy for anyone, although we've all done it from time to time!
In our Good breakfast, even though the potatoes are prepared in oil, it's controlled to 2 teaspoons because they are pan-fried, not deep fried. And the sodium content of McDonald's breakfast is off the charts.
For lunch, we're having soup and salad. The Low Sodium Queen keeps homemade soup in her freezer and pantry, so she can throw a container in her lunch bag each morning as she heads out to work. She makes her own broth to have a "Good" lunch with no sodium in the soup, but even the "Bad" lunch is not so bad with commercially available low-sodium broth! The Campbells Soup in the "Ugly" lunch has a whopping 1780 mg of sodium, and that blows our daily goal in the "suggested" one cup serving. But who opens a can of soup and eats only half! If you eat the whole can, as most people would, it comes in at 4,450 mg of sodium!
A healthy dinner could start with a "Lean Cuisine" from the freezer, right? Check the label! Those frozen dinners are almost as bad as canned soup! 690 mg of sodium is too salty for any single food, and is over one third of our goal! Making our own spaghetti with Ragu jarred sauce is even worse! Our best best is to make our own spaghetti sauce, which can be done in large batches and canned in jars or frozen in containers for convenience! By using low fat ground meat and eliminating salt, we can create a homemade sauce with only 49 mg of sodium!
We even get a frozen dessert, if we choose it wisely! Would you have expected to find sodium in ice cream? It's there, although some flavors have more than others! Check the labels if you have to have the real deal! A smarter choice overall is frozen yogurt, as long as you choose the fat free kind. And smarter still is frozen sorbet, which is the best choice among commercially available desserts. It's even possible to make your own sorbet from frozen fruit using a blender or food processor, so you could reduce the sodium content even further!
Here's the full day, with snacks:
And, here are our totals:
Our "Good" meal plan comes in at 886 mg of sodium, well under our goal of 1,500 mg. And, at only 1,293 calories, it's perfect for someone who is trying to shed a few extra pounds!
The "Bad" meal plan would probably be okay for most healthy people, although it's too high in sodium for most high blood pressure patients. 1,843 calories would be sufficient for most people to maintain their current weight.
The "Ugly" plan is just plain ugly! Even though the menu is the same, poor food choices make the sodium intake rise to a staggering 5,527 mg!! 2,400 calories is about the limit of a healthy caloric intake for most people, but 111 grams of fat is a lot of fat for our bodies to process. Anyone with a family history of heart disease would be well advised to adjust that fat intake at least to the "Good" range!
DISCLAIMER: The Low Sodium Queen is not a professional dietitian,nor a medical professional, although she did once portray "Nurse Goodbody" in a Mardi Gras ball, but that's another blog!
So, use your own judgement, do your own research, and take her advice with a grain of salt substitute!
Any dieter worth their salt substitute knows that beans add great protein to the plate without bringing along a lot of saturated fat. This recipe for No Salt Added White Chili takes plain beans to the next level by adding spicy flavoring and savory poultry to the mix. Adjust the peppers and spices to your taste, and choose the cooking method that meets your schedule!
Find the complete recipe here!
Those of you who are reading this blog for advice on low-salt cooking may not know what we mean by "turnabout"!
A "turnabout" show is a show, typically a fund raiser, hosted by a club or organization, and features the staff or members , who are not typically performers, onstage dressed in the opposite gender. So now you know!
But today, the Low Salt Queen discovered a situation in which "turnabout" is not appropriate!
This is all getting really confusing, so let's backtrack a bit!
In her quest for low sodium options for her favorite foods, the Low Sodium Queen has discovered a few of alarming voids in the commercial offerings!
First of all, one of her favorite grocery products on Earth, Ro-tel Tomatoes, does not come in a No Salt Added variety. Sacre bleu! How will we add that spicy acidic goodness to our low-salt recipes?
Additionally, after extensive research, there does not seem to be a commercially available low salt pickle, at least not in Houston, Texas! If anyone knows of a source, please leave a comment and let me know!!
Finally, even though Whole Paycheck offers a selection of law salt or no salt tortilla chips, there does not seem to be a source for NSA salsa, for The Queens beloved chips and salsa. So, here are 3 common items that are a Godsend to people on low fat diets, as they are all essentially fat free foods. Still, the commercial varieties are LOADED with sodium and are therefore off limits to coronary patients who are struggling to lower their blood pressure! Quelle dommage!
This led The Queen into an extensive research and shopping frenzy, to determine if it was even feasible to create these products for herself.
As it turns out, the tomato products are simple to create at home. Tomatoes, fruits, and other highly acidic foods may be safely and successfully canned in a boiling water bath, which heats the food to 212 degrees and kills any "critters" the acid won't keep in check. There are many recipes for salsa and tomatoes that may be canned in a water bath, which only requires a pot large enough to submerge the jars below 2" or simmering water. A large pot will do, and specialty "water bath canners" are available with a fancy jar rack for less than 50 bucks!
So, back to the whole "turnabout" angle. As it turns out, there is no such "turnabout" when it comes to pressure cooking equipment.
The LSQ already owns a pressure cooker, but, as it turns out, a pressure cooker cannot be used for canning. Because pressure cookers have no gauge to reveal the internal temperature, there is no way to ensure that canned foods are held at a high enough temp for a long enough time to render them sanitary.
However, a pressure canner can be safely used as a pressure cooker, since the accuracy of temperature, time, and pressure are not as critical to fresh cooked foods that are to be served immediately.
So, once the canner arrives, the LSQ will put it through rigorous testing to determine its quality, usefulness, and productivity. The quality and taste of the home made pickles will be the determining factor of whether a pressure canner is a worthwhile investment!
A lot, as the Low Salt Queen has recently learned! Aside from the obvious listing of the various nutritional values, the wording and structure of a product's label is governed in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has strict guidelines for the way products may be labeled, and sometimes what the label doesn't say can be as compelling as what it does say!
Here are the FDA Regulations for general product claims, and specific claims for sodium. You can click it to "embiggen":
The Low Salt Queen's first trip to the grocery store yielded a plethora of goodies to stock the larder! As a young princess, I remember the Queen Mum's frustration in the '70's and 80's as she try tried to find product's without added salt to feed her aging King. Back then, they were few, and hard to come by, and often of questionable quality from unusual brands.
Today, most grocery stores offer at least a basic selection of products suitable for a low salt diet. Most cities now have a Whole Foods Market, and although we've all heard the legendary "Whole Paycheck" nickname, this store, and others like it, are a godsend for anyone trying to reduce their sodium intake! An internet search reveals an abundance of sites offering low-salt and no salt products, and The Low Salt Queen intends to explore many of those in the coming weeks and share her findings with you!
On this first mission as The Low Salt Queen, I was looking mostly for basic pantry items to replace the many hidden sodium sources that lurk there. Our goal, of course, is to find the foods with the most nutritional benefit with the least amount of sodium. Knowing the health history of the Royal Family, as well as her own blood chemistry stats, the Low Salt Queen's ultimate goal is to achieve a sodium intake of around 1,500 mg per day. She is willing to accept baby steps on her way there!
Reading nutritional labels proved, as she suspected, to be an exercise in frustration! There are so many variables in the way foods are labeled, nutrients are measured, and servings are estimated!! There were a few things that she had to learn along the way:
SODIUM FREE means there are fewer than 5mg of sodium per serving. These foods are obviously great to find. Most of them occur in the "fresh food" aisles that form the perimeter of most grocery stores.
VERY LOW SODIUM mean 35mg of sodium or less. This is the label one would seek for condiments, spices, flavorings, mixes, etc.
LOW SODIUM means no more than 140mg per serving. These labels are about the best one tends to find on chicken broth, beef broth, etc.
LIGHT SODIUM means at least a 50% reduction in sodium when compared to a similar "standard" product.
REDUCED SODIUM means a 25% reduction in sodium when compared to a similar "standard" product.
NO SALT ADDED means that no salt was used in the processing of the food. If the food contains more than 5mg of sodium per serving, the label must state "not a sodium-free product". No Salt Added is the label to look for on canned goods.
The Low Salt Queen was extremely pleased to find no salt added varieties of the most important canned pantry staples at Whole Foods Market. Using NSA Black Beans, NSA Corn, and NSA Diced Tomatoes, as well as a can of standard Rotel Tomatoes, a lime, and some spices, the Low Salt Queen was able to create a Black Bean and Corn Salsa that tasted great and has only 81mg of sodium per 1/4 cup serving, making it a LOW SODIUM food!
In a colander, drain
1 can NSA Corn
1 can NSA Black Beans
1 can NSA Diced Tomatoes
In a glass bowl, combine the 1st 3 ingredients with 1 can Rotel Tomatoes with Chilies and the juice of 1 large lime or 2 small limes.
Stir in:
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 Tbs chopped garlic
1 tspn cumin
1 tspn cayenne pepper
1 tspn Mrs. Dash seasoning
For Salsa Fresca, refrigerate overnight to allow flavors to blend. Serve as a dip with NSA tortilla chips, use as a topping for salads or tacos, or use as a filling for a delicious omelet!
For Canned Salsa, simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. While salsa simmers, sanitize 6 1/2 pint Mason jars in boiling water, along with 6 lids and 6 rings. To preserve, drain jars and fill within 1/4 inch of rim. Wipe rim with a clean paper towel, apply hot lid, and secure with ring. Boil prepared jars in boiling water bath for 15 minutes, ensuring jars are covered by at least 2 inches of boiling water. After 15 minutes, remove from water bath and cool until lids "pop", indicating a sanitary seal.
