Low salt eating?

[HollyDay]

My doctor wants me to go on a VERY low salt eating plan.  This is more than just not adding salt to food at the table.  She wants me to avoid it as completely as possible at home.  So I'm reading labels and using herb blends instead of salt.  When I eat out, I'm chosing salads with no dressing.  Any other suggestions?  THis is much harder than I expected.

[Penguin]

I eat low salt and have been doing it for about four years. But probably not very low salt. How low is very low?

Are you looking for at-home suggestions or for eating out suggestions? I find it to be pretty easy at home, but I might not be as strict with myself as you need to be.

If you can give me an idea of your tastebuds and what areas are challenging you, I might be able to help.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Pretty easy so long as you eat no packaged anything.  Which I realize, is not entirely easy sometimes.  In fact, I was having issues of not getting enough salt when I went very low carb because I stopped eating most packaged foods.  I don't tend to salt my food much when making it so I can leave that to individual tastes. 

Even dumb stuff like bread you buy in the store is often loaded with salt.  You can make it with no salt.  But then you gotta make it. 

 

[HollyDay]

 Both eating out and at home.  I’ve eliminated bacon, table salt, salted nuts, crackers, salsa/chips.  Some time ago, I stopped soda, lunch meat, chips. I’ve also switched peanut butter and stopped using ketchup.  

I really miss salt on eggs and potatoes.  The no salt herbal blends from Penzey Spice are excellent on veggies and meats and in soups

speaking of soups.....canned broth and stock have too much sodium and usually I don’t have time to make my own.   Suggestions?

[Kareni]

We've been eating a low sodium diet for about a year; in our case, we strive to eat 1500mg per day.

Do you have access to a variety of grocery stores?  I have found useful products by reading labels at all of the stores near to me.  I am fortunate to live in an area where there are many stores.  So, for example, I purchase

NSA (no sodium added) canned beans at Whole Foods; their house brand is very reasonably priced

NSA canned tuna at Whole Foods (house brand)

low sodium bacon (85mg per slice compared to 200mg or so in other brands) at Whole Food (house brand)

NSA marinara sauce at Trader Joe's

NSA tortilla chips/corn tortillas at Trader Joe's

NSA salsa at Trader Joe's

One style of Panera dressing is relatively low sodium at Fred Meyer; Whole Foods also has several low sodium dressings (house brand)

Cheese is difficult but I've found some goat cheeses as low as 40mg/ounce and Swiss cheese (35mg per slice) and a Swiss/Gruyere blend (55mg per ounce, I think) at Trader Joe's.

Many stores, including Walmart, have no sodium added tomato products (including Ro-tel).

A recent discovery is Lay's low salt chips (75 or 85mg per ounce depending on flavor); I found these at Wal-mart.  Kettle chips have a NSA version that is 0mg per serving.

Regards,

Kareni

[SparklyUnicorn]

17 minutes ago, HollyDay said:

 Both eating out and at home.  I’ve eliminated bacon, table salt, salted nuts, crackers, salsa/chips.  Some time ago, I stopped soda, lunch meat, chips. I’ve also switched peanut butter and stopped using ketchup.  

I really miss salt on eggs and potatoes.  The no salt herbal blends from Penzey Spice are excellent on veggies and meats and in soups

speaking of soups.....canned broth and stock have too much sodium and usually I don’t have time to make my own.   Suggestions?

 

They sell sodium free broths.  They use potassium chloride instead.

I wonder if liquid aminos is sodium free. 

[Penguin]

I usually make soup, but I am not above convenience :) Unfortunately, taking out salt seems to make the price go up :(

I buy Healthy Valley soups. The best prepared broth I have found is Pacific Low Sodium Chicken (3%).In my pantry, I have Wegman's no salt tomato paste, Eden Organic No Salt Beans (canned), and a jar of Francesco Rinaldi No Salt added Spaghetti Sauce. Also no salt cans of diced tomatoes, tomato sauce.

 

[Penguin]

Terra Sweets & Beets are SO yummy! Whole Foods has unsalted tortilla chips.

If you have Wegman's, Trader Joe's and/or Whole Foods you will find lots of good things. Utz makes unsalted potato chips, but I am not sure that they are available nationally.

For baking, try to find recipes that use baking powder instead of baking soda, and buy the low-sodium version of the baking powder.

[Kareni]

I forgot to mention one of our most important substitutions. 

For baking, we use Ener-G baking soda and  baking powder.  We usually order these on line.  (We try to avoid products that substitute potassium for sodium.)

Regards,

Kareni

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

4 minutes ago, Kareni said:

I forgot to mention one of our most important substitutions. 

For baking, we use Ener-G baking soda and  baking powder.  We usually order these on line.  (We try to avoid products that substitute potassium for sodium.)

Regards,

Kareni

 

 Very cool.  I'll have to tell my dad about these because on top of having to watch sodium, he also has to watch potassium. 

[City Mouse]

It is very, very hard to avoid sodium when eating out. On occasion i have chosen  to buy ice cream rather than "real" food when out due to the sodium (ice cream is usually pretty low in sodium)

Edited April 4, 2018 by City Mouse
Edited to correct bad typing

[Kareni]

1 hour ago, City Mouse said:

It is very, very hard to avoid sodium when eating out. ...

 

That's been our experience also.  We tend to avoid Asian restaurants because of soy and other high sodium sauces (though we have had sushi and sashimi sans dipping sauce).  Pizza tends to be high sodium because of sodium in the crust, in the tomato or pesto sauce, and in the cheese.  ETA: We've been avoiding Mexican restaurants because of the sodium in tortillas, sauces, and cheese.  Likewise we're steering clear of Italian restaurants because of the sodium content in sauces and cheese.

If you're a meat eater, you might go to a steakhouse and ask for your meat to be prepared with no salt or other toppings.  You can ask for steamed vegetables and a baked potato with no salt.

I've been to a Dickie Jo's (hamburger place) and had fries with no salt along with a burger wrapped in a lettuce leaf.

Regards,

Kareni