from the Centers for Disease Control website
Read other Low Salt Journey installments: Senior Parents Get Started in Their 80′s: Part I, Hospital Cafeterias With No Low-Sodium Options? Part II, Making Sense of Sodium Labels and Numbers: Part III, and 5 Lessons Learned About Cutting Back on Sodium: Low-Salt Eating: Part IV.
I’ve already learned five lessons as my husband and I move along, with my parents, on this low-sodium journey.
#1. Look for canned diced tomatoes that have no salt, available at most groceries.
#2. Worry about the sodium in the processed foods — cereal, canned goods, pasta, cheese, snacks, and almost anything that comes as a mix, etc. Forget the counts for fresh foods for the time being.
#3. Purchase a 1/8 teaspoon measure and try halving the recipes that list 1/4 tsp. or 1/2 tsp. of salt as an ingredient.
#4. Salt-free melba toast makes great bread crumbs.#5. Breads are tricky and filled with sodium, so I haven’t figured out any good strategy yet. May have to give up my very favorite bread machine mixes, but is there no alternative?
Check out this graph, from the Centers for Disease Control, to find out how where sodium comes from in a typical diets. Amazing that 77% of sodium comes from processed and restaurant foods. As one gets serious — and I am not a dietician, so this is merely what our family has discovered –concentrating first on cutting back the processed foods is the way to make the most progress.
Check out these other posts about my family’s low-sodium adventure.
Aging Parents, Disease of Aging, and Sodium – Low Sodium Diet: Seniors Get Started in their Eighties – Hospital Cafeteria with No Low Sodium Options – Making Sense of Sodium Labels and Numbers – Five Lessons Learned About Cutting Back on Sodium – Cooking and Eating on Vacation – We Kept to the Program on Vacation! – Figuring Out How to Adjust a Much-Loved Thanksgiving Recipe – Making Choices that Lower the Count – New Research About American Sodium Consumption
As Our Parents Age So Do We 