We Kept to the Lower Sodium Program on Vacation: Low Sodium Diet #VI

Our family vacation lasted nearly ten days, and all four of us, sometimes five, stayed on our low-sodium eating plan the whole time by doing the following.

We planned our lunch and dinner menus.
We kept lots of fruit and nuts around. I stored a small measuring cup with the nuts so that whenever a family member took a handful, it was possible to quickly measure the correct portion. A bowl of watermelon is always available in our fridge.
We ate out in restaurants several times and did not try to regulate ourselves that much, but most of us found the soups to tastes way too salty.
On a regular basis, now, someone in the family comments on the extreme saltiness of certain foods. Cheeses, especially, taste salty.

One of our favorite Penzey’s spices.

Herbs, both fresh and purchased are an important part of weaning ourselves off of salt. We rely a lot on fresh herbs from the garden (I keep basil and rosemary everywhere, either in a garden or a vase) or grocery store. Moreover we cannot do without Penzey’s spices. Penzey’s is a Wisconsin company that is increasingly offering no-salt herb and seasoning combinations in addition to their regular spices via mail order and from an increasing network of stores. In fact, the current catalog features a n0-salt spice on the front cover.

We are now regularly using all of the following Penzey’s no-salt herb blends.

A Few Observations

We are losing our sense of need when it comes to salt. While we had already removed the salt shaker from the table, it seemed that almost everything in the preparation needed a few shakes of the salt shaker.
We are discovering that many foods have delightful tastes without salt — especially vegetable combinations featuring tomatoes and other fresh vegetables.
As I mentioned above, we are ordering soup in restaurants less often because they are too salty.
If a recipe calls for salt we half the amount — for instance, one-half teaspoon becomes one-fourth.

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