Cutting sodium intake while on a frugal budget, how?

[sunshine]

I make our own lunch meats too -- I buy beef roasts, turkey breasts on sale, cook them without salt, cool and slice thinly for sandwiches.

If you have a bread machine, there are recipes online for making low sodium versions of breads.

Also -- try to bump up your potassium intake, along with decreasing your sodium intake.

[frugalwarrior]

Natural is better. For some reason all the weight loss meals are still relatively high in salt. I have found if you must use canned, alot of store or off brands have much less salt. Don't forget too-Water.Water,Water.

[Judi Dial]

My dad had his first heart problem just after I'd learned how to cook, and I had to learn how to do it again.

In general, aside from not buying packaged foods, try this:

Stop adding salt to food when cooking. It tastes a little weird at first, but you can get used to adding salt at the table rather than the stove, and so can your family.

Look up (usda.gov and various other sites) the sodium content of the common ingredients you use and try and substitute items with less salt. For example, we use a LOT of cheese, specifically cheddar, which is very high in sodium. Both montery jack and mozarella are lower in sodium than cheddar. So, when I can, I use those cheeses instead. Pasta with pepper jack is an accepted food here now, rather than mac and cheese.

Also, in general salt-water fish are...you guessed it, saltier than fresh-water fish. Shell fish are usuallly saliter than swimming fish.

Also, use recipezaar or other such site's ability to tell you what you're eating/making. At least one of the recipes I have on 'zaar was created because I found a Mexican cottage cheese casserole that sounded wonderful, but was excessively high in fat and salt, so I modified it.

Once you get used to what you can do to take out the salt/fat from recipes it's pretty easy. But it's like learning to be frugal, it takes a slightly different mind-set, being aware of what you're trying to do, and keeping yourself on track.

Also, Morton has a low-sodium salt that I use as table salt. I can't tell the difference, but you might be able to?

A last recommendation, find snacks that aren't a cracker, popcorn (buttered/salted), or potato chips...all usually really high in salt!

Judi

[imagine]

You have received good advice so far

If we get canned veggies we will add we get no salt added veggies they don't cost more here. We prefer frozen or fresh.

We get unsalted top saltine crackers, unsalted butter, unsalted peanuts. these things all cost the same as their salted counterpart.

We have learned to love air popped popcorn

I find that different brands of seasoning mixes and soups and sauces have wildly different amounts of sodium so I just check the backs, lots of times the generic or store brand has less then the name brand.

[MomToTwoBoys]

Good luck! When Dh was having blood pressure problems several years ago, we cut down our sodium intake too.

It sounds like you are doing alot already, like staying away from canned things.

Just buy fresh and "least" processed whenever you can. The less processed, the less preservatives and the better they are.

You can check out the term "clean eating" or "clean dieting" too, and you'll find lots of things to make without using foods containing preservatives and sodium!

Stay away from pop too! Diet pop has low everything, but still contains sodium, which I tend to forget sometimes!

I found that we cut back a ton on pop lately partially because of price, but now that I know it has sodium, it'll be out of our household for now on. I found this neat little spritzer recipe that I might give a shot that's on the Mayo Clinic's website.

The big problem is with DH's lunches. He takes a lot of tortilla wraps with lunch meat in them and will not touch any fresh water fish for sandwiches (other than maybe white fish but they're bottom feeders in fresh water lakes). I guess I can make him some chicken salad sandwiches and pita pockets with chicken breasts or find other low-sodium alternatives for his lunches.

[shoiji]

I do have some canned vegetables and beans in my stockpile. Whenever I use them I strain and rinse them before cooking. Also if you need to add some salt try kosher salt.

When cooking I hardly ever you salt. Try making more food from scratch with different types of herbs and seasonings.

[bluedog]

Was I glad to see this thread. I recently had a bout with BP being too high and have adjusted the multiple drugs I take to control it. But I figured the things I could control were salt intake and weight. Found that cooking from scratch is pretty much the only way. There are foolish amounts of salt in dern near everything! Appreciate the many ideas here some of which were new to me esp the Mayo clinic site. I have not added salt to my cooking for many years but only recently paid attention to how much is in things I buy. It does take some getting used to but when I eat out or someone else's cooking it is Very noticably too salty! Good luck to you all in your quest to reduce the Na!:

[Judi Dial]

Flour tortillas,

flour tortillas aren't that difficult: flour, water, fat, (salt). Not complicated at all. With a tortilla press you can make a bunch in not much time. I haven't done this in years, but I HAVE done it.

Judi

[peanut]

Flour tortillas,

flour tortillas aren't that difficult: flour, water, fat, (salt). Not complicated at all. With a tortilla press you can make a bunch in not much time. I haven't done this in years, but I HAVE done it.

Judi

I actually make mine without a press. I roll them out and cook for 1 minute either side on medium in an unoiled fry pan. Works fine. Takes about half an hour for 10 tortillas though.

[tigo]

I cook from scratch because of different people in the family have different health issues. I have to be careful with sodium so I don't cook with salt at all. There is a shaker on the table for those that want to add it. I did invest in more spices and find the flavors add more to the meal and make the missing salt less noticable in the beginning. I love Mrs. Dash for the final shake on my plate. It does take time to retrain the tastebuds to new flavors without salt.

[Must-Stash]

1) What everyone else has already said.

2) Avoid low fat foods. When fat is removed from any food, so is the
flavor. To make it palatable, sodium, and/or various sugars are
added to give the product taste. That's why low fat foods are so
high in sodium.

Good luck. You're doing a very good thing. Some little time of adjustment and a lifetime of better health.

[Thevail]

Avoiding processed foods is the only way to lower sodium intake regardless of budget.

Ways to make it livable..
ginger powder
lemon peel
fresh garlic
onions
chilis of all varieties
Fresh lemon Thyme
Rosemary
Cilantro

My dad needed to go on the lower sodium diet, and it took a while for us to get him to stop substituting sugar for the salt that was missing from his diet. But it's all about flavor, flavor, flavor!

Good luck!