Are you watching your salt intake?

[frugalfranny]

Just curious.....we have had some health talk on here but haven't seen much about people watching their salt intake............I mean, we ALL know about the obvious ones..........crackers, chips, processed meats........lunch meat, hot dogs, etc.

So....

Are you watching your family's salt intake?

What food items have you found that surprised you with the amt. of salt?

Do you have high blood pressure so it is necessary to watch salt intake?



I don't have HBP but the 'salt thing' was recently brought home to me when I tried a new brand of hot dog ( hd's, in general, are known to have high salt but...)and got to thinking about the salt (hadn't checked the package b/4 buying)................ONE HOT DOG had half my daily salt intake................ 1000mg!!!!!

Compared it to another brand I had and it was almost DOUBLE........but none of them are great, I knew that. The main reason I wanted to try it is that it 'claimed' to have no nitrites/nitrates which are ALSO bad for you.

WOW!!! I just wanted to TRY the hot dog................not die eating it!!

[Spirit Deer]

We don't do as well as we should, but there are certain foods I rarely buy anymore, or don't buy at all, due to salt content.

Of course anything that comes in a box is out, but that's usually pretty crappy food anyway, so no loss.

What irritates me is all the crap they add to meats and stuff. I avoid "enhanced" meats that have a salt water solution added. At the cost of meat these days, I'm not going to pay a big price for cheap salt water! Not to mention the health issues.

Some things you can't avoid the salt unless you totally avoid the food, of course, like pickles and green olives and ham.

One of the worst offenders is bottled salad dressings. The only flavor they seem to have is salt, and there's a funny tastes to them too.

What has surprised me lately about salt is the amount of salt in cold cereal. Like most things, I'd like an explanation as to why something like that needs any salt at all.

I don't add salt to any recipes, including things like bread and other baked goods, certainly not to anything like pasta water or any other cooking either. There's no need for it and there are lots of far more interesting flavors to add to foods than salt.

[Hamada]

Have been watching my salt intake since the middle of 1980's. There are some meats ham or corned beef that I really hestitate and do not buy because of the salt. Occassionally I will let myself purchase them but it is a once or twice a year type of thing.

Homemade popcorn is where I usually do add salt. If not the popcorn is seasoned with herbs and spices.

Since the majority of my food is homemade there is very little salt being used. I can always taste how heavily salted a food is that I have not made. Sometimes it is very overpowering and I feel like I need to drink a whole bunch of water. I am a fan of bacon but use it occasionally and with the low to no salt cooking that I do am not concerned about the salt intake. The salts I do enjoy using are kosher or sea salt.

[Contrary Housewife]

I don't pay so much attention to it these days because I started back in the 80's leaving out table salt and not adding it when cooking. There are a lot of things we just don't even think about buying because of high sodium levels. I've been scanning food labels for years and just dropping items from the pool of potential purchases. Frozen food is the worst, I think. There' one popular product we've nicknamed "salt pockets", for example.

There's a few things we enjoy, like corned beef a couple times a year, and popcorn with real butter, and DH has a thing for those nasty salty cans of chopped ham, but it's not a staple of our diet.

[Momto5RN]

hmm i dont consciously watch it or count the mgs but i am aware of what i high in NA as i am a RN and its part of what i have to teach many of my home care cts .

no wt issues or BP issues in my family - in fact kids like i , tend to run low -
we dont eat alot of salty stuff anyway not chip eaters we do love pretzels tho.

if its hot summer and my left foot starts to swell ( dr things a messed up valve in one of the veins high up in my leg from the 5 pregnancies ) i cut back.

for adding salt to food we use a salt that has 1/2 the salt but still tastes good- mainly because if i dont use that my foot swells and everyone just grabs it

[nodmicks]

I eat salt on purpose. I eat a paleo diet which is all unprocessed. I eat liberally salted lemons. My BP is crazy low and I tend to get muscle cramps. The Dr's advice was eat more salt and more potassium.

[frugalfranny]

I eat liberally salted lemons. My BP is crazy low and I tend to get muscle cramps. The Dr's advice was eat more salt and more potassium.

My BP is low too...........not crazy low, but Dr. always comments.........one day it was 110 and she was surprised.

I have the same problem with cramps and potassium does help..........I am sure I eat more salt than I should, so don't try to eat extra but after a couple days of 'hard, sweaty, yard work' I will eat green olives.............about the only time I eat them is in the summer. Also why I buy gatorade........lots of calories, sugar, but it does help.

There are SOME things I just have to salt.............and eggs is one. Can do most everything else w/o.........potatoes, hot cereal, etc.

[shp1055]

I have HBP and have used Morton Lite Salt since the early 80's. My daughter buys that instead of real salt & she's 26; she didn't know any different and says real salt tastes funny. It is also high in potassium. I use it in water for cooking rice, pasta, potatoes, anything that needs salt. I don't usually add extra after I plate my food and I try not to eat out a lot. But if something is cooked without ANY salt at all, I can't add enough to make it taste "right". I occassionally eat crackers or chips and I try not to use anything out of a box. My big downfall is the popcorn machine at work; it's free and tastes soooo good that I can't eat microwave anymore.

Don't leave your meds in your vehicle...take it from me...will dilute the strength and a HBP headache is a *****.

[MissSeetonFan]

Some people need to watch salt. Some don't. But I found this article very interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/op...pagewanted=all

[frugalfranny]

It is interesting.......I 'skim read' it will go back and read more later..............the debate continues.

Then........found this:

Salty snacks harm your heart in just 30 minutes - Health - Heart health - msnbc.com

And they wonder why we are so confused and just quit following any guidelines!!!!!

I will let my body 'guide me'...............and there are some times that I am just CRAVING SALT............

BUT.........I won't be buying any more of those hot dogs.........that was pretty bad!!!

[Saule]

My dad had high blood pressure, so I grew up eating fairly low sodium. I lived in a dorm in college so learned to eat unhealthy at that time. Now DH is on a very restricted sodium diet - 600 mg a day - that's 1/4 tsp for the day. I use almost no processed foods. We do go off the reservation from time to time - he loves his hot dogs - but we go out and buy one rather than having a lot in the house. I do buy some lunch meat at the deli counter, but overall we do pretty well.

I found that the Aldi Grandessa brand of salad dressing is very low sodium - I love the raspberry vinaigrette. I do make salad dressing from scratch, but it's nice to have a good alternative I can buy.

He does not have HBP, has other issues, but I do have HBP. I would help myself most by losing weight .... sigh.... never an easy route.....

Anyway, DH tries to sneak more salt in but I really notice when there is a "normal" amount of salt in things. It gets hard to eat out.

[frugalwarrior2]

We don't add salt to cooking here but eat processed foods so we can tell when something was saltier than we thought.
I was suprised lemonade had it in it
Dh didn't realize bagels/bread were so salty.
My feet/hands/calves will sweet esp. if its already hot. I really have to watch the water consumption then.

[Rosebudget1]

I have never used a lot of salt and really don't like it. So if something is salty I won't eat much if any after I take a bite.
My DH loves salt. He now has blood pressure issues and takes medication. He has stopped with all the salt and watches sodium. He now notices the different in taste.

[Spikey1341]

Have you ever noticed how much salt they use on the cooking shows? I was making pasta once and Rachel Ray always says to salt the water, it's the only chance you get to season the pasta. So I throw in the amount she uses in her pasta. OMG I had to throw it out. DH says, "I don't mean to hurt your feelings but this is horrible." I don't cook with salt anymore, I figure if you want it salted you can put it on when you are eating.

[frugalfranny]

So I throw in the amount she uses in her pasta. OMG I had to throw it out..

I salt very few things when cooking, don't even put salt in potato water or veggies any more.

I can't get past a couple of things........have to salt eggs, of any kind, and will use some on meat, but will often use a 'flavored salt'...........celery salt, garlic salt, lemon salt, or others I have. I use GOBS of spices instead of salt.