While the salt debate shakes on, the best thing you can do is follow your doctor’s advice. If you are like most Americans and need to cut back on sodium, you can still enjoy enormous flavor and fun with less salt. Try preparing meals the old-fashioned way (ie, from scratch, using vegetables and whole grains, at home). Use fresh herbs for exciting aroma, flavor, color and powerful antioxidants. Exploring new flavor avenues will allow you to wean yourself from the salt shaker or sodium in processed foods. If you don’t know how to cook, you can break yourself in gently by bulking up your processed dinners (like pizza, boxed or frozen meals) with fresh brown rice and fresh veggies. Bata-bing! No talent required to make brown rice (get a rice cooker) or to wash and chop veggies.
Learn to read labels to help you stay within the range of 2300 mg sodium per day. Low-fat, low-calorie items often stuff foods with sodium to reduce the caloric impact. Anything above 20% for sodium is considered high, so select foods that provide 5% or less for sodium, per serving. In the end, you are smartest to avoid packaged, processed goods as much as possible and eat foods closer to nature. Yes, it may challenge you and require that you acquire some minimal cooking skills, but this is more easily achieved than you think. For more assistance on how to get started cooking, try wikihow.com/cook, which is great for beginners!
Do you have encouraging low-sodium recipes or anecdotes to share?
A. Many salt substitutes contain potassium chloride and can be used by individuals to replace salt in their diet. There are no known undesirable effects in healthy people who consume a lot of potassium; however, potassium could be harmful to people with certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, kidney disease, and heart disease. Check with your doctor before using salt substitutes. -US Food & Drug Administration
To Health and Happiness,
Frances
Frances L Arnold's Blog 