Don't Take This With a Grain of Salt

We have a “new” 500 to be aware of, and it has nothing at all to do with racing. This has to do with salt intake.

The wool has been pulled over our eyes yet again with nutritional advice beaten into us like a drum—the typical recommendation of less than 2300 mg. salt per day. You know...the 1 teaspoon allowance that we all exceed regularly without even realizing it.

Well, come to find out, that magic number is the MAXIMUM limit for sodium intake per day. You can easily exceed that by having a tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat bread, unless you’re reading your labels as you shop.

Nutritionists, like the one I encountered at the VA, will tell you that the magic 2350 number is necessary for the body to stabilize electrolytes, and they’re dead wrong by almost 1850.

The absolute MINIMUM to stabilize electrolytes (and this is all you need salt for anyway) is 500 mg. per day for adults (even less for infants and children), and you can accomplish this with coconut water instead of salt. If you aren’t checking labels for sodium content as you shop, I suggest you start now. In fact, go through your kitchen and check out how much sodium you have already brought into your home in the name of cost consciousness. Start with your bread and cheese (if you eat them)-—you’ll be stunned, I guarantee.

When the shock wears off, make a note to hunt down lower (MUCH lower) sodium versions of whatever processed foods you buy. I’ll save you some time and tell you that you won’t find much, except in health food stores. I’ve been scouting for about 8 years, and it isn’t getting any easier—having to keep track of fat, sugars, additives, preservatives, and now sodium is very tiring to say the least. Health food stores take lots of pressure off me for these contents, because very few of them can be found.

My garden takes even more pressure off--Mother Nature adds none of these.

Now even health food stores won’t have alternatives to all the processed things you regularly consume, and that’s when your frugal bone should kick in—a lot of times, it’s easier to make your own than to buy commercially.

As I shop, I use the number 100 as my guide—anything under 100 mg. of sodium per serving gets put in the cart. These days, I'm buying damned little in the way of processed foods.

After trying a low-sodium diet for awhile, go try to eat so-called "normal" food--you'll quickly be inundated with the salt taste, and won't want any more.

My head spun as I thought about all the foods I was de-sensitized to, and all the foods I couldn’t do anything about, such as restaurant and drive-thru meals. Needless to say, Momma here eats at home and nowhere else, unless she brings it along from home.

The frugal way to deal with this dilemma is to take control of the ingredients by making and growing things yourself whenever possible. The next best way is to start shopping at health food stores, stocking up when favored low-sodium items go on sale (most health food stores will give discounts for case quantity—ask the staff first). If you receive WIC or food stamps, ask to see if the health food stores take the vouchers or cards before ordering (again, most do, but ask first to be sure).

I don't know about you, but my health is THAT important to me—I want to be around long enough to corrupt your grandkids through this blog!

Here’s a list of foods generally low in sodium as a rule of thumb, so you won’t have to worry about running out to replace them anytime soon:

• Yellow mustard
• Water chestnuts
• Bamboo shoots
• Some brands of canned bean sprouts (check the label)
• Corn tortillas (if oyu eat them)
• Lite Swiss cheeses, such as Emmentaler (if you eat cheese)
• All types of Eden canned beans as long as the label says “no salt added” (if you eat beans)

Diets that exclude foods such as cheese, beans, grains, and dairy are already ahead of the game--since their diet focuses heavily on produce, the salt is automatically cut. Salt in unprocessed meat is pretty much restricted to what you put on it (read the label).

Even if you hunt down and use the absolute lowest-sodium processed products, you’ll still wind up consuming about 600-750 mg. of sodium per day, but that’s a hell of a lot better for you than your old consumption level.

Go even lower with raw produce and fresh grass-fed meats, and stop going blind from reading labels!

Note about potassium offsets: if you consume something with 100 mg. or more of sodium, be aware of the potassium levels—a 3:1 ratio of potassium-to-sodium levels is ideal for potassium offset. You’ll find this information quite useful when shopping for juices and other beverages (if you consume them--making your own is always most beneficial)—In the past, I have found that Lakewood and Knudsen brands (in health food stores) were most beneficial to me in this regard. Some of the juices and drinks have sodium, but sufficient potassium to offset it. As long as a product has three times (or more) potassium content than sodium content, it’s okay to consume.

The lower the sodium content, the lower the potassium needed to offset it.

Note about food label terminology: look for the words “no salt,” “no added salt,” or “very low sodium” when shopping, and be sure to check the back nutritional label to verify—the government’s interpretation of low sodium is different from ours. According to the government, the term “low salt” means 140 mg. of sodium, and this is still too much unless there’s an adequate potassium offset. Don’t trust the government on this one—read those labels and make sure before buying.

I’ll leave you with a list of foods to avoid like the plague:

• Worcestershire

• Soy sauce

• Most seaweeds (except nori--nori flakes make a great salt substitute)

• Flour tortillas (unless homemade using sodium control)

• Anything in brine (pickles, olives, sauerkraut, jalapenos, etc.)

• Anything pre-marinated (packaged meats, olives, vegetables, etc.)

• Anything cured or processed (hams, sausage, jerky, bacon, etc.)

• Cheddar-based cheeses (longhorn, Colby, jack, etc.)

• Anything pre-basted (turkeys, chickens, pork loins, etc.—read labels!)

• Most cold cereals (no-sodium versions are found in health food stores)

• Chinese greens (Napa cabbage, bok choy, tat soy, etc.)—they pull salt out of the soil and into their tissue. Eat raw only after you've cleaned up the rest of your diet.

• Celery, chard, beet greens—-they also pull salt out of the soil and into the stalks and leaves--eat raw only after you've cleaned up the rest of your diet.

• Celtic salt/sea salt—-sodium is sodium is sodium, and there is no such thing as a low-sodium salt, unless it is a potassium-based salt substitute

• Processed foods from a regular grocery store (check the labels on that cake mix or Hamburger Helper just for laughs—you won’t laugh long!)

• Most canned fish (health food stores offer plenty of very low sodium varieties)

• Any instant noodle dish, such as Cup O’ Noodles or Top Ramen—this stuff is instant suicide!

Here are some links for you to see the sodium level recommendations for yourself:

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/sodium/faq.html

http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/nutrition/factsheets/sodium.html

http://nutritionservices.upmc.com/NutritionArticles/Vitamins/Sodium.htm

Happy anti-salt mining!