On 10/5/2023 at 6:02 PM, Okanagancook said:I don’t know anymore…..retired Dietitian, but my gut tells me most sodium intake nowadays can be attributed to commercial products and restaurant/takeout/fast food. The amount used in BASIC cooking at home is probably not significant and not the problem.
Most of our meals are made by me, and I don't use a lot of commercial products.
We did like to go out for Dim Sum and other Asian foods when we went into Victoria, but haven't
done that since we started watching the sodium.
I think that most people would be very surprised at how much salt they use and how little it takes to reach what is recommended.
Daily recommendation for even those without an issue is 2300mg of sodium.
Averaging/rounding it out, 5g or 1 teaspoon of salt is equal to about 2000mg sodium. 1 gram is just under 400g.
I purchased a small scale from one of the local Cannabis shops that measures in mgs up to 100grams.
This is what 1g of salt, approximately 400 mg of sodium looks like.
And 5g of salt, approximately 2000mg of sodium , which is basically the daily recommendation.
That bowl is tiny. Small lime for comparison.
Same as a teaspoon.
It hasn't been as difficult as I thought it was going to be to reduce the sodium in our meals without having to give up eating meals that we enjoy.
For the most part, salt substitutes have not worked for me. I did find a few salt free seasonings from Hot Mamas that I use to season when I grill or roast.
They also make a low sodium line of mustards. I bought two of them and Moe really likes one with dill , which also tastes like horseradish with a little heat, and when mixed into a small amount of mayonnaise made a very nice topping on a roast beef sandwich.
But the recommendation to use lemon, and other seasonings and herbs in place of salt doesn't work for me because I don't want everything to taste like the salt substitute if
that wasn't the original flavour I was going for in the first place.
I think we have been doing really good at greatly reducing the sodium in our diet and Moe doesn't seem to be missing it at all.
We were at Costco yesterday and I bought their 50% less sodium bacon.
Regular bacon had 400mg in two slices and the reduced sodium bacon was 180mg in 2 slices. So he had
butter basted fried eggs and four slices of the bacon for breakfast this morning and the bacon was surprising good. Just pepper on his eggs
and I've reduced the salt by half of what I use to put into a batch of bread dough.
All the swelling he had in his ankles and feet has disappeared. It actually disappeared within a few days of
reducing the sodium.
