<p>Anyone on a low sodium diet? My Dad has just been put on one for Congestive Heart Failure.
Aside from the obvious -homemade foods without added salt. Do you have any ideas, tips, products to share? </p>
<p>My dad put himself on one to combat meniere’s disease. He just reads labels and cut back to low salt items. He dropped between 10-15 pounds and he was not heavy to begin with.</p>
<p>He has great self control though. He quit smoking 3 packs a day and never looked back.</p>
<p>Yes, I use a Paul Prudhomme salt-free blend that is pretty good.</p>
<p>And honestly, when I started taking salt into account, I realized I was probably up around 6,000 mg per day, and now I try to stay under 3,000 mg. I am low salt due to pre-hypertension, and it has worked really well for me, I’m back in the normal range.</p>
<p>There are low-salt cold cuts, and other low-salt products. Garlic powder, paprika, and lots of other no-salt spices that are far better than Mrs. Dash.</p>
<p>I would try to get some guidelines as to how many mg per day he should target. Things end up getting pretty disgusting if you try to go cold turkey from ignoring sodium content to watching it religiously.</p>
<p>It’s really low -1500 mg
thanks all </p>
<p>He should avoid eating canned, processed, or prepared foods (e.g., foods from the deli section of the super market)–they’re all full of salt. </p>
<p>Look at labels and watch out for any prepared foods as above. Look at holiday food ingredients before attending any parties. Cheeses can have a lot of sodium as well as any crackers, sausages, olives et al. Look at ethnic cookbooks for flavor profiles he can substitute for salt. Many different cultures use spice/herb blends that give enough flavors that salt is not needed. Omit the salt in recipes where you can and substitute spices that fit the food- eg Italian, Indian… Watch out for Chinese food and MSG-monoSODIUM glutamate and other chemicals with that SODIUM in their name. And soy sauce. Unsalted butter if he is a heavy user of that fat.</p>
<p>A low salt diet is not a bland diet.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth a little lemon can help you reduce salt.</p>
<p>P’s----pretzels, popcorn, potato chips, pickles, processed foods- thing we were taught in med school to remember salt foods. processed foods are like canned food and soups and deli meat. TV dinners and dry breakfast foods are high.
It is actually easy to find the sodium content and then to pick and choose. There are all kinds of options out there for low sodium ritz crackers, butter, chips, pretzels, etc.
Instead of salt substitute you can use different flavors and seasonings. 1500 is not too bad.</p>
<p>Oops, left out the peanuts P</p>
<p>During my sister’s last year, she had both kidney failure and heart failure, so her diet was extremely restricted. I went online and got lists of foods and recipes and cross- checked to make sure that each food was safe for each condition. She needed dialysis 3 times a week and couldn’t drive. Her community was wonderful about scheduling rides and meals for her. We made sure that every contributor had a copy of the approved foods when we added them to the food schedule. </p>
<p>You can get unsalted nuts to reduce the sodium, so you don’t have to eliminate them altogether.</p>
<p>Look for lower sodium options on some prepared foods, like soups. Read labels. </p>
<p>For me, the hardest part is eating out, where I don’t know how much salt is in the food. If you read the nutritional info for chain restaurants, you’d be astounded at the amount of sodium in their dishes. I’ve cut back on eating out.</p>
<p>My husband is on a low sodium diet and the link below has delicious and easy to make recipes that the entire family will eat:–<a href=“Easy Healthy Low Sodium Recipes from Dr. Gourmet”>http://www.drgourmet.com/specialdiets/lowsodium/recipes.shtml</a>.</p>
<p>As others have said, processed food and most restaurant food is loaded with sodium. We found the So Delicious coconut milk has less sodium than regular milk or almond milk. In general Swiss cheese has less sodium than other types of cheese. Ezekiel 4:9 Low Sodium Sprouted Whole Grain Bread is a staple in our house, and you can purchase no salt peanut butter. </p>
<p>Thanks all. I think the things he is having a hard time with lunch. Things like a sandwich or canned soup is what he would have normally eaten. I think I might make some kind of homemade soup for the freezer -let me know if you have any ideas. </p>
<p>Veruca, are you near a Whole Foods? That is a good place to find no salt options. They have no salt beans and tomatoes,salsa good finds for soup. </p>
<p>Be careful with the meat you buy also. That’s a sneaky one, sometimes they will pump saline to make meat more tender. Organic meat should be fine. </p>
<p>Cheese also has lots of salt, Swiss cheese is best. </p>
<p>Yes we just got a whole foods -will check it out. </p>
<p>that is a great list doreseach!!!
on a side line - I realized the P’s list I learned 30+ years ago showed the eating habits and snacks that were common- wow times have changed and the good news is there is lots of healthy and no salt options!</p>
<p>re the dialysis friend- we ate at a casual restaurant with a dialysis patient friend while visiting awhile ago- she took the tomato off her sandwich so she could enjoy the orange slice that came with- the flavor of a potassium rich food in a small bite.</p>
<p>The older we get the less we want to radically alter our food choices. Substitutions to mimic favorites instead of complete lifestyle changes. Need to maintain pleasures in life when one knows it is limited in span. How much he does will be determined by his desire to live versus getting instant gratification. </p>
<p>I still remember the elderly Italian lady we discharged during residency the day before Thanksgiving (amazing how many discharges occur just before holidays- you try hard to get people out to their families if you can) figuring she may be back soon with heart failure again.</p>
<p>A lot depends on age. My father is in his late 80’s. Different decisions than for someone a decade or more younger.</p>
<p>Costco sells a large plastic container of unsalted mix nuts. I keep them around all the time and they are my go-to when I need a quick fix before the next meal.</p>