Low Sodium

[M&M]

Hi All, Its been some time since my last post. My CHF meds are lowering my CHF number (ProBun) - but they are also lowering my kidney function (GFR) (62) and they think according to my CT scan I may have a cyst on my left kidney - which they now want to do an ultrasound on next week. This CHF is awful stuff - I mean I breath better - but the side effects of coreg and my diuretic are not so great.

I could complain - actually, I think I have.

But, I wanted to let you all know - I have found the low sodium diet to do wonderfully for my heart. I wish I had known about this years ago. The food tastes great and its really not that hard to find the right foods. Not at all. I just bought a crock pot and hope to make some stews and chowders. I made a wonderful pot roast last weekend. Very tender and very tasty..

Hope all is well and wishing you all well
Take Care
Marilyn

 

[Nancy]

Hi Marilyn-

Glad the low sodium diet is doing well for you. After cooking low sodium for many years for Joe, I have found that food tastes "cleaner" without sodium. Can't explain it really well. But you taste more of the actual taste of the foods instead of just salt. And many foods even taste a little salty w/o sodium.

Maybe that's why so many fine bakers use no salt butter for bakery items.

Butter definitely stays fresher in the no salt vaiety.

Even though you are on meds for the CHF, I'm sure you are keeping them to a minimum with low sodium.

 

[Mary]

I'm still having trouble dealing with the necessity of no salt. I must be in denial about my situation. I have been doing well with reducing salt in my meals, but I forget about snacks.
I weighed yesterday morning; up 3 1/2 pounds. Then I remembered that I had eaten a bowl of salted peanuts the night before.
Any suggestions for some good tasting snack items?

 

[M&M]

Hi, Nancy, I agree I can taste the salt in any little salty food I eat.. I don't like the taste of it - I'm amazed at how much salty food I ate and really didn't think I ate much. I hope by following a strict salt limitation that I am reducing my meds. I'm very sensitive to any salt and I know that because I weight myself everyday - so I see it on the scale - but more importantly - I feel bloaty. I like not feeling bloaty..

Hi Mary, believe it or not there are some peanuts with very low salt. I think I found one that has 90 mg - although that is 'high' - its ok in a crunch. For snacks I generally eat 'fruits' 'or "Bearitos Tortilla Chips made with organic white corn - and only has 5 mg of salt and thats for about 15 chips per serving.. and more importantly they are filling.. I like to eat 'yogurt' and I have found some good cereals - frosty wheats are good. If we stop at a restaurant I'll order a burger - no bun - but with tomato, lettuse and onions and have a bake potato or vegetable (steamed) - ask about that - cause some veggies are in butter that is loaded with sodium.. But if you ask for them steamed - most restaurants are more than accomdating. Some very lean meats don't really carry alot of salt. I use Mrs. Dash seasoning and that's very good tasting..

Applesauce is a good snack to. Raisins are good. At least I like them. I eat alot of brown rice to. - But that's not really a snack. Really I think there are lots of stuff. The only thing I miss is my chocolates.. But I have lost 5 pounds and I feel much better. I just hate these meds. They're awful. I told my EP doc - that I don't want to go back to my CHF doc - cause I know he's going to increase my doseages and I'll feel awful again. I just started having some energy after 4 mos.. So I told him I'm not going to go and he got rather stern and said I have to - the meds are helping me.. and they need to monitor you and you need to keep your appts. Its so hard. They tried linisopril a couple mos ago and at 2.5 mg - my blood pressure went down to 83/65 and I could barely stay awake. 2.5 mg - I had to cut the pill in half to get that !!! So, they'll probably want to try another ace inhibitor - as that is a highly recommended drug for CHF patients. I told them - they should put me in the hospital if they do. I can't function with such low bloob pressures. I can barely stay awake.. Driving was terrible. Luckily I have an ICD Pacemaker and I'm programmed for a minimum of 50 beats per minute !!! That's the only thing that kept me from calling 911. My system is super sensitive to these drugs. Well, enough complaining. Luckily I don't have to think about going to the CHF doc till next month. Now I have to think about what they find on my ultrasound of my left kidney.. I hope its just a benign cyst.. They say they're very common.. I should be fine.. I would just like to go 6 mos with no doctor appts. That would be so wonderful. I'm sure there are alot of people here who go through the same thing.

Thanks for responding to my post and lending an ear.. It feels good that people can 'understand'..

Best Wishes
Marilyn

 

[Nancy]

No salt potato chips are available, and you can get some Allouette dip which has lower sodium than other dips, particularly the Lite Garlic and Herbs. Just limit yourself to a small portion.

No salt corn chips are available, and you can make your own fresh salsa (not hard to do).

How about purchasing some non-salted nuts. Planter's has then and they are delicious.

Get Heluva Good Cheese, no sodium cheddar cheese. It's not available everywhere, but we have one market locally that carries it. You can go to their website, and possibly order some. It is delicious.

Ordinary popcorn has no sodium, you know, the kind you pop yourself. And that's low in calories too.

There's always fresh fruit.

 

[M&M]

Good tips Nancy - thank you - I wanted to tell you that Land o Lakes puts out a no sodium butter to go on that air popped popcorn.. and its delicious and I find its very good for baking or any kind of cooking that calls for regular butter..

"Food for Life" - in the frozen food section of the Organic food section - puts out a great bread. About half the sodium as white bread. 60-90 mg of sodium per slice - depending on the flavor of the bread. If you do a search on Food for Life - you can pick up their web site..

Plus, if you open the bread package and take out half the loaf and put the rest in the freezer - you can use the other half the following week. They make a delcious raisin bread and 10 grain bread. I don't always have time to bake bread - and I can't eat a whole loaf by myself - so I find this very convenient and delicious. Its best to keep the bread in the refrigerator - keeps it fresher longer. Also, "I can't believe its not butter" spray form has very - if any sodium in it..

The best cookbook I have found and has delicious recipes is: "The NO-SALT - Lowest Sodium Cookbook - by Donald Gazzaniga - he has heart failure and he has some wonderful recipes and sauces and the food is very flavorful. I like the scalloped potatoes with pork chops casserole. Delicious and another good idea is doing stir frys - those taste really good.

I think the best thing about this nutricious eating habits is that it has more 'flavor' than most shelf foods have. I now use lots of spices - but I should warn you that some spices have sodium - so you need to check. But the above cookbook is very good. My CHF dietician had recommended this cookbook and another from the AHA - but the AHA recipe book has more sodium in their recipes..

I'll have to get some of that Helluva cheddar cheese - I wanted to try making a macaroni and cheese casserole and perhaps I could use it make grilled cheese as there is a great bread and no salt butter I could grill it with.. Thanks Nancy.. You've brightened my day.. I feel better.


Marilyn

PS - I still don't want to go see my CHF doc next month..

 

[Mary]

Thank you both for the ideas.
I'm going to check the web and see if I can find the Hellavu cheese. I love cheese and doing without it as a snack has really put a crimp in my life.
Marilyn, I'll also look for the bread you suggest. I'm going to try Nancy's recipe for raisin bread next week. I've meant to try it sooner but didn't get around to doing it.
Mary

 

[geebee]

I haven't changed my cooking habits other than to substitue garlic powder (plain or flavored with lemon or parsley) and lemon juice for salt.

I also use LOL, unsalted, sweet butter and unsalted chips, nuts and condiments.

I make my own salsa, guacamole, italian sauce, etc. I use virtually no prepared foods.

Garlic powder sure makes missing salt easier. I don't miss salt much anymore (other than on popcorn - I REALLY miss that ).

 

[Nancy]

I'm going to post this again.

These are two of my favorite online low sodium food sources.

http://www.healthyheartmarket.com/Merchant/Home.htm

Go to this site and click on Shop Now. The site sometimes is unavailable. Not sure why, possibly too many accesses. The owner has CHF and just had a heart transplant. So he KNOWS all about low sodium. They have so many great things. Even have low sodium olives. Their hot sauces and spice mixes are terrific. Lots of snack stuff and things you never see in the market.

http://www.mrspice.com/

This site has fantastically delicious cooking sauces. They can transform bland things into almost gourmet eats. And they are all no salt, plus many of them are OK for diabetics. Fast, fast delivery.

Here is Heluva Good Cheese, low sodium.

http://store.yahoo.com/heluva/lowsoch.html


Also when you are in the market, look in the deli cheese cases, and see if they have FRESH mozarella cheese. That has 4 % sodium or so. Much less than regular. You can make your own pizza with this. Also can make sliced tomatoes sprinkled with fresh basil and drizzled with olive oil. That's a fav salad.

And you can add some 4C Parmesan cheese on top of the pizza. That's the lowest sodium content I have found. Just limit your portions on it. But it will give you a "taste" of parmesan.

 

[Nancy]

Sorry to go on and on.

A good substitute for cream cheese is mascarpone, in the deli cases You can add you own flavorings to it and make a nice dip. Also try the tiramisu flavor one, sweet and nice flavor.

And Breakstone has a no sodium sour cream.

Some ricotta cheeses are very low sodium.

 

[Natanni]

Thank you for posting the Links

Thank you for posting the Links

Thanks Nancy. I really appreciate this info.

Nathan and I had a big "low sodium" shopping day, and we were horrified to find how things had a higher content of sodium. LOL American cheese block had 400 mg per slice, so we went with some deli cheeses that were about half. Also so many breads! We both work full time and have kids busy with sports...It is going to be tough to reconstruct our diet so much, and ever little bit (and LINK!) helps!

 

[Nancy]

Most vaieties of Swiss cheese are naturally lower in sodium than other cheeses.

I just discovered that Philadelphia Cheese has "whipped" cream cheese spreads which have roughly 4-5% sodium per serving. That's not too bad. I bought some Garlic and Herbs, and Chive flavors for Joe. He likes them with his lunch with no salt potato chips.

So you CAN have snacks, and even bring your own to holiday parties.

I had to laugh last year when we went to a house party and I brought several no salt items for Joe to snack on, homemade no salt crackers, Heluva No Salt Cheddar, homemade salsa, and homemade cocktail meatballs in marinara sauce.

I put a large sign on them so others would steer clear. Guess what? They ate them all up, and many people wanted to taste them. I really believe that the general population would be happier with lower sodium too.