Conference turris::cooks

      Donna, One of the best cookbooks by far, for any health conscious
    person would have to be "THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION COOKBOOK."
    It includes tips on making the right purchases, reading labels,
    sodium and fat contents of daily foods, etc... My doctor recommend-
    ed this one to me. I have high cholesterol and am also anemic. Good
    Luck on the road to good health!!!!!!
    
    k.k.
    

    Several years ago, Craig Claiborne was diagnosed similarly.
    As a result, he released a cookbook in which every recipe
    is sodium-free.  I don't remember its title, but I saw it
    in the Nashua Public Library.
    
    					andrew

    Donna,
    
    My husband also has high BP and has to take medication.  We have
    cut out sodium from diets and  his BP dropped, as did his weight.
    (A lot of your weight tends to be water retention from too much
    sodium).  I have a great cookbook, Better Homes and Gardens Low
    Salt Cooking or some such thing.  I'll try to get some recipes in
    here before I leave for vacation.  Otherwise, I'll get them in sometime
    next week.  Good luck!
    

    Also,
    
    A good thing to do is not to add salt to things like: the water
    for rice and spag., boxed rices (Near East) call for salt, but we
    don't even notice it missing, cut down on the salt in your baking.
    Believe it or not, we even got used to unsalted potato chips.  It
    takes a while, but then, when you eat a regular one, it gags you.
     If you eat cheese in your sandwiches, get the Weight Watchers Low
    Sodium cheese. (blue package with yellow stripe).  Its pretty good.
    Arnold has a good diet bread (Italian, oatmeal, wheat) and they
    are also Low in Sodium.  After a while, you read labels and it becomes
    second nature.
    
    Here's a recipe for fish and veggies.
    
    fish (cod or whatever)
    1 zucchini (sliced)
    1 squash (summer)  (sliced)
    mushrooms   (sliced)
    crushed tomatoes (Low Salt canned or crush your own)
    Lemon juice to taste
    oregano      "   "
    basil        "   "
    Garlic       "   "
    
    Put the fish in a cassarole dish toss the rest in on top, season
    to taste and put in the microwave for 10-15 min. or in the oven
    (350) for 25-30 min (I'd cover it in the oven).
    
    Serve with unsalted rice.  

Donna,

Some basic rules:

give away all your canned goods unless stated to be "no added salt",
The same goes for frozen foods that you did not make from scratch....
these are usually where people with decent eating habits get nailed
on the sodium.

Once this is done, you can begin to make low sodium meals.  Cooking with
NO ADDED SALT, and then adding at meals "light salt" only to those things you
cannot eat without salt, will reduce the sodium of the average american
diet by approx. 50%....EVEN if you use that shaker liberally...    
The light salt is a potassium/sodium mix and tastes and COOKS just like
the regular stuff.  I follow this and my sodium intake pleases my
doctor now....by the way, lunches out with the gang will be a continuing
problem...all sandwich meats (even turkey) are WAY TOO HIGH IN SODIUM.
Roast your own bird and take in your lunch....    

				D

    Are you also including frozen vegetables in your rule to throw out
    all frozen foods you didn't make from scratch?  I've heard that
    many of them are sprayed with a salt water mixture to keep them
    from browning, or something, but the sodium levels listed on
    the wrappers are very low.  Does anyone know more about this?
    
    --Louise

    "Lite salt" and other potassium salts taste really lousy -YCCH!
    They have a very distinct, nasty flavor.  We just don't use salt
    at all.  (I do have some concerns about getting enough iodine, since
    most people get most of their iodine from iodized table salt, but
    we do eat a lot of ocean fish - I am actually allergic to iodine,
    anyhow, and my skin breaks out if I eat fish several days in a row.)
    So, if I type in a recipe here, I put the salt, if there is any,
    in parentheses, indicating that the original recipe called for it
    but that I don't use it.  Only a very few things don't work out
    without the salt - oily scallion cakes are one, and white sauce
    thicken better with salt but you don't need anywhere near the quantity
    that is usually called for - a pinch will do it.  Some chowder recipes
    are pretty unpalatable without the salt - I guess the salt was all
    the flavoring they had - I put our favorite scallop chowder recipe
    in here somewhere (our DECnet link is too poor to search files for
    things - you'll have to look yourself); it is delicious without
    any added salt at all.  I haven't used salt in yeast-raised baked
    goods in years - they work fine (we never buy commercial bread).
    
    Good luck to you!

Reply .-1

My doc suggested NO FROZEN VEGGIES that I didn't freeze myself.  She maintains
that the little sodium from here and there adds up..she wants me cooking
totally without added salt (except in bread where I use 1/2 the recipe
requirement - yeast bread texture is different without salt to control
the rising - at least in my "sponge" based recipes).

Once the food is cooked, I can add moderate amounts of "lite" salt if I
feel the need.  I don't find the MORTON "lite" brand ugly in flavor at all.
I do find SALT SUBSTITUTES to be unpalatable, but I add very little
extra of anything anyway.

My solution is to buy fresh vegetables, blanch them, and freeze.  They
taste better anyway.  

Canned goods and frozen "convenience" foods are the main source of hidden
sodium in the american diet.  If we make our own strictly from fresh,
we can get our sodium down with minimum pain....of course, forget bacon,
ham, and all processed meats (even turkey or chicken)...I do miss ham
sometimes.

    Craig Claiborn's Gourmet Diet cookbook is actually a sodium-reduced
    cookbook, not necessarily low-calorie. It has wonderful recipes
    for lots of things including ketchup and mustard - another source
    of sodium!
    
    I can recommend Mrs. Dash's chicken coating stuff that you can find
    near the shake'n'bake stuff. Same principle - no salt. Pretty tasty
    and quick.
    
    re: frozen vegetables:
    
    I don't eat much salt and can tell when there's a lot. Bird's Eye
    vegetables don't bother me but I cannot eat green giant frozen
    vegetables. The last time I tried green giant frozen spinach, my
    husband asked me what I added - it was just the salt that they added.
    ( 300 mg's per serving, as I recall) YuK!
    

    Thanks, everyone, for the advise.  Most of your help isn't hard to
    implement since I don't eat many processed foods and I do use the
    "lite" salt.  I guess I've successfully changed some of my bad
    habits because foods prepared by others generally taste too salty.
    
    I do occasionally use frozen vegetables for convenience and was
    surprised that they contain much salt since they don't seem to
    bother my tastebuds.  Live and learn.
    
    Does anyone know how much is an acceptable daily level of sodium?
    
    				Thanks again,
    						Donna
                                         

The Market Basket in Fitchburg now carries NO SALT Turkey breast in the deli 
department.  It tastes great.  

Some other areas to look out for:

	condiments, especially MUSTARDs

	Frozen Turkeys (like the ones DEC hands out to some folks) are
		often injected with hi sodium broth for juiciness

	ALL Chinese foods except those prepared at home

	MOST condiments bought to make Chinese food at home

	Most cheeses

The Government Printing Office has a book called the composition of foods, 
which gives a very detailed breakdown of what is in the stuff you are eating.  
Most of the stuff is listed by the pound, so some work is required to figure 
out the actual amounts in the portion you eat.  It's great to use for 
comparisons of one foodstuff versus another.  There is a GPO in Boston for 
sure, maybe one in NH somewhere.  You can call information to find out the 
number.  You can get ordering information for the books by phone.

						     
							- JP

    Re: My note .10 and reply .11
    
    After making what I thought was a fairly accurate statement that
    I rarely use processed foods, I've spent the past few days looking
    closely at what I use in cooking that isn't fresh.  I was positively
    amazed.
    
    For others who may have made the same error in perception I did,
    here's what I discovered.
    
    I frequently use:
    
    	Mustard 
    	Mayonnaise (low-fat)
        Spaghetti Sauce (small amounts)
    	Tomato Puree, canned 
    	Peanut Butter (occasionally)
    	Jams & Jellies (low-sugar)
    	Mushrooms, canned (because fresh ones spoil before I use them)
    	
    I could continue but I think I've made my point.  It's easy to forget
    the little items.  But, I learned something important and I'll continue
    to change my ways.  
    
    Thanks again for the help,
    
    				Donna 
                            

Donna's mention of canned tomato puree reminded me of the time I was able to 
locate canned whole, pureed, and paste tomatoes without salt added.  I set 
about making my usual sauce (which doesn't have any salt added).  When I was 
done, the result seemed to be lacking.  I couldn't put my finger on it, but it 
just did not have the right balance of spices.  I went over and over it in my 
head, but couldn't figure out what I left out.  Then my roomie (with the 
totally bland palate) tasted it and announced "It needs salt!"  Reluctantly, I 
added a touch of salt to a small dish of the sauce, and wallah! (remember, I 
took Spanish) the balance was restored!   I have since had the same experience 
with homade Peking Rav's.  

The moral of the story is that a little salt is necessary every now and then.

						     
							- JP

re: -1

salt added AFTER COOKING is not generally enough to cause a normally healthy
person problems...studies recently published indicated that up to 60% of the
salt we eat is in the products we use when cooking...and even if we use
salt AFTER we cook the meal, we will not get nearly the same amount of salt
in our diet.  Salt intake can be expected to drop approx 40% to 60% by
simply watching what we cook WITH and using the lite salt shaker with
restraint at the table.

I'm allowed to add after the meal is cooked, but my Dr. demands I use NO
salt during food preparation.  This was enough of a change for me to
get back within safe limits...and I still can have a sprinkle of salt on
my sliced tomato.  One exception to the rule, is that I can add 1/2 of
the indicated salt for bread recipes.

P.S. Butter and margarine are culprits we often overlook.

          re: -10
          
          According to the National Medical Association and the Food
          and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences
          National research Council, sodium intake should be restricted
          to about 1100 to 3300 milligrams per day.
          
          Adult Americans typically consume from one to three teaspoons
          of salt per day (salt is about 40% sodium) which is about
          twice as much as mediacal experts recommend.
          
          Particular care should be used when purchasing baby foods,
          especially canned, which can contain large amounts of sodium.
          The recommended sodium intake for children between one and
          three years of age is 325 to 975 milligrams per day.
          
          A good source of information regarding the sodium content of
          packaged foods is _The_Brand-Name_Nutrition_Counter_ by Jean
          Carper (Bantam Books).  For each food entry it lists:
          Protein, Vitamins A, C, B1, B2, Niacin, Calcium, Iron,
          Sodium, Fat, Carbohydrate, and Calories.

    A tip I read somewhere is to brush clear nail polish on some/most
    of the holes of your salt shaker from the inside.  This way, you
    still have the feel of shaking salt on food but cutting down the
    amount.  I guess this is similar to cigarette smokers chewing gum!
    
    TW

    Anothe way to cut down on salt in processed foods, especially
    vegetables, is to rinse them thoroughly in fresh water before
    you use them, or before you heat them up.  This will help to
    eliminate some of the salt.  Also, look at things like cottage
    cheese if you eat it.  A 2/3 cup serving of low-fat cottage
    cheese contains a LOT of salt - more than you might think.

    There are low-salt versions of many of the products we're
    talking about.  I've gotten unsalted cottage-cheese at
    Alexander's supermarked (think it was Axelrod brand?). The
    taste is not as good, but you can add your own seasonings
    and mask the salt-less taste.  It's no problem if you're
    using the cott.ch. in cooking.  I've also gotten unsalted
    frozen veggies - I'll have to look up the brand.  Some brands
    of diet soda (Polar, for one) have little or no sodium.
    Others are very high - and even the ones that don't look
    too bad sometimes are, since the soft-drink companies consider
    a 12-oz can of soda to be 2 servings.
    
    Watch out for some "natural" foods.  Things that look innocent
    sometimes are not.  Celery is VERY high in sodium, and canteloupe
    is high also.  These two surprised me.
    
    --Louise

    You really don't need a cookbook to reduce your salt intake.  I
    am 51 years old and have never cooked with salt.  It isn't necessary
    to bake with it.  If you cook with Herbs (you don't really need
    a receipe to do this) and lemon juice you will find you food tastes
    great.  Be creative sprinkle on some basil, rosemary, thyme anything
    really.  Also, after cooking your meat, fish or poultry if you squease
    a little "fresh" lemon or lime juice on the meat it will be terrific.
    I'm sure your doctor has told you to read those labels.  It's amazing
    how much salt is in some of the processed foods.
    
    Good luck with your new diet!
    
    Anne

    
    Take a salt shaker and fill it with herbs and spices combnation
    and thenyou can shake a little on without feeling something is 
    missing and you have a nice way to control your salt intake.
    lite and Easy cookbook by Watkins will give you the salt content
    of every fruit and vegiable that is known to man per milligram.
    Enjoy using no salt spices and herbs to your diet you will enjoy
    eating as before but no salt.
    
                                           don