Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–so glad you’re here!
In my opinion, there is nothing much scarier than a “follow-up” appointment with a specialist. I spent last week in an anxious ball of stress worrying about my salt intake, how much water I was drinking and how high my blood pressure was. Today, I went to my follow-up and things are a good deal better, but I’ll still have to go back at some point. Oh well.
The silver lining? I lost 7 pounds last week. And I also learned a lot about salt and where it’s hidden.
When I first learned that I was going to have to pivot to an ultra-low-salt diet, I think I passed out for a few seconds. Life without salt sounded like a taste wasteland. It kind of is, but after my visit with the doctor this morning, I don’t think I need to be on an ultra-low-salt diet. Still, for a while I was, and I learned some interesting things.
A “low-salt” diet is one that includes between 1500 and 2300 mg of sodium per day. Last week, I stuck to more like 750-800 mg per day, which is actually pretty hard to do. Here’s why:
Life has salt–naturally occurring salt. Our bodies, on average, naturally contain more than 90 grams of sodium–mostly in our bones and bodily fluids. We need some sodium daily, something a little less than 500 mg, to function adequately.
A teaspoon of Kosher salt has somewhere between 1200 and 1900 mg of sodium. So, basically, you’re looking at a little over a teaspoon’s worth of salt for a diet that’s “low-sodium.” Use it wisely. And be vigilant about hidden sodium!
Here’s what I mean by “hidden sodium:”
The first thing I turned to were fresh fruits and vegetables because that’s where the lion’s share of the my diet lives. Fruits, vegetables have no sodium, right? Wrong. Asparagus have no sodium, but red bell peppers do–5 mg. A sumo citrus has no sodium but an apple has 2 mg, and I could go on. These are all pretty negligible, and nothing I would actually worry about. But folks–even tap water has a little sodium in it. Not much–but a little.
But there are more nefarious sources of sodium out there. For example, I was shocked to learn that yogurt has about 100 mg of sodium per serving in it! My first day on the ultra low-salt diet, I made this great fruit smoothie:
And it really was delicious. But as I stood at the counter smugly drinking down my liquid gold, I didn’t realize that the milk in the yogurt was digging right into my sodium limit for the day.
I decided to make fish for dinner. Bang–fish that lives in the ocean has sodium. The next night, I decided to have a steak–you guessed it–sodium. The next night–shrimp–no surprise here: sodium. None of these items are very high in sodium, but it’s there–and if you’re trying to account for every mg, like I was, it’s challenging.
This morning at the doctor’s office, I mentioned all this to the doc who waved his hand and said–“oh yes–but ‘that’ sodium is all naturally occurring.” And he applauded my use of capers to add some salt and flavor to the delicious sole meuniere I had made (that I’ll share later in the week), as well as the low-sodium soy sauce I used to marinate the steak in.
So…moral of this story is that naturally occurring sodium is all around us. The sodium we need to be concerned with is the sodium that we add to our diets. Mr. Stone Soup and I avoid prepackaged foods, which are undoubtedly the worst offenders, so I’ll be focused on finding options for boosting flavor with low-sodium additives. Fortunately, since this blog focuses on California Cuisine, it naturally lends itself to a healthful, low-sodium diet and I’m looking forward to the challenge!
I hope you enjoy the terrific fruit smoothie!
Tune in later in the week when I will share more fun and flavorful low-sodium recipes!
Until then–
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
p.s. I’ll be returning to the sauces of California Cuisine in a couple of weeks after I’ve had a chance to share these low-sodium recipes 🙂
