Tips for Reducing Sodium in Your Diet

Hi,

Is there any reason to have low salt diet?? Just wondering...yes, I agree we have too much salt in our food and fast food too.
 
Google "Celtic Sea Salt", it's a salt your body needs!

Plus, water with celtic sea salt and lemons peices is a great electrolyte balance drink, and it tastes really great. I put celtic sea salt in my water every day and have for years, plus it's great for dogs and pets too, all animals need salt, they risk their lives for it in the wild, and celtic sea salt has 84 essential minerals and iodine is included, and it comes from the northern part of France.

You would however need to include potassium salt into your diet as well on occasion.
 
Dannie said:
Google "Celtic Sea Salt", it's a salt your body needs!

Plus, water with celtic sea salt and lemons peices is a great electrolyte balance drink, and it tastes really great. I put celtic sea salt in my water every day and have for years, plus it's great for dogs and pets too, all animals need salt, they risk their lives for it in the wild, and celtic sea salt has 84 essential minerals and iodine is included, and it comes from the northern part of France.

You would however need to include potassium salt into your diet as well on occasion.
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No, because the salt/soduim are already add in most foods/drink. Why should you need extra salt to add the salt foods/drink?

I alway buy unsalt foods... and don't salt when I cook them... I leave sea or herbal salt and pepper on the table for the family to add on their meal.
 
efua said:
I guess salt is for health and not for taste.
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Well, sometimes that salt is not good for some people who have high blood pressure. When they get older, their hormones changed and it slows down by gainin' their weight via other health issue involved. Sodium is not good for them. It's bad for the heart as well, because of the blood pressure it could wore the heart out by pumpin' too hard. It needs to cut down otherwise, they will have to take medications to keep the blood down for life.

High blood pressure could cause heart attack, stroke and kidney failure.
 
it terrible to go through such experience in old age better young and wise cyber.
 
Whoa! I love this thread.

I had Ménière's disease since 1992. Try to limit sodium as I can. Need watch out on some food that hide alot of sodium. Have to check how much mg of sodium before I go ahead to purchase. Still doing that.

One time, I ate a total of 4,000 mg Sodium in one day. oh my golly, I feel I am about pass out. Force myself to drink alot of water like few glasses then take some nap for like one or two hours.

Good information about Meniere's Page - Sodium content of common foods
 
wow, thank you for link, Lasaza.

How Salt Affects Your Weight

Salt does not cause your body to gain or lose fat. In fact, salt has no calories. High consumption of salt only results in temporary weight gain as it causes your body to retain water. Conversely, low consumption of salt can result in temporary weight loss as it causes your body to expel water.

It is interesting to note that many crash diets which boast quick weight loss rely on foods with little or no salt content. The weight loss is mostly water, and as soon as you eat foods containing salt again you regain the weight.

A Word of Caution

Our opening paragraphs would lead you to believe that salt is of little concern in regards to long-term weight loss. In fact, a diet high in salt content can not only affect your blood pressure (see below), but is typically associated with weight gain.

The reason is that high levels of salt in our diets usually come from calorie dense, fiber poor, processed foods, like those found in fast food and restaurant meals, as well as on supermarket shelves. If you adhere to a low salt diet, it will likely consist of the lower calorie, healthier foods associated with weight loss.

Salt versus Sodium

We add table salt (sodium chloride) during cooking and at the dinner table to enhance the flavor of our food. Manufactures add it, often in great quantities, to return flavor to processed foods and help preserve them. But when we look at nutrition content, we look at sodium.

Though the terms are often used interchangeably, salt and sodium are not the same thing. Sodium, which is found naturally in most foods, accounts for approximately 40% of table salt. Therefore when salt is added to food, the sodium content increases by approximately 40% of the amount of salt added.

Why Salt Causes Water Retention

Our bodies rely on electrolytes, most significantly sodium and potassium, to carry the electrical impulses that control our bodily functions. In order for our bodies to function properly, it is important that the concentration of electrolytes in our bodies remain constant.

A high concentration of electrolytes in our blood triggers our thirst mechanism, causing us to consume adequate amounts of water to return to the proper concentration of electrolytes. This is one of the reasons bars provide free salty snacks like pretzels and peanuts. The salt causes us to become thirsty and purchase more drinks.

When we consume an adequate amount of water, our kidneys are able to keep the concentration of electrolytes in our blood constant by increasing or decreasing the amount of water we retain. The result of our retaining more or less water in our bloodstream can also affect our blood pressure.

The water moves beyond our bloodstream, too. Through the process of osmosis, water flows from a lower salinity environment to a higher one in an attempt to balance the levels of salinity. After we consume large amounts of salt, it is the water moving from our bloodstream into our skin that gives us that "puffy" look and makes it hard to get our rings off. Then, when we consume lesser amounts of salt, the same process works in reverse to remove the excess water from our bodies.

Salt and High Blood Pressure

Some people are "salt sensitive," which means that consumption of salt can increase their blood pressure. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is an important risk factor for both heart attack and stroke.

For information on high blood pressure, including methods of lowering it and recommended levels of sodium consumption, please visit the American Stroke Association and American Heart Association websites.

How Salt Affects Your Weight
 
A lot of salt is used in processing cheese:

What is the manufacturing process of processed cheese?
The main raw material in processed cheeses is cheese itself, to which is often added other dairy products. The cheeses are usually pressed cheeses, both cooked and uncooked, but many other cheeses can be used in the mixture: soft cheeses, goat’s cheese, blue cheese etc.
The manufacturing process has several phases:
- Ripening of the cheeses in specialised areas until they reach the right level of maturity.
- Preparation of the cheeses, which are mechanically de-rinded, grated and mixed.
- The addition, in large vats, of several types of cheeses, other dairy products (cream, butter, liquid or powdered milk, milk serum, lactalbumin, lactoglobulin, casein etc.) emulsifying salts and melting salts. Spices and flavourings can also be added. To obtain a variety of tastes, young fresh tasting cheeses are added to riper cheeses and they influence the final taste of the cheese with their own particular tastes. The blend can also be enriched with a wide variety of flavourings: nuts, ham, olives, mushrooms, pepper, fines herbs, onions, eau de vie, seafood, meat etc.
The list of added ingredients is strictly regulated.
- The cooking and the mixing process results in a smooth creamy blend.
- Simple pasteurisation (90-95°C) is used for cheeses to be sold in temperate climates, using a short cycle, which is followed by sterilisation for those products that need to be kept for longer.
- Packaging is done automatically: the melted cheese is shaped either in the moulds or directly into the final packaging.


What is a soft cheese?
It is a ripe cheese whose mix is neither pressed nor cooked. It can be made from cow’s or goat’s milk, pasteurised or un-pasteurised. The milk is prepared with milk ferments and rennet to enable it to coagulate and form curd grains. The curds are then poured into perforated moulds where they drain of their own accord. Then the moulds are turned over and the cheese is salted on all sides. The cheese is then cultured with penicillium that will, with maturing, give it its white “bloom” (rind). Maturation lasts from 1 to 6 weeks depending on the product.

What is a cheese?
It is the result of the transformation of milk in a liquid state into a solid through coagulation; curdling, draining of the whey, and ripening depending on the cheese.

What are processed cheeses?
Processed cheeses are made from cheeses and other milk products using:
Hard cheeses, both young and ripened, milk, milk proteins, melting salts, flavourings, spices etc. All these ingredients are melted and then poured when hot into the final packaging.

What are hard cheeses?
They are a large family of cheeses with diverse characteristics that are made using identical methods. The milk, pasteurised or not, is prepared with milk ferments and rennet and is heated so that it coagulates rapidly and the curds are obtained. The curds are sliced and then stirred until they reach a granular consistency. It is then enclosed in cloths or in moulds and pressed hard to quickly remove the whey. The salting is undertaken using brine baths (salt) in which the cheeses sit, depending on the product, for a longer or shorter time. The cheeses are then dried and placed in moisture-controlled stores where they are washed and turned regularly.
The maturing is longer or shorter depending on the product to ensure that the flavour develops evenly throughout the cheese.


What is the dry matter in a cheese?
The dry material or dry extract is what is left when all the water that it contains has evaporated. The dry material is composed of proteins, fatty materials or lipids, sugars or carbohydrates, mineral salts and vitamins. It is therefore the nutritional part of the food....
Produits laitiers du groupe Bel : Fromage La vache qui rit, Babybel et Leerdammer
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I wonder how they remove all that salt after the process? :dunno:

I love cheeses. This thread is making me hungry. :)
 
Did someone say cheese?? :droolz:


Great thread Liebling! I've never needed low sodium diet, but my husband does due to high blood pressure. There were days I felt like gosh I need salt! I notice when my thyroid dose is a bit low I tend to increase salt sometime. Do you do that as well?
 
Reba said:
A lot of salt is used in processing cheese:


I wonder how they remove all that salt after the process? :dunno:

I love cheeses. This thread is making me hungry. :)
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Yes, true...

They have to add salt or soduim in any cheeses to cream cheeses.... but I still love cheeses... mmmmhhhh


Katie, I will be back few hours to answer your post.
 
Catmandu said:
Did someone say cheese?? :droolz:
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Reba!!!! it make me :droolz: too... :giggle:

Great thread Liebling! I've never needed low sodium diet, but my husband does due to high blood pressure. There were days I felt like gosh I need salt! I notice when my thyroid dose is a bit low I tend to increase salt sometime. Do you do that as well?
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Yes my doctor recommend me to take an iodine salt. Iodine salt is good for thyroid function. I mixed herbs with iodine salt when I use on meals... That´s why I don´t use salt for cooking but use salt on the table for our meal. It´s no good if you use salt for cooking and then again salt on your meal. I drink a lot of water or soda water including low soduim then is less problem.
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Liebling:-))) said:
Reba!!!! it make me :droolz: too... :giggle:



Yes my doctor recommend me to take an iodine salt. Iodine salt is good for thyroid function. I mixed herbs with iodine salt when I use on meals... That´s why I don´t use salt for cooking but use salt on the table for our meal. It´s no good if you use salt for cooking and then again salt on your meal. I drink a lot of water or soda water including low soduim then is less problem.
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Ahh yes... iodine salt. I have forgotten about that. Thanks for reminding me and I should start using iodine salt and perhaps herbs. Does iodine salt taste like salt? Because I wonder why you add herbs on your meal?
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I love cheese too but i dont eat them everyday cuz
i know some of them do contain a lot of sodium and
im careful not to salt my food too much. But when we
go out to eat, its beyond my control cuz i know the cooks salt
the food before they are being served, I do salt my
french fries cuz i dont like ketchup, oh well.

Its interesting though, that i dont have high blood
pressure! My hubby does and it has increased some
so the dr had to increased his dosage on his med but
i think its mostly because of his smoking, not because
of his high salt intake. It could be both, though.

Your thread on reducing sodium in the diet is interesting,
Liebling!
:thumb:
 
Catmandu said:
Ahh yes... iodine salt. I have forgotten about that. Thanks for reminding me and I should start using iodine salt and perhaps herbs. Does iodine salt taste like salt? Because I wonder why you add herbs on your meal?
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Forgive me for not answer your post an earlier. I was busy to debate with someone from other threads... :giggle:

To me, yes... iodine salt taste like salt but more fine than table or cooking salt.

The reason why I mixed dried herbs with iodine salt because most herbs salt is including sea salt in every stores, that's why I mixed iodine salt with dried herbs by myself.

Herb with iodine salt taste better than sea salt. It's my opinion and taste... :dunno:

I has to limit the salt because I eat cheese a lot... Occhhh... I watch out how many soduim or type of salts they add in type of cheeses. Sometimes they add no soduim and salt which is great but bit expensive.
 
Defee said:
I love cheese too but i dont eat them everyday cuz
i know some of them do contain a lot of sodium and
im careful not to salt my food too much. But when we
go out to eat, its beyond my control cuz i know the cooks salt
the food before they are being served, I do salt my
french fries cuz i dont like ketchup, oh well.

Its interesting though, that i dont have high blood
pressure! My hubby does and it has increased some
so the dr had to increased his dosage on his med but
i think its mostly because of his smoking, not because
of his high salt intake. It could be both, though.
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Yes, I has to agree with you on this. We has to limit salt in our bodies... yes, that's right... It's not just salt who cause high blood pressure but fat foods as well but smoking?

I didn't know that smoking cause high blood pressure, too... ? What the doctor says about this?

Which kind of salt you use to cook the meal or on the dinner table? There're many types of salt like herb salt, sea salt, iodine salt, table salt, etc.


Your thread on reducing sodium in the diet is interesting,
Liebling!
:thumb:
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:ty: and welcome... :thumb: It's good education for us that we can take care of our healthy.
 
Why do they add iodine to table salt?

I have a box of salt in the kitchen, and it says, "Iodized Salt*", and then at the bottom it says, "*This salt supplies iodine, a necessary nutrient". On the ingredient label is lists Potassium Iodine at a concentration of 0.006%. A quarter teaspoon of salt (1.5 grams) provides 67 micrograms of iodine, which is about half of the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance for iodine.

The main reason that you need iodine is because of a gland in your neck called the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland produces two hormones (thyroxine and triiodothyronine) that your body uses during metabolism (see this article for details). Without these hormones you start to feel tired, depressed, cold, weak, etc. Iodine is an important element in these two hormones, so without iodine your thyroid gland cannot produce them. When starved for iodine, the thyroid gland also swells, and when it does it is called goiter (see this page for a picture).

Your body doesn't need or contain very much iodine. You might have 20 to 25 milligrams of iodine in your entire body right now. However, in some parts of the world the soil contains no iodine, so the plants contain no iodine and therefore iodine deficiency is a problem. In the U.S., one part of the country that lacks iodine is the Great Lakes region. So companies started adding iodine to salt in the 1920's to eliminate goiter and thyroid problems.

If you lived through the cold war, you may have heard about the practice of taking iodine pills during the threat of a nuclear attack. When a nuclear bomb explodes, one substance it forms is radioactive iodine. If you eat, drink or inhale this isotope, your thyroid gland will concentrate it and this can lead to thyroid damage or cancer. By taking an iodine pill, you saturate the thyroid gland with iodine and prevent it from absorbing the radioactive iodine.
Howstuffworks "Why do they add iodine to table salt?"
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Most American table salt is iodized.

...In the United States, salt producers cooperated with public health authorities and made both iodized and plain salt available to consumers at the same cost. Newspapers urged people to use iodized salt for the prevention of iodine deficiency. The Michigan program was highly successful and iodized salt use quickly spread throughout the country. Ultimately, household use of iodized salt eliminated iodine deficiency in the North America. In 1955, researchers reported that 75.8% of U.S. households used only iodized salt. The Salt Institute estimates that nearly 70% of the table salt sold in the United States is iodized...
Iodized Salt
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It's easy to know if your salt has iodine; it's clearly on the label.
 
Interesting...

Here in Germany -

fluoridated salt consider to be table salt. That reason we have fluoridated salt is because we have very low to no fluoridate in water. Germany banned water fluoridation that's why we need fluoridated salt as replacement to protect against caries.

The public resturants, canteen, etc at everywhere use fluoridated salt as table salt. I remember back at around 1988 time, we went health class about type of breads etc. The man from Public Health Department told us that every bakery are obligate to add iodine to fluoridated salt in breads, cakes, etc.

It's not just salt but teethpaste, too.

I have for my family is fluoridated salt and also to mix with dried herbs, too but my boys prefer iodine salt, I used so I buy fluoridated salt in iodine for them, of course me, too... We have type of salts in every stores here in Germany... Many are alway add fluoridated in when they decide to pick sea salt, iodine salt, herb salt, etc.

I will be back for provide the link later.
 
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