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seekingsimplicity
8-31-11, 8:27pm
I need to drastically reduce sodium from my diet to keep Meniere's Disease (an inner ear imbalance) in "remission".

so far these are the ways I know of---please add anything else you can think of! thank you!

Quit eating:
Processed/cured meats like bacon, salami, jerky
condensed soup (although I don't eat that anyway)
adding salt to foods at the table

What else can I do to make this simple? I have to use a little salt when cooking for my family but I am looking for simple things I can cut out easily.

thank you for your help!

sweetana3
8-31-11, 9:30pm
Read labels. Find out what limit you should be aiming for each day and work toward that. You can cut down the salt used for the family at the same time. Flavor over salt.

sweetana3
8-31-11, 9:31pm
I forgot to add buy unsalted butter. Also it is not necessary to use the amount of salt and sugar most recipies call for. They can easily be reduced to fairly minor amounts. A little salt does accent flavor but no need what is called for.

Mrs. Hermit
8-31-11, 10:55pm
Well, I am in the opposite corner as I need a high-sodium diet. So the things I have found with a lot of sodium, thus the ones you would want to reduce/eliminate: crackers, chips (especially the flavored types), popcorn, canned tomato products, ketchup, commercial salad dressing, commercial canned soups, most frozen prepared meals, commercial breaded fish products, hard cheeses, soy sauce, dry noodle soup (Ramen), pickles and relishes, salted nuts, dry roasted nuts, canned beans like pintos, even some canned veggies have a lot of sodium. Many commercial products are available in low-sodium varieties. That may be an option for your family.

There are some good cooking tips on the Web about low-sodium meals that actually have taste. One trick to know: wine makes recipes taste saltier. But use table wine, not "cooking wine". Cooking wine is wine with SALT added.

Rosemary
9-1-11, 5:06am
Bread and dairy products often have surprisingly high sodium contents.

And way off the chart: restaurant foods. Many restaurants have this information available if you ask. One restaurant meal can have more than a day's maximum recommended sodium level!

CathyA
9-1-11, 7:40am
I have found that if I add salt when cooking, it seems to get lost. I think it tastes saltier if you don't add salt while cooking, but sprinkle a little on when you're eating it. You end up using less salt overall.
I buy unsalted crackers.
Use lemon sprinkled on some things instead of salt.
Yes, bread usually has a ton of salt, so be careful of that.
Even sweet things have alot of salt.

I am pretty sensitive to salt. But I also noticed that I'm sensitive to sugar too. It seems to dry me out and can affect my ears, because of the osmotic affect it has in the bloodstream.
Good luck to you!

reader99
9-1-11, 8:05am
My cousin just had the surgery to get rid of Meniere's. She'll be mostly in bed for a month or so while her brain and body adjust to having balance in only one side of her head.

Selah
9-1-11, 9:00am
The more cooking you do yourself, the less salt you will ingest, provided that you don't cook very salty dishes. In addition to the other very good suggestions given above, if you are going to eat canned vegetables, strain and rinse them first, which also gets rid of a lot of salt. I also need to watch my salt intake, and found that Mrs. Dash does a nice lemon-pepper mix that, oddly, can be a nice alternative to salt.

treehugger
9-1-11, 12:10pm
And way off the chart: restaurant foods. Many restaurants have this information available if you ask. One restaurant meal can have more than a day's maximum recommended sodium level!

I think this is key. The more cooking you do for yourself (from scratch as much as possible), the less you will have to worry about sodium intake. The amount of sodium added to foods with the salt shaker at the table is a tiny percentage of the sodium found in prepared foods.

Good luck with managing your condition. You can do it!

Kara

Jemima
9-21-11, 3:36am
Read labels. Find out what limit you should be aiming for each day and work toward that. You can cut down the salt used for the family at the same time. Flavor over salt.

Ditto that, but also look for MSG (monosodium glutamate) on the labels, if you can find it. (In looking up the term 'MSG', I came across this website, which I found fascinating: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/ )