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Most of my cooking is from scratch and we do put salt on our food. To me some things just must have salt to call out their full flavor. Or at least that's the way my taste buds have been conditioned.
I've learned to enjoy most vegetables without salt but meat, no.
We eat very little in the way of processed foods which sometimes do taste too salty to me. It's been a long, slow process of learning to eat in a more healthy manner than the way we were raised. But I love good food and am in my Seventies and I like to try to create a balance between careless epicureanism and healthy restraint. My definition of quality of life is as important to me as good health.
By way of caution once I, having read the literature, decided to cut salt way down. Eventually I was in the doctor's office complaining of tiredness and weakness. After a few blood tests here was her response to me, "Good grief, Girl. Go home and eat some bacon and eggs. You have almost no sodium in your system."
I laughed and told her she probably didn't have to say that to a lot of her patients.
Guess I did too thorough of a job. As usual moderation is the key to success
Try doing a salt-fast..........a whole day of eating that includes ZERO added salt.
My BP has gone down quite a bit by cutting way back on salt.
I sort of eat like that to begin with.
Breakfast: Rolled Oats, no salt in that but brown sugar and non salted butter added.
Fruit during the day at work
It's dinner that has really been getting me. So tonight I had a salad and measured out everything that had a nutritional label on it, putting only in one serving. Well, almost. One serving of croutons is 5 and I just needed to have twice that.
I would have thought the sardines would be loaded but they really weren't. Don't know about the cucumber but I needed to finish that before it became another wasted one.
But in measuring out everything to one serving, that should help....to say nothing about extending my supplies out some.
I was thinking about my version of Moors & Christians (black eyed peas, brown rice, black beans) but as I said, some salad things were reaching the end of their lives.
They aren't too happy with my BP and one of the things they suggested was less salt.
Well, I am hardly one to use the shaker but looking at the food I eat, from bread to canned tomatoes (and more), it's loaded!
So aside from more careful shopping (I would think with my lack of processed foods diet I was safe) and perhaps baking my own French bread instead of buying it, what else can be done to suck out the salt before it goes over the lips? Open my tomatoes can, put them in with a potato before I put them in my salad?
Most things in a can are going to have a LOT of salt. I look for low sodium versions. I will eat canned high-sodium things occasionally. Some fried chicken, a can of soup, a can of beans when I couldn't find a low sodium version. I'm 65 and have never had high blood pressure.
Think of it in terms of weekly. As long as your average sodium for the week is low enough, it should be fine.
What I do is I keep a spreadsheet on my computer and sometimes track everything that passes my lips. I have columns for what the food is, the amount I ate, calories, fat, protein, carbs, fiber, SODIUM.
My sodium column header has 500-2300 in it, as a reminder that that is the recommended sodium level for health. That makes me very aware of what exactly I eat that has too much sodium. Since you have hbp, you would probably want to keep in the lower half of the recommended amount?
Just for comparison....on most days, I eat in the lower half of that 500-2300 sodium range. I'm not trying to. It's a consequence of what I eat and how I prepare things.
I'm not in the habit of eating too much processed food. I DO eat that, but just not that much. I love fruits (fresh or frozen), cereal w/no or little sugar (shredded wheat, cheerios), chicken breast I cook myself, high-fiber whole grain bread, eggs, etc. The bread I eat is not high in sodium at all, and I love it.
TIP: I started a walking program years ago. My lab work was normal already, but I was surprised that after a while, my blood pressure and cholesterol dropped noticeably! I had done aerobics off and on for years, but that didn't have the same effect. There's something about walking, I guess.
Breakfast: Rolled Oats, no salt in that but brown sugar and non salted butter added.
Fruit during the day at work
It's dinner that has really been getting me. So tonight I had a salad and measured out everything that had a nutritional label on it, putting only in one serving. Well, almost. One serving of croutons is 5 and I just needed to have twice that.
I would have thought the sardines would be loaded but they really weren't. Don't know about the cucumber but I needed to finish that before it became another wasted one.
But in measuring out everything to one serving, that should help....to say nothing about extending my supplies out some.
I was thinking about my version of Moors & Christians (black eyed peas, brown rice, black beans) but as I said, some salad things were reaching the end of their lives.
Good for you, it sounds like you are doing a great job.
I do not want to get off-thread or threadjack, but a slight aside. In general, a decrease in blood-volume will lower your blood pressure. Two very effective ways to go about this............cut back on sodium and eat a low-carb diet. If aggressively cutting back on salt does not do enough for you, you may want to consider cutting back significantly on carbs.
My mother in law had the same issue. She developed a little trick, which was since we all put rice in our salt shakers to keep the salt from clumping, she took out the salt and left the rice therefore she could literally shake the saltshaker over her food as much as she wanted. It really worked, it’s a trick of the mind.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but rotisserie chickens are almost always salt brined, and therefore are very high in salt. My sister had the same problem and was told to cut down salt. But it she was still having problems with her BP because she lived on rotisserie chicken. The next time she went to the doctor the doctor asked what she was eating and is soon as she said rotisserie chicken and he said ah-ha! that’s the issue. When she stopped eating them her BP went down to normal with her medication.
I only buy the organic rotisserie chickens from Wegmans, and I'm pretty sure they're not brined. I'm so sensitive to the taste of salt now that I could tell if they were. Actually, my BP even before my medication sometimes tends to be a little low sometimes, and it's absolutely perfect with the one BP med I take.
They aren't too happy with my BP and one of the things they suggested was less salt.
Well, I am hardly one to use the shaker but looking at the food I eat, from bread to canned tomatoes (and more), it's loaded!
So aside from more careful shopping (I would think with my lack of processed foods diet I was safe) and perhaps baking my own French bread instead of buying it, what else can be done to suck out the salt before it goes over the lips? Open my tomatoes can, put them in with a potato before I put them in my salad?
Most stores have no-salt-added canned vegetables, alongside the standard type, at no extra cost.
I tend to agree, as when I was first dx with High BP I went on a radical salt free diet, I cooked everything from scratch, including chutneys. My BP did not go down. I belive some individuals are salt sensitive, & those people need to cut & reduce the salt intake. I am not one of those so I use salt every day. You can monitor yourself, by eating low salt & checking your numbers. Like many other things it is no a one size fits all regarding salt.
That article says some peoples BP went UP on a low salt diet.
I agree..
most of our bodies are loaded with sugars n carbs..... which are inflammatory
ive had many family members years ago ..after a heart attack.... the salt was identified as a culprit....never sugars..never breads….potatoes...grains....
they would eat salt free yet still have high sodium.....and more heart attacks..
if our bodies aren't loaded with sugars/carbs … other substances wont be so harmful....
You can also get off the sofa, do some aerobic activities, and sweat most of your salt intake away. That’s why working class and warm country cuisine tends to be salty. People are sweating.
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