Cooking a low sodium diet for the elderly

• Sodium free - the items you've got in your hot little hand has less than 5 mg of sodium per serving.
• Low Sodium - this item has 140 mg of sodium per serving.
• Reduced Sodium - here's where they really try to confuse ya. A "reduced sodium" item has 25% less sodium than the regular product. So, if the regular product has 2000 mg of sodium per serving, this "reduce sodium" item still has a whopping 1500 mg per serving. That'll make any ankle swell!
• Light in Sodium - this product has 50% less sodium than the regular product. So, in the above example, a "light in sodium" product will have 1000 mg of sodium per serving.
• Unsalted, aka without added salt, aka no added salt- these products did not even see a salt shaker when they were being prepared. But, beware, still check the label as every food has some sort of sodium just naturally occurring. The prime offenders are proteins such as beef, chicken and pork.

Tips and tricks for cooking, serving, and eating a low sodium diet

aka - AHA! I'm getting there!

• 1My favorite tip of all time: When shopping, I take a sharpee pen with me and mark the sodium content and serving size right on the front of the package I'm buying. This way, I'm not constantly reading teeny labels while trying to cook.
• 2Take the salt shaker off the table! If you must have a salt shaker, plug a few of the holes with superglue so that the salt comes out slower.
• 3Prepare and vacuum seal your own meals instead of buying prepared dinners which are almost always laden with sodium.
• 4Make your own chicken, vegetable or beef stock and freeze it in ice cube trays. Once frozen, pop them out and store in a plastic bag. This way, you can just grab 2 or 3 soup ice cubes for flavoring rice, potatoes, or vegetables.
• 5Use the best balsamic vinegars you can find to flavor foods - try to get at least one aged 15 years (25 is even better but sure pricey!). Balsamic vinegar has long been a favorite of mine for about everything. Since this type of vinegar is so flavorful, not much is needed to flavor foods beautifully. I personally have 3 different balsamic vinegars in my cupboard and they are all 0 sodium. Be safe though and check yours before adding to soups, stews, salad dressing, etc.
• 6Purge your cupboards of high sodium food items to help you stay on task.
• 7As an FYI: chocolate items seem to have more sodium than their vanilla counterparts. Chocolate oreos, for example, have 160mg of sodium in two cookies. The vanilla oreos have 120mg of sodium (well, it's still less!).
• 8If you're a cheese-a-holic, you might think you're out of luck but not really. Grate cheese and sprinkle on sandwiches, salads, or in soups. You'll use less than a full slice. Store unused portions in the freezer.
• 9Make sure to read the labels on combination spices. Most combination spices (particularly steak seasonings) contain an astonishing amount of sodium. Steer clear of these!