Low sodium diet: easier than it looks!

Salt and sodium ar not the same thing
For anyone in a sodium diet, the following fact is very important. Salt and sodium are different things. Sodium (or natrium) is a component of salt. One gram (1000mg) of salt contains about 400mg of sodium (or natrium).

Read product packings!
When you start a low sodium diet, it's wise to start reading product packings. This will help you get knowledge of which products contain a lot of sodium and which products you can enjoy without a problem. This will give you knowledge on what you should eat. Also, try looking for a book with information on sodium contents of products. Your dietist should have acces to some good titles and you will find some ideas below.

The picture is an example of a product packing. See the natrium (sodium!) content? How the salt (zout) content can be about the same, confuses me. I mailed the producer and will update when i have a reply. The words are Dutch, by the way, as am I.

The recommended daily sodium intake
So, I should eat less then 2000mg of sodium each day. What is it to you? According to the United States Department of Agricuture* (USDA), all of us should eat less then 2300mg sodium. For salt sensitive people it's 1500mg. You can find more on this in this publication from the USDA "Should we take it with a grain of salt?". Great pun, by the way.

*I refer to the USDA because i believe most Squidoo users are American.

This page is mainly about creating your own low sodium diet. However, you don't always have the time to bake bread, or make your own snack. Luckily, there are a lot of things with little salt and great taste. Therefore i included some ideas on some products that are easy on both your time and your diet.

Breakfast
Cereal, cornflakes, muesli, oats, are all good choices. Check the sodium contents on the package, it should be around 200mg for every 100g. That's pretty good! Especially compared to bread (200mg a slice) or crackers (around 50mg a piece). Mix it with milk or yoghourt, so it's not too dry. Try a brand with dried fruits for variation.

Fruit is also a very good starter. The sugar in fruit is easy do digest and helps you start your day early. You should always eat two pieces of fruit a day and breakfast is the perfect moment.

Lunch, to me, is quite hard to keep low in salt or sodium. I am Dutch and used to my 'boterham'. While in the morning I can eat some milk and cornflakes, this won't do at lunch. I really like to eat something firm. That's why i included the self-made-bread module below. However, supermarkets have alternatives:

Buy
- Muesli bars!
Yea, they are candy-like, but they contain a good amount of fiber, protein and energy. And their salt content is around 0,2g for every 100g. Always check the package!
- Egg wafers
Not sure if they're around a lot where you live, but here in the Netherlands we eat them a lot. They're very high in carbohydrates and a nice addition for any lunch.
- Fruit
Any kind of unprepared fruit is good. Eat 2 pieces of fruit a day!

Don't buy:
- Croissants
Their salt content is very high!
- Most fast food
Fast food is usually unhealthy and high in sodium.

Dinner is, to my surprise, relatively easy to keep low in sodium. Just stick to the following rules:

Buy :
- Unprocessed vegetables
- Unprocessed meat
- Any carbohydrates (potatoes, rice, pasta)

Buying unprocessed products makes sure there are no unnecessarily added salts (or other stuffs) which would be unwelcome in your diet. Also, unprocessed means the product is fresh, which is healthy in itself!
Non-processed potatoes don't contain any sodium, the same for rice and pasta. You can pick almost any kind, try to match your recipe!

Don't buy:
- Premade sauce
- Processed products (so no schnitzels!)
- Herbmixes with sodium in them

Especially sauces can contain a lot of sodium. Mostly because all the little bits tend to add up. The same goes for processed meats: one schitzel does not have a lot of sodium, but it's sodium you can easily avoid by preparing the meat yourself.

Now, dinner might seem a little plain without sauces. Luckily, you can make those yourself quite easily, see below!

Bread is one of our staple foods. Too bad it contains lots of salt! One slice of bread can contain around 200mg sodium. When your daily limit is at 2000mg sodium, that's quite a lot! Especially if you like cheese on your bread.The ideal solution is to make your own bread. Ofcourse, I'd like ro help you. Check out my:

Low salt bread recipes
I'm making a list of all the low/no salt bread recipes i've made. I had them here, but their numbers are growing, so I made a seperate page. I hope you enjoy my recipes!

It's time for actual dinner recipes! I promised you sauce recipes as well, you will find those in the link below:

Low sodium dinner recipes
I had a list of my recipes right here, but because the page became too big, I decided to move them to a seperate page. There are great recipes te be found, I hope you enjoy them!

We all like to snack. But many snacks out there are quite high in sodium: cookies, chips, cheesecrackers: they all have a high sodium content. When you start a low sodium diet, you probably have to change your snacking habits. This is easier then it looks: you will have to change your idea of what a snack can be. Below, you will find some ideas!

Fruit!
Snack with a banana! Or an apple. Take them with you to your work. Fruit is a great snack, it is easy to digest and it contains sugars and juice to give you a little energy.

Yogurt and blueberries
Yes, you can eat something like this as well! Buy any kind of yogurt (preferably those without artificial sweeteners) and add blueberries. That's it. no work, good food!

Cherry tomatoes and pine nuts
Cut open the tomatoes, throw away a bit of the contents (or use it for your pasta sauce later) and fill the tomatoes with pine nuts. Lot's of taste, healy, minimum work. You can prepare this at work if need be.

Crackers, cottage cheese and apple
Mind the salt content in the crackers! Cottage cheese, however, is quite low in salt (especially compared to other cheeses). The combination is great, fresh and gives you something to chew on.

Yes, low sodium diets can be tough. Being a vegetarian is even more challenging. For those of you who want to stay away from meat, i made a extra page:

Low sodium vegetarian recipes
Here it is. I hope you enjoy the recipes! For now it covers a pasta recipe, a salad, a spicy capsule pea recipe, red bean course and 'green beans&stuff'. All easy to make and tasty.