"James" wrote

>I need to reduce my sodium intake and like to learn to make easy low
> sodium food or at least edible food without salt. I've tried low salt
> canned vegetables and they are bad.

Hi James, I traveled that same trail about 2005 or so for the husband's
needs. He's not on a severely limited salt diet, but needs to have no more
than 1,500 mg a day which was hard to do in Japan and takes care anyplace
these days.

Lessons learned he

1) Cant really do it well unless the family follows along on the diet
2) Can be pretty painless if you take your time at adjustment
3) Adjustment happens at it's own pace, for some 2 weeks of 'salt free'
works, others cant stick to that.
4) Best tactic was to start checking all the labels and the portion sizes,
then start trying a few (not all, just some) new brands of things you
normally get but are lower in sodium than what you used to get. Some you
will like, some you will not.
5) Dont get 20 cans of salt free or reduced sodium soup right away. You may
find that one brand tastes like #$#!% and toss out 19 cans. Get 1 can and
try it.
6) If you have a minimal spice cabinet, add to it. Spices replace salt but
check the labels if they are a blend as many of them are as much as 70%
salt.
7) MSG if you are tolerant has much less sodium than table salt and can
replace that kick of flavor for an overall sodium 'savings' (use small
pinches)
8) Canned veggies arent exactly 'crisp' but what crispness they do have is
related to the salt added in the canning process. Adding salt later to them
will not restore this. Rinsing them before cooking however will help.
- Major tip there if you are a canned veggie user due to lifestyle and
adaption is hard. Drain then rinse then start in fresh water. Something
like 40-50% sodium reduction depending on what the item is. Yes frozen is
better, but thats not always adaptable depending on lifestyle and freezer
space (and shopping habits if a once a month shopper without a spare
freezer).

Keep the following in mind. Your Doctor can get sued if they do not
recommend a low sodium diet but they probably know only about 40% of the
people are sodium reactive. Lowering your sodium intake is a good idea as
at least 4 out of 10 people here could benefit from it if they havent, but
it may not resolve whatever issues you have if you are the other side of the
coin that isnt particularily salt reactive. I for example, am not and my
hypertensive blood pressure is not affected at all by any salt intake. It
*is* affected by other things such as work stress etc. Don however, is salt
reactive and has had one mini-stroke which has not reoccured once we got him
on a lower salt diet. He's allowed up to 1,500mg a day but normally hits
1,000 or even 900.