Low Sodium Cooking -- A rant

I have friends whose husbands have had heart attacks and the poor guys could not continue on their physician-directed diets. The wives were not up to the task because they were not very good cooks. After several months of plain vegetables served with plain, unseasoned grilled chicken breasts, who wouldn't give up? If sprinkling on some Mrs. Dash is your only flavoring adventure, you know you won't be able to stick with it!

I took a "class" for living with a salt restricted diet. There was a lot of emphasis on what to avoid but very little help with what do use instead of salt. The suggestions were pretty pathetic -- Mrs. Dash & lemon juice! What do you do once you get sick of the Mrs. Dash products and get sick of having everything lemon flavored?

One of the members of the Cooking Forum summed it up this way: "It's pretty easy for a physician or dietitian to say you should eat a very low fat, low sodium diet, but very few of them have ever had to try it, day after day, week after week for years and years. Some of these recommended diets are so extreme that no one can follow them, and so people completely give up trying - rather than finding a more moderate approach that they can live with and still eat healthy."

Living on a sodium restricted diet can be daunting. I know my husband is grateful for my ability to make low sodium meals taste good. One of the things I want to accomplish with this blog is to encourage people who are new to low sodium living. You can lower your sodium intake AND create tasty food! And you don't have to be a master chef. It's a challenge but not an impossible one.