Sneaky Sodium

Hey there people!  So, typically I spend time on my weekends testing recipes and getting photos and all that fun stuff.  But the last couple of weekends I have been a busy bee, so I don’t have a new recipe to post for you this weekend.  What I have instead is a list of five sneaky items that caught us by surprise when Joe was transitioning to a low sodium diet.

Not all Veggies are Created Equal
Sorry to all you veggie lovers out there, but just because it comes from the earth and you don’t add salt does not mean that it is a sodium-free food.  For example, each large carrot has about 50 mg sodium, a large stalk of celery has about the same, and a cup of chopped cauliflower or chopped broccoli each have about 30 mg (a cup is not a lot).   I still use these veggies in my recipes, but I am always aware that I need to use moderation.  If you are looking to mindlessly snack on veggies, tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh zucchini, and fresh sliced peppers are all very low.   Oh and FYI – I use CalorieKing.com to look up the nutritional information on fresh produce, since they don’t come with handy USDA labels.

Seasoned Usually Means Salty
Keep an eye out for the word “seasoned” and avoid it.  Go ahead and check the label, but you will likely find that it is very high in sodium compared to its unseasoned counterpart.  One example? The brand of rice vinegar that I use (Marukan) has zero sodium in their unseasoned rice vinegar, but their seasoned vinegar is a whopping 532 mg per tablespoon! (Granted, they also sell a “lite” version that is 350 mg per tablespoon, but that is still way too high for Joe’s diet.)

Another example is seasoned bread crumbs. Progresso brand Italian seasoned bread crumbs have 420 mg of sodium per quarter cup; the same serving of their unseasoned bread crumbs is 160 mg.  Honestly, I typically avoid these altogether and use Manischewitz brand matzo meal which is sodium free.  I will cover this swap (and more) in a separate post about my favorite kitchen swaps.

Plumped, Seasoned, and Brined, Oh My
We learned very early that meat can be one of those surprising things that is pumped with sodium.  A great example is boneless, skinless chicken breasts, which (when unsalted) have about 18 mg per ounce, so that if you sit down to eat a six-ounce serving you are getting 110 mg.  On the flip side, a chicken breast that has been “plumped” (aka injected with salt water) will have about 70 mg per ounce, which means a six-ounce serving is 420 mg.  This makes a difference of over 300 mg per six-ounce serving!

If you are getting your meat from the refrigerator section of your grocery store, it will probably come with a nutrition label so you can check on the sodium.  It may even say “no salt added” (lucky, lucky!).  However, if you are getting it from the butcher in your grocery store, it is likely unlabeled.  In this case – ask.  We recently got some unseasoned ground pork from our butcher and we asked whether “unseasoned” also meant “unsalted.”  The butcher was awesome and she told us that it was, in fact, unsalted, but cautioned us to ask every time we came in because sometimes they brined it.  So, you probably want to ask your butcher two questions – first, the obvious (is it plumped, brined or salted in any way) and second, whether you should ask that same question every time.

Boozy Flavor Boosters
I like to keep wine on hand to add to dishes.  Whites are great for adding a little flavor to mushrooms that have been sauteed in butter, garlic, and herbs de provence. And reds are good for marinara and stews.  I used to keep cooking wines on hand and would add a generous splash to many dishes.  That is, until Joe had to change his diet and I had to revisit all my pantry items, trying to make heads or tails of what I could use and what I could not.  Cooking wines are salted, and have nearly 100 mg per tablespoon.  An easy swap here is to simply use drinking wine (instead of cooking wine), which has closer to 1 mg per tablespoon.  If you are like me and don’t really like drinking wine but don’t want to waste a whole bottle, you can keep the wine (re-corked) in the fridge for a few days.  They also sell small single-serve bottles of wine, so you could always get one of those.

Spice Cupboard
The spice that caught me by surprise the most was probably my chili powder. I thought it was salt free, but actually had 80 mg per teaspoon (240 mg per tablespoon)!  The caution here is just to check your labels.  Even if you think something does not taste salty does not mean it is sodium-free.  And while I am on the topic of spices, I usually mix my own spice mixes (jerk seasoning, blackening seasoning, rotisserie chicken rub,…), but we have also been happy with the seasonings from Spices, Inc., which offers a ton of low sodium options. (One of Joe’s favorites is the Pennsylvania Pepper, which he eats on eggs, potatoes, steak, and pretty much everything else that touches his plate.)

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Most of these tips are going to be old news to those of you who are low sodium pros.  But when Joe first started his low sodium diet, these are some of the food that caught us by surprise.  It is a big reminder to check your labels and ask the right questions.  I promise some new recipes are coming soon.  I have tons of recipes to test and tweak, and they will be rolling out about once or twice a week.  Be well and happy eats!