How To Maximize Salt In Diet

[britishangel6]

I'm having trouble getting all the sodium my doctor wants me to eat in my food. He wants 8-10 grams a day in dietary sodium and to avoid tablets. I'm already liberally adding salt to foods and eating broth. If I ate all processed food I might be ok but I try to eat healthy and fruits/veg usually don't have much salt (except canned veg). Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

[janiedelite]

I find that I can take in the most salt if I drink it with liquids. It takes some getting used to, but I can drink 16 oz of Propel or G2 with 1 tsp of salt added. I believe that 1 teaspoon of table salt contains about 2300mg of sodium. I can't eat chips and salty crackers all day without putting on the pounds. You said you're already doing broth which is good too. I've read of folks adding salt to crystal lite, and juice would be an option if your don't want artificial sweetener.

[potsgirl]

V-8 Juice has tons of salt, and so do a lot of soups. I know you try to stay away from processed foods, but you may need to eat them once in a while to help up your salt intake. Pretzels are another good source of salt. You can always search the Internet for "salty foods", too. Popcorn is good with a lot of salt, too. Thankful has some great ideas with G or G2, too. I drink Camelbak, and really like the taste. Remember, you also need to drink tons o' water, too.

[pat57]

bouillon 890 mg one cup, easy on the stomach and 5! calories

[MontanaKimberly]

Rice + chicken broth + soy sauce: If you are trying to be healthy, most stores sell a 'wild long grain rice'. Instead of cooking it in water, I cook it with organic chicken broth and then when I eat it I put lots of soy sauce on it (soy sauce has tons of sodium).

[runningshoe]

You can definitely get your salt intake from high quality broth and not compromise your healty eating. Remember sodium content is measured differently than salt. So about 500 mg of sodium is about 1 gram of salt (i think that's right). So you can drink about 4-5 cups a day and then get the rest through your food. My dr wanted me to get 4-10 grams of salt a day but I found I didn't feel good when I got too much so settled for about 6.

[britishangel6]

Thanks everyone for the tips. A lot of these I've tried, actually cook my rice separate from my husband's now since I use broth and salt. I know I'm adding enough, at times too much to food, as it burns my tongue! I've been adding salt to sports drinks but it sounds like I need to be more aggressive about it.

[Heiferly]

Pickles are a good source of salt (and won't bulk you up on calories), olives are also salty, I keep veggie bouillon cubes from the organic aisle on hand (to drink or cook with), Powerade Zero (no calories) is my favorite), if you live in an area of the country that has Kroger grocery stores they have a store brand drink mix similar to Crystal light but that has electrolytes including sodium in it (and you can always add more), a potato with skin-on has more potassium than a banana so salting up one of those is a good electrolyte one-two punch (must eat the skin because hardly any of the potassium is in the inner flesh), cucumbers taste great for snacking salted (I salt each bite individually so I get a LOT in this way) and I've heard of people doing the same with watermelon though I've never tried it personally ... that's all I can think of right now. Oh, if you're wary of most frozen dinners because of the other ingredients in them but are jealous of those lofty sodium counts, check out Amy's ... they have frozen dinners, pizzas, "hot pocket" type things, pot pies, rice bowls ... all sorts of stuff ... and it's all organic. They even have diary- or gluten- free versions of some of the things (the soy mac and cheese is the best I've ever had ... as far as frozen dinner goes ... best comfort food for when you're unable to cook for yourself, mmmmmm).

http://www.amys.com/index.php

[MightyMouse]

Here are some of my salty tricks:

salted nuts

beef jerky

olive

pickles

baked corn chips

all the dry items are good to keep in the car as a "need in a hurry" snack. I also usually keep bottled water in my car too so I can get the combo of fluid and salt whenever needed