low salt diet = any tips?

[mimsum]

Hi

I've been told I need to go on a low salt diet as part of treatment for Meniere's

does anyone have any experience of this and do you have any tips?

thanks

I may be able to help. My DH has high blood pressure and has to keep to very low sodium diet.

Basically... best to make as much as possible from scratch. We got a bread maker - all the recipes say you have to put some salt in but that just isn't true. Tastes a bit odd to start with but you get used to it.

Dont use cook-in sauces. its not hard to fry up an onion and a few veg and throw in a can of toms or whatever.

Be careful about things like curry powder/paste - most are v salty. Use individual spices. Rajah do a garam masala with no salt. Lemon juice helps in a low salt curry.

Cheese - most are salty. Emmenthal and mozzarella are the best bets - emmenthal is good for sandwiches and for cooking.

eating lots of fresh fruit and veg helps as they are naturally low sodium.

Obviously enough, cured meats like bacon, ham, salami are high salt. DH loves them - so portion control is the key here, use more like a seasoning than as the main part of a meal.

thats all I can think of right now but will check back if you have any specific questions - if I don't know then I may want to know too!

thanks EmsMum - the consultant said it wasn't just not adding salt to food but to be careful about what was in food already, but apart from telling me not to eat too much processed food (which we don't really) she was a bit vague ...

does your dh have separate meals from everyone else or does everyone eat the same?

We eat the same meals. I add salt at the table to mine if I want it. And we have salty things like strong cheeses for DD and me. I do get an occasional craving for marmite

Do a bit of label checking. The new 'traffic light' system is quite useful for salt. Some things are suprising - bread is quite bad if you have sandwiches because you eat a lot of it. Some breakfast cereals are quite ridiculous, especially since you don't think of them as being salty.

Use vinegar on chips: almost takes away the missing the salt bit

Be patient: at first, I missed it. Now, anything with added salt tastes far too salty - my palate just needed to adjust!

Avoid celery - its full of salt.