SALT IS OUR ENEMY!

Salt is our enemy. To Kristie's kidneys, its dangerous, as is too much protein and too much potassium.

I learned all this at the almost 3 hour Healthy Eating class I attended at the Northwest Kidney Center. I got a great cookbook too!


Normal kidneys clear out excess protein, sodium, potassium, and phosphorous. Excess sodium makes your heart work harder and your blood pressure go up. If your ankles swell, you're retaining fluid and probably had too much sodium.

Our dietician, Beth, said that it used to be they preached no salt shaker to those that had high blood pressure. Now, its not the salt shaker that is the problem. Its all the pre-packaged, instant, frozen dinner, microwaveable, canned food that presents the problem...they are all high in sodium.

Kristie is supposed to have less than 2000 mgs of salt a day. Let's review:

A small fast food hamburger has about 500 mgs
1/2 cup of canned chicken noodle soup has about 700 mgs (and who has 1/2 cup anyway?)
Chicken broth has 700 to 1000 per cup
Frozen dinners - most are over 1000 mgs for a serving
No smoked meats or sausages, too high in sodium

A salt substitute is a death threat to those with kidney disease as its made with potassium chloride, even a sprinkle is life threatening. Yikes.

To make matters worse the food industry is catching on that we want less salt in our foods so they're substituting potassium chloride and then not listing it on the label because they are not mandated to do so. At least they list it in the ingredient section.

Sigh.

The bottom line is this...read labels and choose lower sodium products; shop in the organic section more as most of those items have lower sodium foods. Limit canned or pre-packaged food and use fresh most of the time...hmmm, sounds like what everyone should be doing anyway.

Interestingly, the salt shaker is not a problem if you are limiting your sodium content as indicated above.

THE BIG POPCORN LIE! Microwave popcorn has too much sodium. Instead put regular popcorn (a couple of handfuls) in a brown paper lunch bag, fold over the top, stable one time. Put in the microwave and hit the popcorn button. Add about 15 seconds and you've got popcorn with no additional fat or salt. Beth suggested this and I've tried it twice now...works GREAT!

THE BIG COCOA LIE! Instead of buying high sugary cocoa. Put a cup of milk in a microwave bowl and heat until hot. Add 1 teaspoon or unsweetened cocoa and a packet of sweetener. use a whisk to mix it and pour into a mug. Yum, Yum! No more cocoa packets for us!

I LOVE
Cookbooks
Hot drinks like hot tomato juice, cocoa, soup, tea

I HATE
Being cold
Junk mail