The Vegetarian Useful resource Group Weblog

photograph from istock

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

A buddy confided that she was attempting to cut back her sodium consumption as a result of her blood stress is elevated and he or she’s attempting, together with her physician’s approval, to see if she will be able to decrease it by way of weight loss plan.  As we talked, I spotted, that, regardless of being open to the thought of decreasing sodium, she wasn’t positive what modifications to make.  She’s already heading in the right direction – she doesn’t use many processed meals and he or she eats a variety of recent vegetables and fruit and he or she enjoys cooking. Listed below are some concepts I shared together with her.

1. Learn the Vitamin Details part of the label. Completely different firms have merchandise that adjust in sodium content material. Even when the label doesn’t say “low sodium,” you might discover a product that’s decrease in sodium than its opponents. For instance, a grocery store shelf of canned beans, I discovered a spread of 90-450 milligrams of sodium per ½ cup serving. Select the bottom sodium product and also you’ve saved as a lot as 360 milligrams of sodium.
2. Drain and rinse canned beans.  You’ll have observed that many recipes in Vegan Journal name for canned beans, drained and rinsed. The explanation we recommend that is that as much as 40% of the sodium in a canned product will be rinsed away. So, for those who select a can of beans with a label worth of 200 milligrams of sodium, you possibly can scale back the sodium by as a lot as 80 milligrams by draining and rinsing the beans.
3. Add no salt added tomato sauce to jarred pasta sauce.  Jarred vegan pasta sauce is usually a comfort whether or not you’re utilizing it to prime a pizza crust, in vegan lasagna, or tossed with pasta.  You may scale back its sodium content material by mixing it with bought no salt added tomato sauce within the ratio of your alternative – 1 cup tomato sauce to 1 cup pasta sauce, 2 cups tomato sauce to 1 cup pasta sauce, and so on. Add a bit of oregano and basil, for those who like. When you determine to make use of the 1:1 ratio of pasta sauce to tomato sauce, you’ve lowered the sodium in a ½ cup serving of pasta sauce from, say, 470 milligrams to 255 milligrams.
4. Combine salty snacks with unsalted snacks.  When you wish to snack on salted nuts or salted pretzels, purchase a bag of unsalted nuts or unsalted pretzels and make your personal lowered sodium combine. You may modify the ratio of salted product to unsalted product and as you get used to consuming meals with much less salt, you might discover that you just’re utilizing rather more of the unsalted product and fewer of the salted one. When you begin with a 1:1 ratio, you would possibly save 75 milligrams of sodium in a ¼ cup serving of nuts or as a lot as 250 milligrams of sodium in a 1 ounce serving of pretzels.
5. Toss the flavoring packet.  Merchandise like ramen noodles are handy however they’re tremendous salty. A lot of their salt comes from the flavoring packet. You may discard it and taste the noodles with a low sodium spice mix. If that’s not an choice, begin through the use of only a small little bit of the seasoning packet and style earlier than including extra. When you’re consuming a package deal of ramen noodles, you could possibly scale back their sodium from 730 milligrams to 25 milligrams simply by discarding the unopened flavoring packet.
6. Make your personal condiments. Salad dressings, barbecue sauce, salsa, even catsup will be sources of plenty of sodium. Whilst you might not need to make all of those merchandise, selecting a pair that you just use steadily and discovering recipes for them the place you management the added salt (and use lowered sodium elements the place doable) can lower sodium markedly. For example, a business barbecue sauce might need 300-400 milligrams of sodium per 2 Tablespoons. Making your personal with tomato paste might provide you with a product with 20 milligrams of sodium per 2 Tablespoons. There are some business lowered sodium barbecue sauces, however I might solely discover one sort in space shops.
7. Discover or make a low-sodium vegetable broth. Many vegan recipes name for vegetable broth.  Aseptically packaged vegan broths might have 600 milligrams or extra of sodium per cup.  Vegan broth base or bouillon might lead to broth with as a lot as 800 milligrams of sodium per cup of broth.  You possibly can make your personal broth utilizing recent greens and including little or no salt, use a business low-sodium vegan broth, or you could possibly substitute the broth referred to as for in a recipe with 1 a part of common business broth and 1 a part of water (or much more water and fewer broth). When you’re working with a well-seasoned recipe, it’s probably that you just received’t even discover that you just didn’t use as a lot broth as was referred to as for. Changing a cup of economic vegan broth with a cup of low-sodium vegan broth might save as a lot as 680 milligrams of sodium.
8. Taste meals creatively. Salt is commonly added to business merchandise as an affordable method to taste meals as an alternative of utilizing costlier herbs and spices for taste. When you do your personal cooking, you possibly can change that. Experiment with herbs, spices, vinegars, fruit juices, and different elements to allow you to chop the salt with out sacrificing taste.
9. When utilizing a recipe, don’t really feel sure to make use of the quantity of salt referred to as for. I’ve discovered that in lots of recipes I can use half and even much less of the salt within the recipe with out noticing it. You may all the time add salt nevertheless it’s laborious to take it out as soon as it’s been added to a dish. Lots of our recipes in Vegan Journal name for salt to style, encouraging the particular person getting ready the recipe to make use of their very own judgement slightly than counting on another person’s concept of how salty a dish must be. When you don’t add a variety of salt to a recipe, individuals can add the quantity of salt that they like on the desk.
10. Pay attention to salty elements like miso, soy sauce, tamari, and liquid aminos. If the recipe has these elements, it most likely doesn’t want extra salt added. And, simply as you would possibly do with desk salt, style the dish earlier than including salty elements – it’s probably that you just received’t want as a lot because the recipe requires.