Sandwich Fillings

Some ideas for low sodium sandwich fillings, to be updated on an irregular basis. My husband loves salad, but not in sarnies, so there is an unashamed meat bias here. My top tips are to make sure your Sunday roast is big enough to leave leftovers, and to buy fillets to cook and slice yourself - those "delicatessen" meats in the supermarket are chock full of salt.

- Pork & apple sauce

- Chicken breast with chilli and lime (marinade in chilli and lime juice, then char grill - slice the chicken before or after, depending how much crispy edge you like)

- Emmental and sliced tomato or chutney (much lower in sodium than pickle)

- Roast beef and mustard (make your own mustard - the powder has no sodium in it compared to ready-made mustard which has 3g per 100g)

- Lamb and mint sauce

Another (albeit slightly obscure) reason to cut down on salt...

fingerprint
Originally uploaded by Toodlesnot

It seems criminals would be well-advised to follow a low sodium diet, according to recent research from the University of Leicester.

A diet high in salty foods results in saltier sweat, which can produce mild, fingerprint-shaped corrosion on metals such as bullet casings, which can then be spotted by new fingerprinting techniques.

No Added/Reduced/Low/Free?

A quick explanation of the various standard terms in use in food labelling, which I found on the British Nutrition Foundation website.

• "Low salt" or "low sodium" – no more than 40 mg sodium per 100 grams or 100 ml (in the case of a food naturally low in salt/sodium, the claim must be made in the form "a low salt/sodium food").

• "Reduced salt" or "reduced sodium" - foods should contain at least 25% less than the standard product.

• "No added salt" – no salt or sodium added to the food or any of its ingredients.

• "Salt free" or "sodium free" – no more than 5 mg sodium per 100 grams or 100 ml.

Breakfast...again

Day 165 - Fry up
Originally uploaded by DragonDrop

I love breakfast, so do keep returning to this subject. The CASH website carries a recent report which raises concerns about the salt content in typical breakfasts. A traditional fry-up can contain your full daily allowance, 6g.

The spreadsheet is well worth a look - it lists sodium contents for breakfast cereals, takeaway breakfasts, toast, coffee...everything you could possibly want, and because it's in a spreadsheet, you can sort it and be suitably shocked at some of the measurements, but also find some good low sodium options.

So...has it worked?

I've noticed a number of visits to this blog from the Blood Pressure Association website, and one reader has asked whether the low sodium/low alcohol diet has lowered Mr. C's blood pressure. We're 6 months into it, so now does seem a good time to ask that question.

Of course we can't really know without doing the proper scientific thing and hooking him up to a monitor for 24 hours, but the new diet certainly seems to have helped. He can certainly feel the difference, and has lost over a stone in weight too. The average of 8 "spot" measurements which he took with our home monitor 6 months ago was an alarming 174/112. The great news though is that a spot measurement by the GP last week was 141/99, which is still high, but is an excellent reduction without taking any medication (especially as it includes the white coat effect).

So the low sodium diet stays (it has become a habit now), and perhaps we will try Resperate too?

Sodium Levels in Shop Bought Bread

Thanks to matatabby for the photo

A recent report in the Independent raised concerns about salt levels in shop-bought bread; they particularly picked on Warburtons, but the stats at the end of the article show that levels are high in loaves from most manufacturers.

Yet another reason to bake your own. My bread machine is churning away as I type...