500 Low Sodium Recipes: Lose the Salt, Not the Flavor, In Meals the Whole Family Will Love

Needed help modifying my diet after losing a kidney. This has great recipes and conversions for sauces etc that make it easier to feel like I’m eating tasty food.

I started a low sodium diet for weight loss purposes. Once I started paying attention to the sodium on the labels I was shocked! I started researching to find substitutes and found a lot but not enough for a full recipe. Therefore I was making 2 dinners a night (one for the family and something for me) or just not eating at all. One day I barely made it to work because I was shaky and lightheaded (yes I absolutely should not have drove but I work 8 mins away) but knew that I had several nurses and doctors available to me at the office. They immediately took my blood sugar which was low. That was when I realized I can not just not eat dinner or barely eat and have to find a better way. I found this cookbook and told my family to suck it up this is happening! Well let me tell you I have not had one single complaint from my husband or adult children and as a matter of fact they have loved every recipe so far! The author did all the research I was trying to do for me and I can not tell you how thankful I am! I'm 6 foot and was 206, currently I'm 186 and able to maintain my weight by following my strict low sodium diet and meds to get my sugar in check...trust me, I do cheat lol we all need that cheat day sometimes. The best part is that my family is actually eating it and I feel great knowing they are eating a little healthier, atleast at dinner time! Thank you sooooo much and I highly recommend this book!

I ordered this book after receiving bad news about the health of my kidneys and instructions to limit my sodium intake to 2 grams (2000 milligrams) a day. Easier said than done. I was in a funk about some of my favorite foods and began looking for a cookbook which would have some good (as in tasty) recipes in it that would help me stay within the daily limit the doctor had specified.This book was the answer. I read through the reviews before ordering and was most impressed with one reviewer who said this book was her go-to book for recipes. I have two or three of those, and know what that means to a cook as she/he prepares to entertain or feed his/her family with something delicious and nourishing and enticing. After reading through most of the recipes in this book, I can see that it will become my go-to recipe book, as well.Not only is the book chock full of standard, down-home cooking recipes (ribs, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, coleslaw, green bean casserole, etc), adjusted for a low salt diet, the introduction and first chapter discuss the low salt lifestyle. Every recipe is analyzed for its nutritional content, i.e., calories, water, protein, fat, carbs, fiber and sugar as well as sodium. This is vital information especially to diabetics who are protecting kidney function as well as those among us who have heart or pregnancy problems resulting in salt restriction. In fact, anyone who has received direction to limit salt intake - young and old alike - will find something to like about this book of recipies.The introduction discusses the low sodium diet and who may be instructed to follow it, the salt intake limits doctors may impose on a patient, where the sodium in our diet comes from, the problem of salt-based water softeners, and the challenge of eating out.The first chapter introduces low sodium ingredients and, for those who have never paid any attention to reading the nutrition labels, the author teaches us how to read those labels on the foods we buy. He also discusses where to find low sodium foods and reviews the sodium content of some dietary staples (butter, milk, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, canned foods, soups, boullion, alcohol, bread and meats) as well as making some recommendations as to brands.I found these two things - the introduction and the first chapter - extremely informative and heartening. I felt relieved and that some of the weight of my diagnosis had lifted. He writes positively, with a can-do attitude that cheers without becoming overly cheer-leaderish.The recipes themselves are organized like any comprehensive cookbook - by meal (breakfast), type (appetizers, snacks, party foods, condiments and seasonings), animal, fowl, and fish (chicken and turkey, beef, pork and lamb, fish and seafood), side dishes, ethnic dishes (Italian, Mexican, Latin American, Caribbean, Asian, Cajun and Creole), breads (quick breads and yeast breads), desserts, sweets, drinks, and making ingredients you can't find or which, if prepared commercially, are really too high in sodium to use in a recipe. He wraps everything up with a chapter on cooking terms, weights and measures in the kitchen, and discusses which cooking/kitchen gadgets or kitchen machines he's found particulary useful in making things easier in the kitchen by cutting prep time.The recipes read like they will taste okay - even delicious. The ingredients he combines work well together and are many that I've used in cooking through the years. However, learning to like low salt dishes takes time and is an acquired taste, so I imagine the salt withdrawal I've been experiencing will continue through beginning to use these recipes. So, chicken that I am, I haven't started cooking from the book yet, but if it turns out that the recipes are not what they appear to be (tasty and worth the effort), I will ammend this review to reflect my revised opinion.I gave the book only 4 stars because, while he indicates how many servings a recipe will yield and how many milligrams of sodium are contained in a single serving of a recipe, he NEVER, NOT ONCE, indicates what a serving size is supposed to be for any of the recipes included in the book. Unless he indicates the size of a piece of meat, poultry or fish at the beginning of a recipe, you have no way of determining the appropriate single serving size of the final dish. A cup? Four ounces? Two tablespoons? A teaspoon? WHAT? He never says. In some cases, it's rather obvious what a serving size will be, but in most of his recipes, it is difficult if not impossible to determine what he had in mind for a serving size, one that will yield the sodium content reported per serving in the nutritional analysis. That, to one who has to limit an ingredient in her cooking to preserve and protect the diminished function of an organ, is a significant omission on the part of the author or publisher.Other than that, I plan to use the book extensively. Over time, I imagine I'll determine just what one serving size is on most of the recipes I'll be using, but I know this trial and error process could have been avoided if only he had included serving size as part of his analysis of the dish.I recommend this book with reservations, reservations which are exclusively about the omission of serving size as part of the nutritional analysis of each recipe.

Ordered this 5 years ago after having open-heart surgery. I still use it today. The recipes are easy to follow, and one really doesn't miss the sodium.

This cookbook has everything in it, not just specialty type recipes. This cookbook has low salt recipes for the kind of food you are missing and craving after being told you have high blood pressure. These recipes are for regular everyday food that most of us cook everyday, but without all the salt, such as chicken fettucini, pancakes, casseroles, onion soup,breaded chicken tenders.There is also fried chicken, cakes, breads (which aren't low calorie, but are low sodium). There are even several spice blends (Mexican, Asian) and a mock soy sauce recipe (which is really good and a lot better than eating bare rice). When you've been told you have high blood pressure and need to watch your diet, the last thing you want to do on a weeknight is to cook "gourmet" specialty type recipes, which are the kind of recipes found in a lot of the other cookbooks. This cookbook contains basic, weeknight type recipes, which you can easily adjust to suit your own taste. If you've been given the ultimatum to change your lifestyle, this book is a great place to start. It can be really frustrating to get started with a low salt diet, but after a couple of weeks, your taste buds really will start to adjust to less salt. A little bit of garlic salt or sea salt can be added after cooking for other family members...a little wee pinch of sea salt goes a long way. My 12 year old daughter asked me to stop putting garlic salt on her food, so she has started to lose the taste for it as well. It's never too early to start, especially with a family history...

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NO PICTURES AT ALL. If you like to see pics of the recipes then you will not like this one. I have made 2 things out if this so far, the balsamic and maple salmon and slopoy joes. The salmon was basically pouched in the sauce so it was very bland. The sloppy joes were good. I am visual, I like pics to see what a recipe looks like. That is a big part of deciding if I want to make a recipe. I know for 500 recipes pictures of all would have been expensive but a few pics of some meals would have been nice. If I had known it had no pics then I wouldn't have bought it. This is the 4th cookbook I have bought that had no pictures of any recipes.

Since being diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease and Chronic Heart Disease, I have paid particular attention to my diet. It is difficult to cook a meal without salt but this book shows how. Where salt is vital to recipe, it is shown how to reduce the usual amount of salt without losing the taste.

This book is wonderful for anyone who has to limit their salt intake. The recipes are great and ideally realisticfor the average cook. The information is very good and the recipes are clear,concise and easy to follow.You can make all your own sauces,breads,deserts and main meals with just this one book. They are tastyand interesting and you don't miss the salt at all.I would recomend this book to any one who is interested in making healthy and good tasting meals.

So happy to cook with low sodium and still have flavour. Can make and eat bread again!!

This is a great book for those entering the world of low/no salt food! I love the fact it’s written by someone who has had to make that change and so understands the initial blandness of food and suggests seasonings etc to overcome. Great book!

I have clients with salt restriction diets and the rest of them should be too. But I have found the recipes in this book really helpful. There are so many books on this topic that range from poor to very good and this one is in the latter group. Helpful with good ideas.