Useful ideas on low sodium meals

Even though you watch your sodium intake, things slip sometimes. You cook healthy meals, bring home-made meals to work and shop for low sodium versions of foods, but sometimes you find yourself at a restaurant, worse a fast-food chain eating that delicious but not so healthy sandwich!

What do you do then? If only I knew which meals have lower sodium so I make a more conscious choice while ordering my food. I guess it is all about preparation!

So I decided to go through nutrition facts of restaurants and filter out the meals with the lowest amounts of sodium. I place my findings at the following link: Low Sodium Meals

You need to click on a restaurant name (on the left hand side of the page) in order to see my meal ideas for that restaurant.

Some of the meals I found are fairly low in sodium. Examples:

At Subway: 6 inch Veggie Delite + a chocolate chip cookie = 430 mgs of sodium.

At Wendy's: 5-piece chicken nuggets + garden side salad (no croutons) + sour cream and chives baked potato + apple slices = 540 mgs of sodium.

At McDonald's: A medium-size McNuggets + premium southwest salad (without chicken) = 750 mgs of sodium.

At Chili's: Grilled salmon with garlic and herbs + house salad (no dressing) = 880 mgs of sodium.

At Arby's: Chopped farmhouse chicken salad (roast) + marinara sauce = 840 mgs of sodium.

At Panera Bread: A four cheese egg souffle + Caesar salad (no dressing) = 830 mgs of sodium.

At Taco Bell: One gordita supreme chicken + cheese nachos = 740 mgs of sodium.

If you are on a strict low sodium diet due to a health condition, my suggestions may NOT be good for you. Also my suggestions only consider sodium content. If you need to consume less cholesterol or gluten or are allergic to certain ingredients, please check nutrition facts provided at the websites of these restaurants as well.

Download this low sodium cookbook for free

I did not know that there is a week for salt awareness! Frankly I found out by coincidence. I came across this article about the World Action on Salt & Health organization and then checked their website. The site gives some information on the upcoming World Salt Awareness week (May 21st thru the 28th).

More importanly I found a link on the site to download a low sodium cookbook for free. The cookbook can be very helpful to many as it has various categories of low sodium recipes. Now download the book and start low sodium cooking, at least for the sake of the World Salt Awareness week :-)

Here is the link to the book:
http://www.worldactiononsalt.com/publications/books.htm

Cheers,
Umit

My nutrition facts project is ready!

Just a few days ago I announced here a new, simple search engine project I have been working on. The project is finally ready for your use! It is @ searchnutritionfacts.com.

There are currently nutrition facts of approximately 7,200 fresh foods, food products sold in supermarkets and restaurant meals in my system. I plan to improve the content over time. Especially in regards to restaurant meals there is need to add meals of major food chains such as Olive Garden's, Subway, Quizno's, etc... The system has McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King's data, but for now that is pretty much it!

Feel free to use it on your computer or even better smart phone while shopping for foods or dining out! Be aware of the nutrition content of the foods before you eat them!!

Salud!
Umit