Another LS/LF Cereal Option

As explained on the parent website, LS/LF breakfast cereal options in US mainstream stores are limited: Post Shredded Wheat: Regular and Spoon Size, Quaker Oats Life, Weetabix, and many - but not all - Kashi cereals.

Here is another option that has some distribution in mainstream stores. Perky's Crunchy Rice, formerly called "Nutty Rice" even though it did not contain any nuts, is a crunchy cereal that really is LS/LF. Note the sodium is 110 mg/serving, not the maximum allowed 140 for products labeled low sodium. If it matters to you, it turns out that it has no gluten.

It is a crunchy granular cereal somewhat like Grape-nuts, but with less than half the sodium of Grape-nuts. I like to mix it in with LS/LF granola since it has a nice crunch which does not fade after (no fat) milk is added.

Why can't mainstream manufacturers make more foods like this?

A LS/LF Product from a Fortune 500 Company!

Wish-Bone® Salad Spritzers®

Lest readers feel your blogger discriminates against Fortune 500 companies, this post deals positively with a product from Unilever, a multinational conglomerate that is ranked 81 on the Fortune Global 500 list.

This shows that even megacorporations can make healthy products! (Although often they do the opposite.) So don't just confine your shopping to the organic aisle of your supermarket or a health food store.

Salad Spritzers are a line of salad dressings in spray bottles that have some oil in them and some salt, but keep the total rather low.

As seem in the nutrition data here the fat and sodium scores are 4% DV or less. This varies somewhat among the 8 flavors:

BALSAMIC BREEZE® VINAIGRETTE

ITALIAN VINAIGRETTE

RED WINE MIST VINAIGRETTE

CAESAR DELIGHT® VINAIGRETTE

RASPBERRY BLISS® VINAIGRETTE

ASIAN SILK™ VINAIGRETTE

RANCH

HONEY MUSTARD BUZZ®

There is always the chance they will change the ingredients or introduce a new flavor with less healthy ingredients - remember this is not marketed as a LS/LF product in any way. So always check the label at purchase.

I find the 10 sprays serving size realistic, but even if you use more the total is still rather low.

So, Unilever keep up the good work! Let's see if you can offer more products like this.

A Healthy Tasty Marinade

It is hard to find a marinade for meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables that is a good match for a LS/LF diet. The maker of this one, Goya - "the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the US" has few LS/LF products. (There is a line of "reduced sodium products", but I have never seen them in mainstream stores.) But I really love this product, Mojo Chipotle Marinade.

This shows that you can make a tasty low salt marinade and sell it in a mainstream supermarket. (Goya foods are usually sold in the Latino food section of supermarkets and often all Goya products are grouped together regardless of their type.)

We recently had a group of 20 people over for an informal dinner. Two of those coming were vegetarians. We serviced grilled

boneless/skinless chicken breasts with grilled onions, portobella mushrooms, red peppers, green peppers, and zucchini with flour and corn tortillas fajita style. (Corn tortillas usually are low in salt and fat. Flour tortillas in mainstream markets vary all over the place in salt and fat content so shop carefully. As a reference point, note that Pepito Flour Tortillas have only 3.5 g of total fat and 130 mg of sodium per tortilla.) The chicken and veggies were marinaded for several hours in Mojo Chipotle before grilling. A great time was had by all and we got several comments how tasty things were. We did not comment that it was a LS/LF meal and it appears no one noticed.

If you can't buy locally, here is a web-based source.

Making Oatmeal More Convenient with Japanese Technology

[In honor of Winter, here is a repeat of previous cold weather suggestions]

Oatmeal is known to reduce cholesterol, a factor in many LS/LF diets. As the parent website says, there are several types of oatmeal available in the US. My favorite is steel cut oatmeal because it is not as cutup as other types and has more texture. The downside is that it takes about 30 minutes to cook - after the water boils!

Fortunately, Japanese technology to the rescue. Now the Japanese are not big oatmeal eaters, but they generally have rice with breakfast (and most other meals). Since rice takes about as long as oatmeal to cook and since they like to sleep as much as other people they invented rice cookers with automatic timers that can be loaded at night and produce a cooked breakfast dish. (One wonders if this was then the inspiration for breadmakers too.)

I have lived in Japan and there people would not thnk of using their rice cooker for any other dish. But the manufacturers that sell in the US are more flexible since people are more likely to buy appliances with multiple uses. thus they give you rice cooker recipes for oatmeal and even broccoli sometimes! Zojirushi gives the following recipe for making oatmeal in their rice cookers:

(Cooked in a 5 cup Zojirushi Rice Cooker)

Ingredients: Serves 4
1 cup steel cut oats; 3 cups water; 1 cup half & half( Clearly not for a LS/LF diet - substitute skim milt or omit.) ; 3-4 Tbsp brown sugar
[Note: The cups involved are not US cups, but the Japanese size which is 3/4 of a US cup]


1. Place steel cut oats and water in the inner cooking pan.

2. Place the inner cooking pan in the main body of the rice cooker, plug in the unit, select the “Porridge” setting and push the “Cooking” button to start

3. When the rice cooker turns to “Keep Warm,” open the lid, stir and add the remaining ingredients.
Using the Timer function and soaking the oats overnight will help soften the texture. Please do not use the Timer function when cooking with milk or other dairy products, as they may spoil.

If your rice cooker does not have a porridge setting, please watch the rice cooker while it cooks, as it may overflow.

If you click on Customer Reviews for the Zojirushi NS-TGC10 in the Amazon ad below, you will see several customers use if for making oatmeal and suggest 2 1/2 cups of water instead of the 3 given above.

I have the more expensive NP-HBC10 Induction Heating model and can vouch that it works great for oatmeal. IH heats the whole inner pot evenly so whatever is cooked is unlikely to burn or scorch. Load it with water and oatmeal before going to bed and set the timer on it for our normal breakfast time. The oatmeal is ready when I want it!

"Smart Choices" Exits Stage Left

In a February 2009 post we talked about nutrition labeling programs called "Heart Check", "Health Check", and "Smartspot"/"Smart Choices Made Easy". I apparently missed the "Smart Choices" program, but no long term loss as it has now been discontinued in controversy.

The Washington Post reported on October 29

The Smart Choices Program, launched in August, deemed Froot Loops nutritious enough to sport a big checkmark on the front of boxes signifying that choosing the cereal was indeed smart. The news media and consumer advocacy groups had a field day with that one, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration vowed to protect the public against any misconceptions caused by the labeling system.

Things came to a head Friday, when Smart Choices announced it would cease activity and pledged to work with the FDA to develop a universal system for posting nutrition information on the front of food packages.

It is not clear if the "Smart choices made easy" program of Pepsi is still around, although the website indicates no change. This program has improved since the first mention in February in that they now give criteria for selecting foods to be endorsed.

But I would like to remind all these groups about what Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 says about "Individuals with hypertension, blacks, and middle-aged and older adults." Now I don't have precise demographic and epidemiological data on the US population, but I am fairly certain that these 4 groups comprise 30+% of the US population. (Any readers have a firmer estimate?) And HHS and USDA conclude in Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 that these 4 groups should

" Aim to consume no more than 1,500 mg of sodium per day"

So how many 480 mg servings from foods with such health labels can you eat each day and still stay under 1500 mg?

Campbell's Tries to Address LS/LF Market

Campbell's Healthy Request Soups: Progress in Marketing LS/LF Products

Campbell's has reorganized their soup offerings and at least is making an attempt to market soups that are low in both salt and fat. This is a remarkable step for a major grocery manufacturer, although niche firms like Hain's have been doing it for a long time.

The "Healthy Request" products "are 98% fat free, contain up to 50% less sodium than our regular soups and are made with high quality ingredients." Now 50% of a high number can still be rather high and none of these products can legally be labeled "low salt". These products meet the AHA heart check standards, as shown by the red logo above, and the stricter Canadian Health Check standards. However, most have 410 mg of sodium - lower than a lot of mainstream products but depending on you sodium daily goal it could cause a real problem. As a reminder, HHS and USDA joint Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 states:

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

• Consume less than 2,300 mg (approximately 1 tsp of salt) of sodium per day.
• Choose and prepare foods with little salt. At the same time, consume potassium-rich foods, such as fruits and vegetables.

Key Recommendations for Specific Population Groups

• Individuals with hypertension, blacks, and middle-aged and older adults. Aim to consume no more than 1,500 mg of sodium per day, and meet the potassium recommendation (4,700 mg/day) with food.

Thus, if your medical team advocates a 1,500 mg of sodium/day goal, there aren't a lot of 410 mg servings you can eat. Indeed, one serving of Healthy Request soup gives you an allowance for the rest of the day of 1,500 - 410 = 1,090 mg. Note that HHS and USDA recommend such goals not only for a tiny demographic group with esoteric medical conditions, but for "(i)ndividuals with hypertension, blacks, and middle-aged and older adults". These add up to a significant fraction of the US population.

US age distribution in 2000 (CRS Report)

Now Campbell's does offer 6 low sodium soups. See how many you actually find in a mainstream store! Why? Grocery suppliers like Campbell's pay stores "slotting fees" or slotting allowances" to guarantee specific items are on the shelf in your neighborhood stores. Thus Campbell's selects what products to push. Note also the 'low sodium" logo Campbell's uses as shown above. It says "for sodium restricted diets" as if it were dangerous for anyone else.

So thanks Campbell's for addressing both salt and fat in a mainstream product. But let's see if you can get the salt down to a more reasonable level.

And before you send the form letter that says this is what people really want, remember that people really preferred Coca-Cola with cocaine and 7-Up with lithium until they were taken off the market. Cocaine probably makes the Coke experience much better just like salt makes Campbell's soups taste better. But that is not what responsible producers do.

The Art of Dining Out

This is the best discussion I have found on this topic for those on LS/LF diets. It is from from SaltWatcher.com - a Web-based retailer of low salt foods. It is reprinted below with their kind permission. (Note the focus here is low salt, not LS/LF so some fine tuning may be needed.)

Being on a low sodium diet does not mean you have to give up the enjoyment of

eating out. It does however mean you need to prepare and be selective in your

choice of restaurants and menu items. Things to remember when dining out:

IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON EATING OUT, MAKE YOUR OTHER MEALS THAT DAY VERY LOW IN SODIUM. Any meal you eat out will most likely have more sodium than you would normally have at home. To compensate for that reality, be sure that the other meals you have that day are very low in sodium. Planning ahead can allow you to remain within your daily sodium restriction.

IF POSSIBLE, CALL THE RESTURANT AHEAD OF TIME TO BE SURE THEY ARE WILLING TO PREPARE YOUR MEAL WITHOUT ANY MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (MSG), SALT OR SAUCES. If they are reluctant or indicate it depends on how busy the chef is, select another restaurant. If the restaurant is willing to prepare a special meal for you, ask if you need to bring any special condiments, i.e.: seasonings, unsalted butter, low sodium sauce, low sodium salad dressings, etc. If you are unable to call ahead, ask about the feasibility of making a special meal before you are seated. It is better to know before you are seated, so you can decide if you will remain or go to another restaurant.

WHEN AT THE RESTAURANT EXPLAIN TO THE WAITER/WAITRESS THAT YOU ARE ON A LOW SALT DIET and ask that they or the chef recommend which of their menu items are the lowest in salt content and without MSG. Do not always assume “heart healthy” on a menu translates to low salt. It typically means the item is low in fats and cholesterol, if you are lucky these items will also be low in sodium.

CHECK OUT THE SERVING SIZE: Many restaurants often provide larger portions than necessary. If you are at a restaurant known for its large meals, request that half of the serving be placed in a take home box for a left over meal the next day. Although you may be tempted to eat more, stay within your normal portion size, remember the larger the portion, the higher the sodium.

CHOOSE FOODS THAT REQUIRE MINIMAL PREPERATION such as baked, and roasted. Avoid foods that are made with breading, batters, marinades or laden with sauce.

WHEN ORDERING, DON’T ASSUME THEY REMEMBER, AGAIN ASK THAT YOUR MEAL BE MADE WITHOUT ANY MSG, ADDED SALT OR SALTED BUTTER. Many restaurants today have unsalted butter available in their kitchen, ask that this be used.

CHOOSE FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES when available.

CARRY YOUR OWN SALT FREE CONDIMENTS. When you know you will be eating out, go to a “Dollar Type Store” and purchase several small cosmetic/toiletry travel storage containers and depending on the type of restaurant, fill containers with single servings of your favorite low sodium salad dressing, low sodium ketchup/mustard/mayo, sauce, seasoning and unsalted butter, etc

WATCH THE SALAD BAR as many salad bars are enriched with sodium nitrate to help preserve their freshness. Ask if a preservative is used on the salad bar. Where possible, request that you have your salad prepared fresh and use vinegar and oil or lemon and oil as your dressing or use the low sodium version you brought with you

.

DESSERTS ARE NOT OFF LIMITS you just need to be selective. You are celebrating by eating out so enjoy some dessert. However, skip the pies, pastries, cakes and tortes, instead select sherbet and fresh fruits.

VISIT www.lowsaltfoods.com for additional advice on eating out and specific sodium information on fast foods.

ENJOY THE MEAL YOU AND/OR YOUR LOVED ONE DID NOT HAVE TO COOK!! If you find a restaurant that has graciously prepared good tasting, low sodium meals for you, please email me at info@SaltWatcher.com. Provide the restaurant name, address and phone number, if possible. I will contact the restaurant and if they are agreeable will post here as a dining out resource.