Low Salt Low Fat Eating

Major Food Processor Enters Low Salt Spice Market

2011-03-13T10:42:00.004-04:00

A year ago, McCormick & Co., a major retail spice marketer and a member of the S&P 500 average, announced it was openly advertising a salt free spice line. Recently they have started advertising it more aggressively.

Mrs. Dash, an Alberto-Culver subsidiary, pioneered this concept in 1981 and has been the only national brand likely to be found in mainstream stores. Frankly, I find Mrs. Dash products rather bland and prefer salt free spice mixes from more obscure suppliers who can never be found in mainstream stores.

The new Perfect Pinch product line, has 18 flavors, 5 of which are salt free:

I have not tried them yet, but the $1 coupon in my Sunday paper this week is a big incentive.

The significance of this news is that a major food processor is embracing a no salt product. Compare this with Campbell's approach with their few low salt products: they label cans with a warning sign at left as if many Americans would suffer physical harm from eating low sodium products!

So kudos to McCormick for this bold move and let's hope that more competition for Mrs. Dash will make their products more responsive to consumer needs. Check if your nearby mainstream stores have these products and nag them a little if they don't. Also try buying them and repeating the purchase if you like the product - that sends a message.

Hell Freezes Over! (NY Times and AZ Republic Agree on Salt Issue)

2010-03-28T18:04:00.002-04:00

The February 14, 2010 Arizona Republic, the paper owned by Dan Quayle's family and one of the most right wing papers in the country had a front page article agreeing with the NY Times, on the opposite end of the political spectrum, on the need to reduce salt in diets.

We have had several posts quoting from the Times on New York City's recent salt campaign. So this new article shows that it is not a left wing conspiracy and has geographic support outside of NYC.

The article announces that the Republican state government is also taking action:

This week, the Arizona Department of Health Services is announcing an initiative to educate residents about how much sodium they are consuming and encourage them to eat less. The campaign ties in to a national movement being driven by New York City to encourage food manufacturers and restaurants to cut the sodium in their products by 25 percent over the next five years...The program is modeled after a similar effort in Britain, where daily sodium intake was reduced by about 9 percent from 2001 to 2008. Arizona has joined the initiative, pledging to support New York City's effort. Other participants include California, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Chicago and Seattle.

The article got a lot of comments on the Republic's web site. As one might imagine, some of these comments fervently express views colored by the writers' political bent. But health should not be a partisan divisive issue.

Lose It! - iPhone/iPod Diet Program That Also Helps LS/LF Diets

2010-03-19T09:57:00.013-04:00

"There's an App for That!"

The iPhone craze has created some interesting new technology. I was at a party recently and met a former work colleague who I hadn't seen in several years. She proudly pointed to her 6 month old daughter and later mentioned how she used an app on her iPhone to time and log labor contractions. Yes, there is an app for that also!

Lose It! is an app that works on both iPhones and the less expensive Apple iPod touch units. It is clearly intended for weight loss dieters since the first thing it asks you is your weight loss goal. It basically allows you to log your food consumption and then tracks the nutrients you have consumed. The screen shot at left shows how you enter food. While the database is limited, it is amazingly broad including fruits, vegetables, common home made dishes, prepared foods, and chain restaurant items. There is a way to add "recipes" for items that are not in the database and that you eat often. In addition to calories, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium are tracked.

You can then also see your daily and weekly totals of nutrients.

The basic software is free! Of course you need an iPhone or iPod Touch but these have other uses and are cheaper than other diet tracking hardware which is less functional and usually less useful for the LS/LF dieter.

You can even download your data to you computer for analysis.

Amazon.com Widgets

A New Low Salt Vendor Website

2010-03-10T08:05:00.003-05:00

A few days after the last post urging readers to consider buying from low salt web sites, I noticed a new entrant in this field: Boulder CO's Low Salt Market. This location in the Southwest probably will result in low shipping costs to potential customers in the West over the other stores which are located in Minnesota, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

Their website lists a variety of low salt products. All factory packaged products have full FDA nutrition information on the website. However, bulk products, specifically nuts and granola, have no nutrition information at all. Presumably they are low salt. But readers on LS/LF diets have to be aware that nuts are high in fat and must be consumed in moderation. Granolas are usually - but not always - high in fat and there is not indication whether any of the 8 types sold are low in fat.

So, we welcome Low Salt Market and hope that they improve their nutrition information on bulk products and pay more attention to those consumers who need LS/LF diets.

Specialty Products from Low Salt Vendors

2010-03-07T12:27:00.003-05:00

From the very beginning of this website and blog I have given space to talking about the companies that specialize in selling low salt products.

Now ordering many products from distant suppliers is both inconvenient and expensive. Many LS/LF products are available in urban areas if you look around for them - why this is so difficult is puzzling.

But if you live in a more remote area your choices may be limited. Some products, like low sodium baking powder and baking soda may be hard to find even in urban area.

The above picture shows a product that was clearly commissioned by a specialty supplier, in this case Healthy Heart Market of Rogers, MN. LS/LF microwave popcorn may not be a diet necessity, but it could be very helpful to help you live a normal life with your family and work colleagues. (I happen to prefer hot air popped popcorn with a spray of butter-like flavor such as I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray)

Nutritional Information:

Serving size: 1/2 bag
Calories: 110
Total fat: 1.5 g
Cholesterol: 0
Sodium: 0mg
Total carbohydrate: 23g
Sugars 0g
Protein 4g

Buying from these specialty suppliers will keep them in business and encourage them to develop products like this that normal retailers aren't interested in.

Serving Size Snafu

2010-02-06T10:51:00.004-05:00

The NY Times today had a good article and a video explaining the bizarre nature of FDA mandated portion sizes. Since nutrition labels are tied to portion sizes, naive portion sizes result in incorrect understandings of salt and fat content of foods.

The good news is that FDA is finally trying to resolve this mess.

Related article

Salt in Restaurants

2010-01-30T15:56:00.004-05:00

In conjunction with the new regulations on salt in food in New York City, the NY Times sent an intrepid reporter to taste various dishes and then bag them for salt analysis. The chart above gives the results.

They also is a cute video about the project.

It is interesting to note that the lowest salt dish above, the Standard Grill rabbit & pappardelle (pasta) was also delicious.

The Great NYC Salt Debate

2010-01-15T16:41:00.005-05:00

Earlier this month, Mayor Bloomberg of New York City announced "a broad new health initiative aimed at encouraging food manufacturers and restaurant chains across the country to curtail the amount of salt in their products." The National Salt Reduction Initiative, a partnership of cities, states and national health organizations lead by New York City, wants to see a 25 percent reduction of sodium content in packaged and restaurant foods compared to current levels.

The City pointed out facts that hopefully readers of this blog already knew:

Americans consume roughly twice the recommended limit of salt each day – causing widespread high blood pressure and placing millions at risk of heart attack and stroke – in ways that they cannot control on their own. Only 11% of the sodium in Americans’ diets comes from their own saltshakers; nearly 80% is added to foods before they are sold. Through a year of technical consultation with food industry leaders, the National Salt Reduction Initiative has developed specific targets to help companies reduce the salt levels in 61 categories of packaged food and 25 classes of restaurant food. Some popular products already meet these targets – a clear indication that food companies can substantially lower sodium levels while still offering foods that consumers enjoy.

“Consumers can always add salt to food, but they can’t take it out,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, New York City Health Commissioner. “At current levels, the salt in our diets poses health risks for people with normal blood pressure, and it’s even riskier for the 1.5 million New Yorkers with high blood pressure. If we can reduce the sodium levels in packaged and restaurant foods, we will give consumers more choice about the amount of salt they eat, and reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke in the process.”

There is some controversy in this area. Today's New York Times has a discussion among 7 people on this topic. Some views:

Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition and chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Control of sodium in foods is more complicated because some is essential, but the average American now eats amounts that are many times more than is needed. The New York initiative calls for a very modest reduction, and further decreases will be needed for most people to achieve optimal salt intake levels.

The Salt Institute has argued that reducing sodium intake will cause people to eat more calories. This claim is not supported by any evidence and is clearly bogus; the reason the food industry has ratcheted up the sodium content of food is to increase consumption of their products, not reduce it.

An effective reduction in sodium is difficult to achieve by consumers on their own because about 75 percent of sodium intake consumed by Americans is added in the processing of food or in restaurants, and thus much of the time even the most health conscious consumer does not have information about the sodium content of their diet. In addition, children cannot be expected to make informed choices even if the information were available.

Mark Kurlansky, author of “Salt: A World History” and writes frequently about food history.

Most of us eat more salt than we need. Excessive amounts of salt lead to high blood pressure and other dangers, we are told. That is not necessarily true. It depends on the individual. Our kidneys are designed to handle excesses. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t for reasons that are not completely clear. High salt intake does not always cause high blood pressure, and reducing salt in the diet does not necessarily lower it.

Your blogger does not necessarily agree with any of these views, but thought the article would be of interest to readers.

At least you can now see the arguments that are floating around. Remember, the Tobacco Institute defended tobacco for years also.

Thanks PHCentral for Your Comments

2010-01-06T16:55:00.003-05:00

We thank PHCentral, a resource for patients with Pulmonary Hypertension for their kind reference to us recently.

Here is what they said:

Counting Calories From Fat? You're Probably Getting Extra Salt.

Do you ever see food products on the shelf claiming to be low in fat and low in sodium too? Probably not. There are very good reasons why.

In the never-ending search for tasty food products, manufacturers have learned from numerous focus groups what Americans want in the way of taste. We all seem to crave too much salt, confusing salt for taste in general. Fat is also a taste enhancer in foods, so when it is eliminated from a product or reduced, the flavor goes down, too. The manufacturers may make up for the deficit by increasing the salt content. Your good intentions in choosing low fat foods may actually be doing you harm.

Also, don't assume when a product claims to bes "reduced salt" it is necessarily low in salt. Soy sauce, for example, comes in regular and reduced sodium, but check out the numbers. While the sodium may be less in the reduced sodium version, it's still a whopping amount per tablespoon. One Tamari sauce sold on Amazon claims the reduced-sodium version is twenty-five percent lower than the standard product. This is not low!

Let's face it, it's a mine-field out here, but as a PH patient, you may want to shift your focus from carbs or fat to sodium in the foods you eat.

Further Reading:

In researching this subject, we found a grassroots website that discusses many aspects of this dilemma including product examples you'll want to know about. Check it out at: Low Salt Low Fat.com

You'll also find an excellent resource for home cooks looking for low sodium recipe ideas at: Low Sodium, Low Salt, Heart Healthy Cooking

A Grated Non-cheese Alternative

2010-01-02T15:37:00.003-05:00

Pasta is really pretty healthy for a LS/LF diet. But if you are used to grated cheese on top, that can be a problem. Fortunately, Galaxy Nutritional Foods makes some interesting alternative. (Note that many tomato sauces are high in salt and some have rather high fat content. You can either make your own from unsalted canned tomatoes - or fresh tomatoes in season - or use Trader Joe's no salt added marinara sauce.)

Galaxy makes several types of grated noncheese. I usually use the Rice version shown here for no particular reason. I have found it in Whole Foods and health food stores. If your mainstream store deosn't have it, please ask.

Another LS/LF Cereal Option

2009-12-13T10:34:00.004-05:00

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!

2009-12-04T12:32:00.005-05:00

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

2009-11-26T11:28:00.007-05:00

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

2009-11-06T08:29:00.002-05:00

[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!

Amazon.com Widgets

"Smart Choices" Exits Stage Left

2009-10-30T10:55:00.007-04:00

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

2009-10-17T13:23:00.009-04:00

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

2009-09-25T13:16:00.006-04:00

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.

Fed Up with Cheerio's Nutrition Hype and High Sodium? A Low Sodium Alternative

2009-09-22T08:47:00.011-04:00

Cheerios pushes its health claims so much that they are in trouble with FDA. While the oats in Cheerios may actually reduce cholesterol level, the sodium in the multiple servings of the product necessary to do so may have other consequences if you are on a LS/LF diet.

General Mills: Did you ever wonder why Caduet is advertised on prime time television? It is because a significant fraction of Americans with high cholesterol also have high blood pressure, not to mention other conditions that require a low sodium diet. Multiple servings/day of Cheerios with 190 mg of sodium per serving is not what they need to address their

cholesterol issues. (Note 190 mg. is computed based on a 1 cup serving, which may be unrealistic even if you are not trying to eat the amount necessary to lower cholesterol.)

Fortunately, there are other options. One is Nature's Path Heritage O's a product high in oat flour and low in sodium. It is a little crisper than Cheerios, doesn't get as soggy, and has somewhat squarer edges. It is not found in many mainstream box stores, but is common in health food stores.

A Canadian newspaper took General Mills to task for the high sodium content. They actually got a partial answer from the Canadian Division:

Yesterday, I wrote about how Cheerios had a surprisingly high amount of salt in them -- raising concerns that they may not be the ideal baby snack many parents think they are. Before writing the post, I emailed the media relations department of General Mills -- which manufacturers Cheerios -- with a series of questions:
Why is the salt content of Cheerios so high compared to some other cold cereals (like Frosted Mini Wheats)?

Is your company looking at reducing the salt content of Cheerios?

Does General Mills believe that, given its high salt content, that Cheerios are a suitable snack for infants and toddlers? As a breakfast cereal for young children?

Are there any products similar to Cheerios that General Mills produces that are lower in sodium and may be more appropriate as a snack/food for children and toddlers?
While I didn't get the detailed, point-by-point response I was hoping for, I did get the following email message back yesterday from Pierrette Buklis, a dietician with General Mills Canada:
Cheerios makes a positive contribution to a healthy, balanced diet for Canadian children. Cheerios is whole grain, a source of fibre - particularly soluble fibre from oats - and provides a nutritionally significant amount of 8 essential nutrients. General Mills strives to have sodium levels as low as possible while meeting consumer taste expectations and we continue to explore every opportunity to cut or replace sodium without compromising flavour and other functions it plays in a healthy diet. Cheerios is the complete package – it offers good nutritional value, it’s convenient and it can help to build a healthy breakfast habit.

Thank you for your interest!

Well, taste Heritage O's and see if they meet your taste expectations. If so, I suggest you switch to them and tell Cheerios where to go. Feel free to say you read it here.

Kashi Heart to Heart Honey Toasted Oat cereal is another Cheerio-like alternative, but is much sweeter. (I am also disturbed by other practices of Kashi, a Kellogg subsidiary, in which they use the same Heart to Heart brand name for a high sodium waffle that has almost the same packaging as their LS/LF products. Even their own webmaster was confused and described it on their website as a LS/LF product until I pointed it out!)

Buying Breakfast Cereal at IKEA?

2009-09-06T12:36:00.009-04:00

IKEA is an Swedish-based company best known for its large stores that sell mainly furniture requiring some final assembly. (I think I have assembled at least 30 pieces myself to date.)

It is not the obvious place for food shopping, but as part of their quirky image each store has a small boutique next to the checkout area with mainly Swedish produced food products. They have 36 stores in the US, out of a total of 231 stores in 24 countries.

On a recent visit I was pleasantly surprised to see the finax Nordix Muesli shown at left on sale for $4.29 for a 22 oz. package. finax is a new Swedish company which conveniently has a website in Swedish, Danish, Finnish, but not English.

As shown in the nutrition label at right, this cereal is really healthy stuff for a LS/LF diet and a pleasant change from other cereals produced by Fortune 500 companies. It also tastes good.

This cereal has a small amount of added salt, but is still much lower in salt than almost all other cereals on the US market as well as being low in fat. There is another version, in an orange package, that has nuts added so has a somewhat higher fat level than the green package shown.

So while this might not be worth a long trip, if you are passing a local branch of IKEA you might want to try the cereal. They also sell several types of traditional Swedish flat bead that is low in salt and fat. It is really more like a cracker than normal bread in the US - but LS/LF crackers are also hard to find.

Coq au Vin à la Julia Child

2009-08-22T12:13:00.009-04:00

The recent success of the Julie & Julia movie (and some of the negative reviews of it also) prompt me to use this occasion to share my modification of her coq au vin recipe for a LS/LF diet. Now as the film makes clear, Julia's recipes follow the traditional French approach with heavy use of butter in many dishes. Salt and salted meats are also heavily used. So only recipes that can be modified for LS/LF diets should be considered.

Just prior to being told to use a LS/LF diet, I read R.W. Apple's last dining column in the NY Times where he discussed "10 restaurants abroad that would be worth boarding a plane to visit, even in these fraught days." The first one discussed was Auberge du Cep, in Fleurie, France near Beaujolais. I visited the restaurant, had the coq au vin and it was fantastic. Upon returning home and starting a LS/LF diet I looked to Julia for inspiration and found it in her book, The French Chef Cookbook, based on the PBS series. So here is my adaption of the recipe from Show 38.

For 4-6 people
Use a 10" flameproof casserole or an electric skillet

Browning the chicken

2 1/2 - 3 lbs. chicken breasts
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 cup cognac

Skin the chicken breasts, leave the bone in and remove as much visible fat as possible. Cut each breast into 3 pieces. (Traditional coq au vin uses many parts of the chicken, cutting the breasts randomly obscures that only breasts are used.) Dry chicken thoroughly and brown in olive oil. Season with pepper and cook slowly 10 minutes more in covered pan, turning once. Then uncover, remove from stove, add cognac and ignite with a lighted match held in pliers. Shake pan until flames subside. Pay attention to fire hazards during the flaming!

Simmering in red wine

3 cups Burgundy style wine
1-2 cups beef stock or bouillon
1 Tb tomato paste
2 cloves mashed garlic 1/4 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
LSLF Smoke seasoning such as Colgin Liquid Smoke to taste

(Prepared LSLF beef broth exists but is hard to find. Alternatively make a small batch yourself without salt and be careful to skim excess fat. Traditional recipes use bacon for seasoning, add liquid smoke to taste as an alternative.) Pour wine into pan and add just enough bouillon to cover the chicken. Stir in tomato paste, garlic, and herbs. Bring to a simmer, then cover and simmer slowly for about 30 minutes or until chicken meat is tender.

The onions

12-24 small white onions
1-2 Tb olive oil

(The small onions can be the hardest ingredient to find, so start scouting them out before you do other things. Canned small onions are usually high in salt.) While chicken is cooking, drop onions into boiling water, bring water back to a boil, and lety boil for 1 minute. Drain, shave off both ends of the onions, peel carefully, and pierce a deep cross in the root end with a small sharp knife (to keep onions whole during cooking). Heat oil in a frying pan, add onions, and toss for several minutes until browned - they will be a patchy brown. Add water 1/2 way up the onions, cover pan, and simmer slowly for 25-30 minutes until tender.

The mushrooms

1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms
1 1/2 Tb olive oil

Trim base of mushroom stems, remove base from stems, wash stems and caps in cold water and dry in a towel. Cut caps in quarters and stems in bias/diagonal chunks. Saute mushrooms in hot oline oil for 4-5 minutes until lightly brown.

Sauce and serving

3 Tb flour
2 Tb olive oil

When chicken is done, drain out cooking liquid into a saucepan. Skim off fat and boil down liquid to concentrate the flavor. You should have about 2 1/4 cup. Remove from heat. Blend olive oil and four in a saucer, beat into the cooking liquid with a wire wisk. Bring to a simmer, stirring, and simmer for a minute or two until sauce has thickened. Scrape onions and mushrooms into the sauce and simmer a minute or two to blend flavors. Pour sauce over the chicken. Chicken can not be reheated for serving or can be refrigerated for up to 2 days - whihc actually improves flavor.

Shortly before serving bring to a boil while basting chicken with sauce. Cover and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Be careful not to overcook!

Serve with rice, potatoes, or noodles. Bon appetit

Wikipedia photo

2009-06-11T20:54:00.006-04:00

Is Healthy Fast Food an Oxymoron?

Oxymoron
–noun, plural -mo⋅ra Rhetoric. a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in “cruel kindness” or “to make haste slowly.”

One might think that healthy fast food is impossible. I am on a trip this week and was surprised to discover Corner Bakery Cafe. This is a Dallas-based chain that is far from national at the moment.

What particularly caught my attention on their menu were the healthy breakfast choices. (Unfortunately at the moment the menu/nutrition part of the web site is not working so you can not see for yourself. Their webmaster is apparently obsessed with the use of Adobe Flash which results in a complex high bandwidth website that is not fully functional at the moment. Suggest they concentrate on the restaurant biz, not the overly flashy website.) CBC has several egg dishes for breakfast. They are all made to order and they all can be made with egg whites only for $0.59 extra. (Egg Beaters are basically egg whites with food coloring, so egg whites just avoid the coloring.) Now several of their egg dishes have bacon and/or, but since it is made to order these can be omitted.

Other healthy breakfast choices include salads, (chilled) Swiss Oatmeal, Oatmeal with skim milk, and Fresh Berry Parfait with lowfat milk. CBC does not have low salt or no salt added bread, but neither does any other US chain I am aware of. In Australia such bread is widely available, but in the US it is really scarce even though bread can be a major source of salt in the diet. So CBC and others, here is a route to improvement. Keep up the good work!

Lunch and dinner choices include salads and both chicken and turkey sandwiches. (However, I hope that website will show soon what the salt content of the chicken and turkey meat is since some versions have increased salt content.)

CBC proudly states they were names by Health magazine as one "America’s Top 10 Healthiest Fast Food Restaurants". While LSLF diets are not necessarily the prime criteria for selection on this list, the others ont he list show that positive things can be done.

Now oddly McDonalds is also on the list. Perhaps McD's should get an award for "most improved menu" now that they have added a few healthy items, but the choice at CBC is much much broader for all meals.

UPDATE - I am back home now and have a real high speed connection so could explore the CBC website. Unfortunately, it does not have any nutrition information under the "Menu & Nutrition" link, so in this context McD's actually is better in that they have real information if you look for it. So CBC, how about good nutrition information to go along with you good food choices?

2009-05-13T18:30:00.003-04:00

FDA Takes on Cheerios:

Already in LSLF.com Hall of Shame

Faithful readers may recall that Cheerios, the most popular breakfast cereal in the US has been in the LSLF Hall of Shame for some time based on their misleading information pushing the cholesterol impact of multiple servings a day while avoiding the impact of the sodium level.

Now FDA has taken them on for being too bold about the cholesterol claims also. Here is the letter:

Ken Powell
Chairman of the Board and CEO
General Mills
One General Mills Boulevard
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55426

Dear Mr. Powell:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reviewed the label and labeling of your Cheerios® Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal. FDA's review found serious violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) and the applicable regulations in Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR). You can find copies of the Act and these regulations through links in FDA's home page at http://www.fda.gov.

Unapproved New Drug

Based on claims made on your product's label, we have determined that your Cheerios® Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug because the product is intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease. Specifically, your Cheerios® product bears the following claims ort its label:

• "you can Lower Your Cholesterol 4% in 6 weeks" "
• "Did you know that in just 6 weeks Cheerios can reduce bad cholesterol by an average of 4 percent? Cheerios is ... clinically proven to lower cholesterol. A clinical study showed that eating two 1 1/2 cup servings daily of Cheerios cereal reduced bad cholesterol when eaten as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol."

These claims indicate that Cheerios® is intended for use in lowering cholesterol, and therefore in preventing, mitigating, and treating the disease hypercholesterolemia. Additionally, the claims indicate that Cheerios® is intended for use in the treatment, mitigation, and prevention of coronary heart disease through, lowering total and "bad" (LDL) cholesterol. Elevated levels of total and LDL cholesterol are a risk factor for coronary heart disease and can be a sign of coronary heart disease. Because of these intended uses, the product is a drug within the meaning of section 201(g)(1)(B) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321 (g)P)(B)]. The product is also a new drug under section 201(p) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321(p)] because it is not generally recognized as safe and effective for use in preventing or treating hypercholesterolemia or coronary heart disease. Therefore,under section 505(a) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 355(a)], it may not be legally marketed with the above claims in the United States without an approved new drug application.

FDA has issued a regulation authorizing a health claim associating soluble fiber from whole grain oats with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease (21 CFR 101.81). Like FDA's other regulations authorizing health Claims about a food substance and reduced risk of coronary heart disease, this regulation provides for the claim to include an optional statement, as part of the health claim, that the substance reduces the risk of coronary heart disease through the intermediate link of lowering blood total and LDL cholesterol. See 21 CFR 101.81(d)(2),-(3). Although the lower left corner of the Cheerios® front label contains a soluble fiber/coronary heart disease health claim authorized under 21 CFR 101.81, the two claims about lowering cholesterol are not made as part of that claim but rather are presented as separate, stand-alone claims through their location on the package and other label design features. The cholesterol claim that mentions the clinical study is on the back of the Cheerios® box, completely separate from the health claim on the front label. Although the other cholesterol claim is on the same panel as the authorized health claim, its prominent placement on a banner in the center of the front label, together with its much larger font size, different background, and other text effects, clearly distinguish it from the health claim in the lower left corner.

Additionally, even if the cholesterol-lowering claims were part of an otherwise permissible claim, under 21 CFR 101.81, the resulting claim language still would not qualify for the use of the soluble fiber health claim. To use the soluble fiber health claim, a product must comply with the claim specific requirements in 21 CFR 101.81, including the requirement that the claim not attribute any degree of risk reduction for coronary heart disease to diets that include foods eligible to bear the claim. See 21 CFR 101.81(c)(2)(E). However, the label of your Cheerios® cereal claims a degree of risk reduction for coronary heart disease by stating that Cheerios® can lower cholesterol by four percent in six weeks. High blood total and LDL cholesterol levels are a surrogate endpoint for coronary heart disease; therefore, the cholesterol-lowering claims on the Cheerios® label attribute a degree of risk reduction for coronary heart disease because if total and LDL cholesterol levels decline, the risk of coronary heart disease declines as well.

Misbranded Food:

Your Cheerios ® product is misbranded within the meaning of section 403(r)(1)(B) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 343(r)(1)(B)] because it bears unauthorized health claims in its labeling. We have determined that your website www.wholegrainnation.com is labeling for your Cheerios® product under section 201(m) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321 (m)] because the website address appears on the product label. This website bears the following unauthorized health claims:

"Heart-healthy diets rich in whole grain foods, can reduce the risk of heart disease."

This health claims misbrands your product because it has been authorized either by regulation [see section 343(r)(3)(A)-(B) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 343(r)(3)(A)(B)]] or under authority of the health claim notificati6n provision of the Act [see section'343(r)(3)(C) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 343(r)(3)(G)]]. Although FDA has issued a regulation authorizing a health claim associating fiber-containing grain products with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease (21 CFR 101.77), the claim on your website does not meet the requirements for this claim. For example, under section 101.77(c)(2), the claim must state that diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol and high in fiber-containing fruit, vegetable, and grain products may reduce the risk of heart disease. The claim on your website leaves out any reference to fruits and vegetables, to fiber content, and to keeping the levels of saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet low. Therefore, your claim does not convey that all these factors together help to reduce the risk of heart disease and does not enable the public to understand the significance of the claim in the context of the total daily diet (see section 343(r)(3)(B)(iii) of the Act [21 U.S.C.§ 343(r)(3)(B)(iiill].

In addition to the health claim authorized by regulation in 21 CFR 101.77, other health claims linking the consumption of whole grain foods to a reduced risk of heart disease have been authorized through the notification procedure in section 403(r)(3)(C) of the Act. Of those authorized claims, the one closest to the claim on your website states: "Diets rich in whole grain foods and other plant foods, and low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may help reduce the risk of heart disease.1" Although the claim on your website also concerns whole grains and reduced risk of heart disease, it is different from the authorized claim in significant ways. To meet the requirements of the authorized claim, the claim must state that diets that are (1) rich in Whole grains and other plant foods, and (2) low in saturated fat and cholesterol will help reduce the risk of heart disease) Instead, the claim on your website only states that diets rich in whole grains can reduce the risk of heart disease, with no mention of other plant foods or of low saturated fat and cholesterol.

"Including whole grain as part of a healthy diet may ... [h]elp reduce the risk of certain types of cancers. Regular consumption of whole grains as part of, a low-fat diet reduces the risk for some cancers, especially cancers of the stomach and colon."

This health claim misbrands your product because it has not been authorized either by regulation [see section 343(r)(3)(A)-(B) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 343(r)(3)(A)(B)]] or under authority of the health claim notification provision of the Act [see section 343(r)(3)(C) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 343(r)(3)(C)]]. Although FDA has issued a regulation authorizing a health claim associating fiber-containing grain products with a reduced risk of cancer (21 CFR 101.76), the claim on your website does not meet the requirements for the authorized claim.For example, under section 101.76(c)(2) the claim must state that diets high in fiber-containing grain products, fruits, and vegetables may reduce the risk of some cancers. The claim on your website leaves out any reference to fruits, vegetables, and fiber content. Therefore, your claim does not convey that all these factors together help to reduce the risk of heart disease and does not enable the public to understand the significance of the claim in the context of the total daily diet [see section 343(r)(3)(B)(iii) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 343(r)(3)(B)(iii)]].

In addition to the health claim authorized by regulation in 21 CFR 101.76, a health claim linking the consumption of whole grain foods to a reduced risk of certain cancers has been authorized through the notification procedure in section 403(r)(3)(C) of the Act. The authorized claim is: "Diets rich in whole grain foods and other plant foods ... may help reduce the risk of... certain cancers."2 Although the claim on your website also concerns whole grains and reduced risk of some cancers, it is different from the authorized claim in significant ways. For example, the authorized claim states that diets rich in whole grain foods and "other plant foods" may help reduce the risk for certain cancers. However,the claim on your website does not mention "other plant foods." Also, by using the language "especially cancers of the stomach and colon" the claim on your website emphasizes the relationship between whole grain foods and stomach and colon cancers as compared to other cancers, suggesting a greater degree of risk reduction or stronger evidence for the relationship between whole grain foods and risk of those two cancers. The claim authorized through the notification procedure does not emphasize the relationship between whole grain foods and stomach and colon cancer as compared to other cancers.

This letter is not intended to be an all-inclusive review of your products and their labeling. It is your responsibility to ensure that all of your products are in compliance with the Act and its implementing regulations.

Failure to promptly correct the violations specified above may result in enforcement action without further notice. Enforcement action may include seizure of violative products and/or injunction against the manufacturers and distributors of violative products.

Please advise this office in writing 15 days from your receipt of this letter of the specific steps you have taken to correct the violations noted above and to ensure that similar violations do not occur. Your response should include any documentation necessary to show that correction has been achieved. If you cannot complete all corrections before you respond, state the reason for the delay and the date by which you will complete the corrections.

Please send your reply to the attention of Tyra S. Wisecup, Compliance Officer, at the address in the letterhead. If you have any questions regarding this letter, please contact Ms. Wisecup at (612) 758-7114.

Sincerely,

/s/

W. Charles Becoat
Director
Minneapolis District

1 See "Health Claim Notification for Whole Grain Foods with Moderate Fat Content," December 9, 2003 (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/f1grain2.html).
2 See "Health Claim Notification for Whole Grain Foods," July 1999 (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/-dms/flgrain2.html).

2009-04-07T18:21:00.004-04:00

You Don't have be to Jewish
to Eat Matzoh

(Although you may have to live in a neighborhood with at least some Jews in order to find it.)

As the Jewish holiday of Passover is about to start, it is appropriate to talk about matzoh as an appropriate food for LS/LF diets. Matzoh is a traditional food for this period when observant Jews do not eat bread and other "leavened" products. It is basically made with flour and wheat. However, some versions have some oil added, possibly eggs, and maybe salt - so look for the basic version and confirm the ingredients.

A variant is "matzoh meal", basically ground matzoh. It is a useful alternative for breadcrumbs in many recipes since it contains no fat or salt. Another variant is "matzoh farfel", pieces of broken matzoh in the 1/8"-1/4" range. These can be added to soups like crackers with the advantage that they are salt free.

2009-03-17T15:26:00.004-04:00

AHA Replies to Heart Check Posting

We have received the following message from the American heart Association to our earlier posting comparing their "Heart Check" food certification program to the somewhat comparable Canadian "Health Check" program.

Here's the response:

Kimberly F. Stitzel, M.S., R.D., director, nutrition and obesity at the
American Heart Association asked for me to send you the following
information.

Limiting sodium in your diet is important for those with high blood
pressure. The American Heart Association recommends eating less than
2,300 milligrams of sodium a day for healthy adults, and less than 1500
milligrams per day for those with high blood pressure.  In general the
effects of sodium reduction on blood pressure tend to be greater in
African Americans middle-aged and older-aged persons.

The American Heart Association advocates a healthy dietary pattern over
time, with an emphasis on eating more plant-based foods, such as fruit,
vegetables, high fiber whole grains, low-fat and non-fat dairy products,
and lean meat, poultry and fish twice a week.

Our Food Certification Program is one facet of our overall outreach
efforts on nutrition - it helps people select foods that are lower in
saturated fat and dietary cholesterol. The American Heart Association's
dietary recommendations suggest using the NHLBI's DASH diet (Dietary
Approaches to Stop Hypertension) as a guide for how to eat a healthy
diet that can help lower blood pressure.  More information can be found
at www.nhlbi.nih.gov.

The criteria for our heart-check mark align with the FDA health claim
"Dietary Saturated Fat and Cholesterol and Coronary Heart Disease" that
can appear on packaged products.

The text listed under our heart-check mark clearly states that the
product "Meets American Heart Association food criteria for saturated
fat and cholesterol for healthy people over age 2," which is what we are
allowed to say according to FDA regulations set for the "Dietary
Saturated Fat and Cholesterol and Coronary Heart Disease" health claim.
This health claim does have a sodium criterion, which requires an
individual food to be limited in sodium by having less than or equal to
480 milligrams.

You had also expressed concern about how our Food Certification program
is funded.  Our program does not generate revenue or financial profit
for the American Heart Association, nor are donor dollars used to fund
the products.  We charge low fees to food manufacturers to pay for
administering the program and making sure that the products conform to
the criteria. The fees recover the costs for conducting packaging,
science and legal reviews of the products as well as staff time and
resources to manage the program. Fees are kept low so that companies of
all sizes can participate.

If you have any questions for us, please feel free to contact me and I
will be happy to assist you.

Regards,

Kristi Manning
Associate Communications Manager
Corporate and Media Communications
_________________________________
American Heart Association
National Center
7272 Greenville Ave.
Dallas, TX 75231
kristi.manning@heart.org

If you have a condition that necessitates a low salt/low fat diet - no uncommon among the illnesses AHA covers - you might wish to communicate with AHA what you think of this bureaucratic answer. You may wish to point out to them that it doesn't take too many "Heart Check" certified items with 480 mg of sodium to add up to the 1500 mg limit they acknowledge is appropriate "for those with high blood pressure". Indeed, it doesn't even take that many more to add up to the "2,300 milligrams of sodium a day for healthy adults".

[Hint 2300/480 = 4.8]

2009-02-25T07:26:00.010-05:00

Health Check vs.

Heart Check:

Getting Practical Nutrition Data to the Public

I was recently in Canada on a business trip for my "day job". During a free moment I visited a supermarket to look for interesting food items. As it turns out, food items for a LS/LF diet in Canada are rather similar to those in the US and low salt bread is just as hard to find as in the US. (In Australia it is much more available.)

I soon noticed the "Health Check" label of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada at left above on many food items along with a URL. Note it is very similar to the American Heart Association's "Heart Check" label - at right above. So I thought I would compare the 2 program's especially since I have been annoyed for a while with AHA's attention to the needs of the millions of American's with conditions requiring LS/LF diets.

A major difference between the 2 programs is transparency. It is much easier to see the goals and functioning of the Canadian program. The AHA program gives the impression of being a fund raising/marketing program more than a health program. The financial goals of the Canadian program are simply stated:

"The Health Check ^TM program is run on a non-profit, cost-recovery basis and remains financially independent from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Federal Government. The costs related to product and packaging review, testing, program administration, promotion, consumer education and product evaluation are recovered through modest fees collected from participating companies. Any surplus funds will be used for nutrition education and the promotion of healthy eating for Canadians."

And the fees paid by manufacturers are clearly stated. The AHA's comparable information is cryptic at best.

So what do the 2 marks really mean? AHA's Heart Check label comes in 2 flavors:


	Standard Certification	Whole-Grains Certification
Total Fat	3 gms or less	Less than 6.5 gms
Saturated Fat	1 gm or less	1 gm or less
Cholesterol	20 mg or less	20 mg or less
Sodium	480 mg or less	480 mg or less
Contain 10% or more of the daily value of 1 of 6 nutrients; vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium, protein or dietary fiber	Yes	Yes
Trans fat*	Less than .5 gm	Less than .5 gm
Whole grain		51% by weight/Reference Amount Customarily Consumed (RACC)
Minimum Dietary Fiber		1.7 g/RACC of 30 gms 2.5 g/RACC of 45 gms 2.8 g/RACC of 50 gms 3.0 g/RACC of 55 gms

Seafood, game meat, meat and poultry must meet the standards for "extra lean."

Note that there is a salt limit, but it is 480 mg of sodium per serving. This is more than 3 times the FDA limit of 140 mg for labeling as "low sodium" products. (However, it is less than the common salt content of many name brand canned soups.)

Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 recommends <2300 mg of sodium per day for the general public and <1500 mg of sodium/day for individuals with hypertension, blacks, and middle-aged and older adults. Clearly "Heart Check" is paying scant attention to the dietary salt issues of Americans.

Note that the general population should eat fewer than 5 servings of "Heart Check" products to meet salt guidelines and the others should eat 3 or fewer servings. The comparable Canadian "Health Check" criteria has dozens of categories for different types of food. While the current limit is generally the same 480 mg of sodium as AHA, the Canadians have announced new limits being phased in in the next 2 years that are generally 240 mg of sodium/serving - although higher and lower for a few products. But in virtually all cases they are less than the AHA 480 mg of sodium goal. Why can Canadian industry meet these goals but US industry can't?

Note: Do not confuse these programs with the "Smartspot"/"Smart Choices Made Easy" label that appears on some food products. This is a proprietary label of Pepsico for their "healthier" products. Some, like Quaker oatmeal are quite healthy. But Pepsico is even less transparent than AHA and gives no stated criteria for their use of this label. Thus read the FDA-mandated nutrition label before buying any such product until Pepsico decides to level with the public.

2009-02-13T09:09:00.006-05:00

If You Only Buy
One Special Cook Book -
Buy This One!

There are a lot of cook books out there for low salt diets, a lot on low fat diets, and very few on low salt/low fat diets. Nevertheless this is the one I think that is most important even though it focuses on the low salt issue.

Why? The salt shaker is not your problem! There are estimates that only 20-30% of the salt in the American diet comes from salt added at the table. It is the salt in processed foods which is the biggest contributor and conventional baked products, while not tasting salty, make a large contribution to salt intake.

For many types of food items items one can find low salt alternatives, although admittedly a limited assortment. But the options for baked goods at most retail outlets is rather slim. In the US even simple no salt bread is hard to find and if found usually in only one version. In addition many baked products also contain large amounts of fat.

It is not a simple alternative to make your own baked products and just leave out the salt. For yeast-based products, leaving out the salt affects the texture for salt actually interacts with yeast during rising and baking. In the case of baking soda and baking powder-based recipes, the baking soda/powder is itself a high level sodium source. After endless experimentation, Don Gazzinaga has developed a set of recipes that are no salt or low salt. He includes instructions for bread machine use as well as oven baking where appropriate.

Some of the recipes given are high in fat, but he clearly gives nutrition data so you can skip those or try to modify them. He also gives options for diabetics. I have found no better source of baking recipes for the LS/LF diet.

2009-02-03T12:57:00.006-05:00

Making Oatmeal More Convenient
with Japanese Technology

(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.

Amazon.com Widgets

2009-01-28T06:49:00.000-05:00

NY Times: Throwing the Book at Salt

Today's New York Times had a great article on the efforts of the New York City government to control salt in foods - something that FDA has been disinterested in and ineffective at. The articles starts,

"Dr. Thomas R. Friedan invited some of the biggest names in food processing to lunch last October. Grilled salmon and green salad were on the menu, but the subject was salt.

After a string of victories over smoking, trans fats and calories, Dr. Frieden, the commissioner of New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is waging a new campaign: to lower the amount of sodium America eats."

The gist of Dr. Friedan's efforts are then stated:

"When the food company executives had finished lunch, Dr. Frieden made his pitch: Over the next five years, identify the foods that are contributing the most sodium to people’s diets and cut the level of salt by 25 percent. In a decade, cut it by another 25 percent. And do it in unison with your competitors.
If they refuse?
“If there’s not progress in a few years, we’ll have to consider other options, like legislation,” he said in an interview last week."

The article points out that men are consuming 48 percent more salt than they did in the early 1970s, and women, 69 percent more, so the trend is now in the wrong direction.

In an attached graphic, linked to picture at left, the Times highlights foods where a single serving has a significant amount of the recommended daily salt for healthy people. It is particularly interesting that Kashi Heart to Heart Waffles get special attention. In the Hall of Shame section of the companion website, lowsaltlowfat.com , we have been pointing out for months that the rest of Kashi's "Heart to Heart" product line is actively promoted as a low salt and low fat heart healthy product line. When we first "promoted" this product to the "Hall of Shame" the Kashi website even called the waffles "low salt" as shown in the image from the website at the time:

Kashi did remove the "low sodium" after I pointed it out to them but never acknowledged in writing their error and continues to sell the product with nearly identical labeling with the rest of the Heart to Heart product line - which is actively promoted as being low in both salt and fat.

Now Kashi is really a good source of LS/LF products especially for breakfast cereals. Indeed, you may well find out that the majority of low salt cereals in your supermarket are from Kashi. But their misleading labeling of the high sodium waffles with nearly identical packaging with a LS/LF product line is unethical and borders on the illegal. While the Bush FDA and FTC refused to address this issue, hopefully the new leadership at FDA and FTC will.

Meanwhile we suggest you contact Kashi (and their corporate masters at Kellogg's) and tell them they are doing a great job on many of their products but it is time to either get the salt out of the waffles or relabel them clearly.

2009-01-26T12:54:00.009-05:00

Soups and the LS/LF Diet

Tradition tells us that soup is healthy. However, most of the soups and soup mixes on the US market are sky high in salt. An old standby, Campbell's Condensed Chicken Noodle has 890 mg of sodium/serving, not to mention 15 mg of cholesterol.

Beef bouillon cubes may have no cholesterol, but the Herb-Ox brand, for example, has 750 mg of sodium/serving.

In recent years, companies like Campbell's have been trying to "improve their act" with lines of soup labeled "25% less sodium" or "Healthy Request" - which even bears the AHA "heart-check mark" (which only addresses fat content not sodium content). For the general population these do indeed have less sodium than normal products, but these still have high sodium levels and are best avoided by those who need LS/LF diets.

The words "Low Sodium" have a legal meaning in the US of a product having less than 140 mg of sodium/serving. You probably should restrict your soup consumption to either home made soups where you know the ingredients or prepared products labeled "low sodium".

It is amusing that Campbell's uses the logo at left for their low sodium products with the words "for sodium restricted diets". Does Campbell's want you to think that these products are dangerous for others? Or having been partially responsible for addicting the US public to high salt input they fear that a tasty low salt product will ruin their reputation among the addicted? Campbell's makes low salt soups inthe following types: Chicken Broth , Chicken with Noodles Soup , Chunky Vegetable Beef Soup, Cream of Mushroom Soup, Split Pea Soup , Tomato with Tomato Pieces Soup. While these are sold in mainstream stores, I have never seen more than 2 flavors in the same store. (Note that the Cream of Mushroom is also convenient for making sauces for casseroles.)

The Health Valley brand of the Hain Celestial Group is a good source of low sodium soups and has 8 flavors as opposed to megacorporation Campbell's 6: No Salt Added Organic Vegetable Soup, No Salt Added Organic Tomato Soup, No Salt Added Organic Split Pea Soup, No Salt Added Organic Potato Leek Soup, No Salt Added Organic Mushroom Barley Soup, No Salt Added Organic Minestrone Soup, No Salt Added Organic Lentil Soup, No Salt Added Organic Black Bean Soup. Note that the other Health Valley soups not labeled "No Salt Added" are actually lower in sodium than Campbell's "lower sodium" or "Healthy Request".

The Health Valley Fat Free Zesty Black Bean with Rice Soup Cup is an instant soup in a cup that has zero fat and 240 mg of sodium, not low enough to be called "low salt", but rather close. [Note as Don pointed out in a reply to this post, the 240 mg of sodium is really for 1/2 of the serving cup - an unrealistic serving. So I withdraw this bean soup as a suggestion. - Jay] They also make a Organic Mild Vegetarian No Salt Added Chili with 1 g of fat and 75 mg of sodium/serving. While Hain/Health Valley is mainly sold in health food stores, many mainstream supermarkets sell a limited selection of their products.

Trader Joe's is a privately owned chain of 315 stores in 26 states. They have an unadvertised policy of carrying a wide variety of low sodium foods, some of which are hard to find elsewhere. Most products in Trader Joe's are house brands, not found elsewhere. In the soup category, these include Organic Creamy Tomato Soup Low Sodium, Organic Low Sodium Minestrone, Organic Low Sodium Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper Soup, Low Sodium Chicken Pasta Soup, Organic Butternut Squash Soup.

The only LS/LF dry soup mix for quick cooking I have found is Goodman's Noodle Soup with 95 g of sodium/serving and 1 g of fat.

Broth/Stock Options

Prepared broth and stock both makes a refreshing light dish and is a convenient ingredient for more complex soups and sauces. Adding fresh vegetables is an easy way to make an interesting soup from the broths and stocks given below. While canned and frozen vegetables can be used also, note that many canned vegetables and some frozen vegetables have high salt levels - so check labels. Dried products such as rice, beans, lentils, etc. usually have no added salt and low sodium levels.

Health Valley makes No Salt Added Fat Free Beef Broth and No Salt Added Low Fat Chicken Broth in 14 oz. cans. Campbell's, as stated above, also makes low salt chicken broth in cans.

The sources below all have broth/stock in 32 oz. cartons:

The Nature's Promise house brand of the Ahold/Giant/Stop & Shop chains has low sodium chicken broth. Pacific Naturals has low sodium versions of both vegetable broth and chicken broth.

Kitchen Basics has Unsalted Beef Stock (150 mg of sodium/serving) and Unsalted Chicken Stock (180 mg of sodium/serving). Note that both are slightly over the 140 mg. legal limit, but a lot less than other options. Kitchen Basics has a convenient store locator for their products that are sold in some mainstream stores.

More Than Gourmet offers a vegetable stock with no fat and 75 mg of sodium/serving.

Finally, Trader Joe's, mentioned above has a low sodium chicken broth in the house brand.

Hormel/Herb-Ox makes Beef Flavored Bouillon Sodium Free Granules, Chicken Flavored Bouillon Sodium Free Granules, Beef Flavored Sodium Free Bouillon Instant Packets, and Chicken Flavored Sodium Free Bouillon Instant Packets.

Wyler's makes sodium free beef and chicken bouillon.

Orrington Farms makes a low sodium beef flavored soup base and food seasoning with 1 g of fat and 60 mg of sodium and a similar chicken soup base with 1.5 g of fat and 140 mg of sodium. They are available through the Amazon ad on this site.

There are two brands of Swiss-made vegetable bouillon with low salt levels. Both use palm oil as a first ingredient so they have higher fat levels than the previous choices - they both have 2 mg of fat and 130 mg of sodium/serving. Rapunzel Vegan Vegetable Bouillon is labeled "no salt added". (They have a locator for stores that carry it.) The second is Organic Gourmet Vegetable Bouillon which has somewhat less saturated fat than Rapunzel, 1 g vs. 1.5g . The website says they also make a low sodium vegetable concentrate for soup and stocks but I have yet to see it in a store. (Web-based sources.)

If you can not find the above products in your usual store, TELL THEM! When mainstream stores get a enough requests from the millions of people who need LS/LF diets they will change their practices.

The three web-based stores given in the blog header are a possible source of these products if you can not find them locally, although shipping soups can get expensive.

North Bay Trading Company is a good source of dried vegetables mixes that can be used to make soup by themselves or in conjunction with the broths given above.

(Note that some commercial dried soup mixes are low in salt, but others are quite high and may appear to have similar labels - so watch carefully. For example Manischewitz Soup Mix Vegetable has only 70 mg of sodium/serving while the nearly identical looking Manischewitz Soup Mix Minestrone has 700 mg of sodium/serving!!!)

2009-01-13T13:52:00.000-05:00

Salt substitutes?

First issue for people on LSLF diets: to try to replace salt with a salt substitute or not?

Some people think it is better to go "cold turkey" rather than play with substitutes. The theory goes that weaning yourself from all salty flavors, including substitutes, will allow you to concentrate on low salt/no salt foods. However, it is acknowledged that not everyone can do this readily. Despite the Madison Avenue hype that salt substitutes are really substitutes, presently available substitutes have taste issues and raise new medical issues for some people as discussed below.

The potassium chloride (KCl) in most substitutes has an odd metallic taste to many people. In the basic KCl category is FRENCH's "Original NoSalt Sodium-Free Salt", "All the flavor without the sodium". If you taste the substitute directly out of the jar, this metallic taste is apparent. However, this is not a very meaningful test as these products are meant to be added to foods with other complex flavors. How much you can add depends on your own chemistry and the food you are adding it to. So if you want to try these products start with a small amount and increaseit slowly.

Some brands try to avoid this taste by mixing the KCl with other ingredients or even with some salt. For example AlsoSalt is a mixture of KCl with a natural amino acid. It is available in plain flavor as well as garlic flavor and butter flavor. They state,

"Why does AlsoSalt taste better? Other salt substitutes are mostly potassium chloride, a recognized and widely used replacement for table salt. But potassium chloride has a bitter, metallic aftertaste. Our patented process mixes L-lysine, an essential amino acid, with potassium chloride, effectively masking the aftertaste."

Nu-salt is KCl mixture with a "flavor modifier" and "taste modifier" and comes with this statement, "Please consult with your physician before using Nu-Salt."

Morton Lite Salt is an example of a KCl mix with normal salt (NaCl). (Note that it has significant amounts of both sodium and potassium and comes with this statement from its manufacturer, "Should not be used by persons on a sodium or potassium restricted diet unless approved by a physician.")

Suggest you decide for yourself which is better if you decide to use such substitutes and review the box below:

Most salt substitutes are based on potassium chloride (KCl).

Many Americans actually need more potassium but for others

additional potassium is a real concern.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 states, "Dietary potassium can lower blood pressure and blunt the effects of salt on blood pressure in some individuals. While salt substitutes containing potassium chloride may be useful for some individuals, they can be harmful to people with certain medical conditions. These individuals should consult a healthcare provider before using salt substitutes."

Thus you should seek medical advice before making a major increase in your potassium input through use of KCl-based salt substitutes.

Welcome

2009-01-03T17:24:00.001-05:00

Welcome to Low Salt Low Fat Eating, the blog companion to www.LowSaltLowFat.com. Like the website, the purpose of this blog is neither to advocate such diets nor promote the health benefits of such diets as I have no professional qualifications in this area. Rather this site is intended to serve as a resource for those, like me, who have been advised by medical personnel to switch to such a diet. Unfortunately, the people who do have the right qualifications usually don't know how to give practical advice and often treat low salt and low fat as independent issues.

This blog will focus on news related to LSLF diets and products that are of benefit to people on such diets. I may also include new additions to the LSLF "Hall of Shame" where we commemorate commercial products that are especially irresponsible or are merchandised in a misleading way.

Let's start with 4 cream cheese-like products for breakfast:

The first 3 are nonfat or low fat farmer's cheeses:

• Fresh Made Non Fat Farmer Cheese

(0 g fat, 10 mg sodium/serving)

• Friendship No Salt Added Farmer Cheese

(2.5 g fat, 10 mg sodium/serving)

• Lifeway Farmer Cheese

(1 g fat, 10 mg sodium/serving)

Next is Tofutti "Better than Cream Cheese" (5 g fat, 160 mg sodium/serving). Definitely has a more cream cheese-like texture, but at the price of higher fat and salt - but no cholesterol.

The last is Fage brand "ridiculously thick" Total 0% yoghurt which is basically strained yogurt but tastes similar to cream cheese with a strong dairy flavor.

(0 mg fat, 85 mg sodium/serving.

Unfortunately, only the Fage product is likely to be found at mainstream supermarkets.

These are the compromises in maintaining a LSLF diet!