Thanksgiving menu planning can be tricky when you’re on a low-sodium, low-fat, and low-sugar diet. I wrote recently about searching for fresh turkey to avoid frozen and brined ones that can be loaded with salt.
But salt is in most everything on a Thanksgiving table, depending on how carefully you shop. Condiments like pickles and olives are loaded with salt, for example. Add them to a harmless salad and you have a salt bomb waiting to explode in you.
The Heart Healthy market sells low-sodium pickles and a sodium free poultry gravy mix. For olives, I’ve found low sodium ones from Musco (called Pearls) in my local supermarket, Jewel. I had been buying them on Amazon, but buying local is always cheaper because you save the shipping costs.
How much lower in sodium are they? The photo I took tells the tale. Three regular olives have 95 mgs of sodium while four low-salt ones have 70 mgs. So does 25mgs matter? I say yes, especially if you plan to eat more than a meager three olives on your salad.
Watch every milligram of sodium when meal planning.
The low sodium olives will cost anywhere from 50% to 100% more at retail than the regular ones. I paid $1.50 a can on sale, normal price is $1.99 compared to regular olives which regularly are on sale for 99 cents.
John