I would leave out the salt, find a low-fat cheese and a low-salt, muti-grain bread to make it lower fat, lower sodium.
via Eggplant Bruschetta.
Low-salt Easter dinner: how to enjoy the holiday meal
Easter dinner traditionally means one of two main courses — either ham or lamb. But neither is an acceptable choice if you’re on a low-salt, or a low-fat, or a low-salt, low-fat diet as I am. That can make being a guest at someone else’s Easter feast a problem for you.
So do what I did this year. Invite family and/or friends to your house where you control the menu. Then assemble a low-salt, low-fat meal that everyone will enjoy, even if some guests are missing the ham (they can buy some at their houses).
Eating right after you turn 50, bah humbug, but worth reading
One of the things that upsets me most about the eating changes I’ve had to make since my angioplasty in 2012 is that I’m now on what I feel is an old man’s diet. No salt, no sugar, no fat, just give me some gruel and put me in a corner and watch me slowly go senile as my hair falls out for lack of protein. That’s how I feel some days when I’m watching other people eat big steaks or other restaurant dishes.
But the reality is even if you haven’t had heart problems as I have, your eating needs to change once you turn 50. How? Well the so-called science about that seems to change daily, which is why I never give medical advice here or recommend a certain list of foods for you. Continue reading “Eating right after you turn 50, bah humbug, but worth reading”
Costco Food Court Salads: you can make them healthier
Costco is one of my favorite places to shop, as I’ve written here. But since my angioplasty, I’ve been severely disappointed at the unhealthiness of its food court offerings. I can no longer eat the hot dogs I once did, too much fat and salt. Same for the giant slices of Costco pizza. And even the Costco turkey sandwich, which you might think was healthier, is loaded with fat and salt, far too much for me.
So after my usual Thursday night Costco shopping run, I normally have only a frozen fat-free yogurt and a Costco food court salad — with some major alterations.
I recently came across a post talking about how unhealthy that Costco food court salad is. “This jacked-up salad has more calories, total fat, cholesterol and sodium than either the Kirkland Signature All Beef Hot Dog or Polish Sausage,” writes the Tasty Island blog.
The fat is in the dressing, of course, and the cheese and croutons that come with the salad. If you eat all that, the salad has 40 grams of fat and 2,680 mgs of sodium, about two days worth of salt for me, or for you if you’re dealing with blood pressure or heart issues.
“As for the salad, substitute the OEM Caesar dressing for an Extra Virgin Olive Oil-based vinaigrette dressing and take out some of the parmesan cheese and croutons, and it obviously will be far better for you than the hot dog. But who’s going to do that at the convenience of Costco’s Food court? Not me, that’s for sure,” writes the Tasty Island.
Well, that’s exactly what I do routinely. First, I never get the croutons. The counter help will offer them to you in a small bag. I simply say hold the croutons, they are fat bombs I don’t need. Continue reading “Costco Food Court Salads: you can make them healthier”
Seasons 52 offers a low sodium menu…bravo!
Seasons 52 is a relatively new restaurant chain headquartered in California but with restaurants across the country including here in the Chicago area. It bills itself as “A fresh dining experience that celebrates living well” and trumpets that no individual item on its seasonally inspired menus has more than 500 calories.
We’d been there before and enjoyed it, but that was before I was ordered into my current low-sodium, low-fat, low-sugar diet, so I wasn’t sure what to expect on our latest visit.
Checking the menu online before we went, I found only one low-sodium entrée option, which was disappointing to me. But when we arrived and I asked the waitress about low-sodium options, she said the restaurant has a low-sodium menu! This was the first I’ve encountered. Bravo Seasons 52, I can only hope and pray others follow your lead on this and develop low-sodium menus of their own. Each item on the menu lists its sodium content. Continue reading “Seasons 52 offers a low sodium menu…bravo!”
Sesame Cabbage Rolls
I would substitute Mrs. Dash sodium free teriyaki marinade for the soy dressing and sodium-free chicken broth (which I’ll be blogging about soon) for the low-sodium broth to get the salt out. Also be sure to get the leanest white meat-only ground turkey to cut fat. Sounds yummy.
via Sesame Cabbage Rolls.
Healthy new food products? I’d think again
Which new food products were the hottest sellers of 2013? Interestingly enough, products that offered some health benefit topped an annual list put together by Information Resources, Inc., a firm that tracks supermarket checkout data.
“Among food and beverages launches, seven of the top 10, and 73 of the top 100, as ranked by total first-year dollar sales across grocery, drug and mass retail formats, offer a “healthier for you” benefit,” reported Marketing Daily in detailing IRI’s results.
The Top 10 list includes:
1. Dannon Light & Fit Greek — $144.9 million in year-one sales
2. Yoplait Greek 100 — $135.1 million
3. Kellogg’s Special K Pastry Crisps — $100.6 million
4. Tostitos Cantina Tortilla Chips — $100.3 million
5. Bud Light Lime Lime-A-Rita — $97.4 million
6. Müller Yogurt — $95.8 million
7. Eight O’Clock K-Cups — $89.8 million
8. Pepsi Next — $83.2 million
9. Kellogg’s Special K Flatbread Breakfast Sandwiches — $77.9 million
10. Atkins Frozen Meals — $74 million
So how healthy are these? Many yogurts have too much sugar. Anything more than 10 grams is too much. The top two here are light varieties, which means they have less sugar but you have to ask yourself how you feel about whatever sweetener is put in them instead.
Cereals and chips generally have too much salt and can be loaded with fat as well depending on the product, check all nutrition labels, always.
Frozen meals generally have too much salt. Pepsi Next is a lower calorie cola which again raises the issue of how you feel about the sweeteners used to get the calories out of the drink.
All in all, not a very healthy list. Don’t be fooled by health claims, look at salt, fat and sugar content before buying any new food product.
John
How much salt is too much? Here’s a simple guide
How much salt is too much for you to eat? General guidelines these days say 2,300 mgs for normal people and 1,500 mgs for those with heart or blood pressure issues (i.e. me) or people 51 or older.
So how do you translate that into meals, especially meals eaten away from home? My rule is to try to stay under 1,200 mgs a day since I assume measurements on packaged products or for restaurant nutrition menus can be off a bit. That translates into 400 mgs a meal. That’s for a meal, not a single part of a meal like a turkey burger or side dish like broccoli or whole wheat pasta. 
That’s not much at all. To achieve that level you have to avoid: Continue reading “How much salt is too much? Here’s a simple guide”
Salt in Lean Cuisine: there’s too much for me
Lean Cuisine began as a line of frozen foods that supposedly was healthier than other frozen offerings because it had fewer calories. But I’ve always avoided them because of the massive amounts of salt they, and all frozen offerings, contain.
So I was happy to see an old colleague writing about the salt issue in a recent Bloomberg story about Lean Cuisine and the marketing troubles it’s been having of late.
“Salt is the biggest concern among consumers, according to a survey by Bernstein Research. Early versions of Lean Cuisine averaged 1,000 milligrams of sodium, or two-thirds of the recommended daily intake for more than half of American adults. The 130 varieties of Lean Cuisine now average 600 milligrams, and in 2010 Nestle pledged to reduce sodium by a further 10 percent by 2015,” writes Matt Boyle. Continue reading “Salt in Lean Cuisine: there’s too much for me”
New nutrition labels and how they show salt, fat and sugar
Nutrition labels, or more accurately nutrition information panels on food and beverage labels, are getting a makeover, the Food and Drug Administration announced last week. My first reaction: disappointment that salt content isn’t being targeted and that the FDA didn’t significantly reduce what it recommends as daily salt intake for an adult.
“The FDA proposal also reduces the daily recommendation on sodium to 2,300 milligrams from 2,400, which the Center for Science in the Public Interest said isn’t enough. The daily value should be reduced to 1,500 milligrams, the nonprofit advocacy group said,” reported Bloomberg.
Since my angioplasty, nutritionists have told me to limit salt intake to 1,500 mgs a day. I’ve aimed for 1,200, believing products can have more salt than advertised, especially when it comes to restaurant food. Continue reading “New nutrition labels and how they show salt, fat and sugar”