Cookbook:Low-Sodium Cooking

Definition
A low-sodium diet is normally advised for people who suffer from heart and blood related conditions, such as high blood pressure, angina and for people who have previously suffered heart attacks (myocardial infarction), and also for people who have suffered, or who are prone to, conditions such as stroke or CVA (cerebrovascular attack).

Foods prepared and cooked for patients on this diet should contain as little added salt as possible, preferably none. This allows the consumer to season the food according to their own taste. A recommended daily intake for a low-sodium is less than 2,000 milligrams per day.

Some people find food in this dietary grouping quite bland and "boring", so it is up to the preparer to find new and interesting ways to season the food, in order to provide as much taste as possible, with little salt or sodium. To improve the flavors of sodium-free food, one can add combinations of herbs and spices. One can also use replace roughly half of their salt with potassium chloride, although it's too bitter to completely replace salt. When cooking savoury dishes, roughly 20% of the salt that you use can also be replaced with MSG, which has less sodium by weight.

If you have just started a sodium-free diet, it will take at least one week for your palate to adjust to the lack of salt.