How low can you go, oh Sodium?

It’s been awhile. It’s been a rough health year for this diabetic. Some of the more notable events include a complicated hysterectomy,  a couple of freak accidents (two scorpion stings and one concussion), and then, at the beginning of October, what appeared to be a heart attack. I was close. The angina actually revealed two arterial blockages, which were stented right quick, with new-fangled stents intended specifically for diabetics. Now I’m a heart patient, with a newfound respect for low, low sodium foods. But I’m not complaining. As an emotional eater who brought on my T2 at age 40 with lots of breads and candies, I scoffed at the trite aphorism “nothing tastes as good as thin feels.” I knew it wasn’t true. However…I now present my own trite aphorism, and I really mean it: “Nothing tastes as good as being alive feels.” There. It’s true. And in the interest of full disclosure, if I never have another pizza or apple pie again, I’ve already had enough for a couple of lifetimes.

As part of my personal program of rehabilitation (getting the LDL down, the HDL up, the A1C even lower), I’ve been shopping. It clears my head, whether it’s shoes or makeup or the canned goods aisle at Safeway. I now not only look at carbs and protein; I’m also sizing up fats and sodium with a keener eye. Here are some foods and their stores that I have discovered in Arizona:

Fry’s (Kroger):
Private Label Italian Seasoning, with their no-salt tomato sauce and tomatoes (for spaghetti)
Private Label organic pinto/kidney/ bean medley – 100mg sodium per 1/2 cup (for chili and Mexican)
Desert Pepper Peach Mango Medium Hot Salsa (only 40mg per serving; check out the others)
Generic tomatoes, tomato sauce, and green beans, all no-sodium
Store brand frozen vegetables–cheap and a good variety

WalMart:
Kozy Shack sugar-free rice pudding (lower in carb and higher in fiber than Jello brand)
Generic tomatoes, tomato sauce, and green beans, all no-sodium

Any store:
Blue Bunny Sweet Freedom snack-size ice cream bars–all <4 net carb but still 7g fat, but delicious! Watch out for the sugar alcohols. My system can’t sustain more than one per day
Baby Swiss cheese–lower in fat and really lower in sodium than any other cheese
Plain yogurt: Mix with Splenda and cocoa for strawberry dip, blend with ice and strawberries and vanilla for a milkshake

And here are some of my failures so far. By failures, I mean that I’m going to have to make them the old fashioned way–from a recipe in a cookbook. Spaghetti sauce in a jar? Whoa! An average of 400 mg per 1/2 cup serving. Bottled salad dressings? Sure, there are a lot of low-fat and low-carb dressings. But find me one with less than 250 mg sodium that I can buy at the grocery store. And how about low-sodium bread with a decent amoung of fiber? I can’t find it, yet. Yikes, I might have to get out the bread machine! And I’m back to buying chicken breasts from the plastic packages (check out the sodium in those flash-frozen packs).