MenieresNSW.org.au
No
menu? Click on this link to go to our home page: http://www.menieresnsw.org.au/
How to shop for low salt foods
If
you have been convinced by Dr. Trevor Beard of the importance of good salt
control for Meniere’s (see the page on his Salt Skip Program), then the next
step is to shop for foods that are low in salt.
Nearly
all FRESH FOODS are naturally low in salt, so not much guidance is needed for
fresh foods.
However,
very many PROCESSED FOODS are not low in salt –
over 75% of our salt intake comes from the salt (or other forms of sodium such
as baking powder) that is added to processed foods.
Below,
you will find links to documents that will help you shop for processed foods
that are low in salt.
(The documents are in PDF
format. To read or print them, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do
not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download it free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html)
Shopping Guide + Salt Control
The Shopping Guide is a four-page guide to
shopping for low salt foods (especially at the major supermarkets) plus three
pages on salt control directed to health professionals.
Page 1 is "A Quick Guide" which explains how to
tell if an item is low salt from information on the Nutrition Information
Panel.
Pages 2 and 3 make up the "Low Salt Foods Shopping
List". They have information (and colour photos) of nearly 100 products
that are low in salt. You can use these two pages to plan what you want to buy.
You can also take the pages with you to the supermarket, to make it easier to
spot the low salt products on the shelves.
Page 4 looks mainly at the importance of low salt bread
in controlling salt intake. It gives basic tips on baking your own bread (it is
not as hard as you might think, especially if you use a bread maker, or "baker's oven").
Salt Control is a three-page document
directed to health professionals.
If you have an illness (apart from Meniere's) or if you
are on prescription drugs (especially diuretics), or if you are pregnant, then
you need to be careful if you are thinking of going onto a very strict
low salt diet, and you should consult your family doctor or specialist about it,
and show them the Salt Control document, which gives more information on
possible interactions.
Both documents have been assembled into one PDF file
(total of 7 pages, file size 1.2MB), which can be downloaded by clicking on
this link:
Shopping Guide + Salt Control
The SMANZ Low Salt "Prescription"
This is a longer document – 30 pages – and it goes into
more detail. It includes the SMANZ guide to reducing salt (8 pages of useful
information and tips), the low salt foods shopping list, a section on eating
out while avoiding salt, a list of suppliers of low salt foods, links to useful
websites, and an order form for relevant publications.
SMANZ, by the way, stands for Salt
Matters (Australia & New Zealand) and is a self-help group whose
members work towards reducing their own salt intake, and who publish
information to help others do the same.
You can download the free SMANZ Low Salt
"Prescription" from: http://www.smanz.info/