Types Of Salt Shaker

My mother and father have worked very hard all their lives. They ran a dairy farm as well as held down full time jobs. My dad was a maintenance worker at a large factory and my mother worked for food services at a local university. Mom’s job was great because she had the summers off and was able to draw unemployment. This meant she would have more time to tend the huge vegetable gardens that she planted. My mother found out when she was forty eight that she has high blood pressure. This meant that she needed to cut down on her salt intake. This was very difficult for her because the salt shaker was never far from her plate, she loves salt.

It seems that people usually fall into the sweet lovers or salt lovers category. My mother was never far from a salt shaker. When she was first placed on the salt restriction diet she tried many salt substitutes as well as different herbs and spices. She had her own salt shaker at the table for meals. She began cooking without using salt. Our family meals were much blander. It is amazing how much flavor salt adds to a meal, especially when we were used to a salt lover seasoning our food during its preparation. As a result the rest of us were reaching for the salt shaker more often at the dinner table.

Mom was not able to lower her blood pressure through diet alone, so she was placed on medication. She was told that she should still limit her salt intake, but she no longer had to be on a salt free diet. Due to having the period of time of no salt she was able to cut back on the amount she used. I could not believe the amount of sodium there is in products that we use everyday. Ketchup is very high in sodium as well as cold cuts and many cheeses. Mom needed to stay away from many processed foods as well as the salt shaker.

Within a few weeks she was beginning to adjust to using different spices in the foods that she prepared. It was interesting to hear her comment that she found food tasted too salty when she ate in a restaurant.  She used to love Chinese food; however she now finds that it is too salty for her improved taste buds. I learned at a young age to cook with reduced salt. My hope is that I can avoid the blood pressure issues that my mother has. We do not have the habit of having a salt shaker on our dinner table.