Grey area food are technically “safe” things to eat but should be eaten in moderation.

Meat
All types of meat have small amounts of sodium, which helps it taste palatable in an otherwise unsalted dish. However, priority should be given to plant based food to help lower cholesterol and to assist weight loss (unless you’re eating 10 avocadoes a day, which I’m sure you’re not) if your high blood pressure is related to obesity. I can go on about the health benefits of eating less meat, but I won’t because I’m not a good enough writer. All I can say is I feel a lot better once I starting eating less meat (yeah yeah, I’ll get more vegetarian recipes up here soon…).

Sugar
Sugar -> weight gain -> risk of elevated blood pressure. OK?

Alcohol
Studies have shown that alcohol does increase the risk of high blood pressure. Drink lightly, always with food and avoid binge drinking like me.

“Salt-reduced” prepackaged food
This is up here because I’ve found that “salt reduced” can be a pretty misleading label. Always, always check the nutritional information on your food because “salt-reduced” doesn’t always mean “low sodium” – in most cases it just means “slightly less than 1000 mg of sodium per serving”. Use low-salt sauces sparingly – 1 tablespoon of Kikkoman salt-reduced soy sauce still has about 500 mg of sodium.

Next post: my daily meal plan!

This is a question I often get when I tell people I’m on a low sodium diet. My answer is usually a cranky “not much”, reserved for those times when the person across from me is scoffing down a bacon and egg roll. The truth is it’s difficult to find pre-packaged or pre-prepared (is this even a word?) low sodium meals, but if you’re willing to put a bit of effort into preparing your own food there is a lot you can eat. This series of blog posts will hopefully give some insight into preparing a low-sodium meal plan for newbies.

Can’t touch this:

Processed/cured meat
Just avoid this stuff like the plague. Example:

• 1 slice (20 g) of deli roast beef – 182 mg of sodium
• 1 rasher (40 g) bog-standardbacon – 840 mg sodium

Trust me, it’s just not worth it.

Stock/bouillon cubes & prepackaged stock
Salt cubes, more like.

Crisps
I know, they’re delicious. They’re also pretty awful for you and usually has a shit-ton of added sodium, especially the really orange ones (I’d rather not name names because these companies can afford better lawyers).

Bread & baked goods
There’s not a day that goes by without me pining for my carbs and cupcakes. Don’t be fooled by the non-saltiness of bread and cakes – 1 slice of Baker’s Delight Pane di Casa bread has 186 mg of sodium. As for sweet cakes, baking powder and baking soda adds a crazy amount of sodium without making it taste salty (in any case, sugar will mask any saltiness). According to this excellent site, 1/4 tsp of baking powder has approximately 120 mg of sodium while 1/8 tsp of baking soda adds 150 mg.

Tinned/powdered soup
Salt city. I don’t think I should have to choose between three thirtyitis and high blood pressure.

Tinned… everything
Check your tinned food properly, and always go for no-added salt stuff. Tinned beans are particularly notorious for having a high sodium count.

Cheese
Before you start crying, not all cheeses have the same sodium count. As a general rule, hard cheeses (e.g. cheddar, parmesan, aged cheese in general) have a much higher sodium count than soft (ricotta, bocconcini).

Bottled sauces
Soy sauce and fish sauce are no brainers, but check the sodium content of your tomato & BBQ sauces too.

Eat these:

Fruits & vegetables
This stuff is good for you and typically have very low sodium count.

Pasta
Depending on the brand, pasta normally has a low sodium count if prepared without salt (I know, I know… sacrilege and all that).

Grain starches
By this I mean grains that you have to cook from scratch, e.g. basmati rice, quinoa, burgul etc. Read the nutritional information though – a brand of couscous that I bought had significantly more sodium than average.

Dried pulses
Preparing these from scratch will help you control the amount of sodium that goes in a dish. Lentils that require no soaking are widely available in supermarkets.

Chocolate
Standard disclaimer: don’t go crazy. But seriously, good quality chocolate has little sodium and will keep you sane.

Next post: “grey area” food!

I went to see the doctor two weeks ago and as anticipated she took me off the oral contraceptives. We briefly discussed my concern about the PCOS symptoms. The result of that is a referral an (expensive) endocrinologist. I’ll have more on that when I finally see the endo on the 31st. We’ll know for sure then if the OC is what’s causing the spike in blood pressure.

Where does this leave the blog? I’m definitely not abandoning it – I’ve continued my low salt diet just to help things along. What I’m going to do though is to expand the scope of the blog. I’m now going to write about PCOS and my experiences with it as well. There will be a bit of TMI, but I know you don’t really mind.

Things aren’t looking great for our heroine, nut fans.

My blood pressure was high all week, not helped by an extremely stressful time at the office. It probably averages out to about 140/85 for the last three days. Some interesting things of note:

• My blood pressure is the lowest about half an hour after a workout – my lowest reading this week was about 117/74.
• It tends to be the highest before bedtime, not sure if this is an anxiety thing. On thursday it peaked at 150/96 before bed. I should be having a heart attack right about now, right?
• Hot showers also lower blood pressure.

I’m pretty much resigned to the fact that the doctor will take me off the pill and monitor again to see how things go. I’m not looking forward to my PCOS symptoms coming back so I’ll be discussing other options with my doctor when I see her on Monday.