OK, the frozen dinner has more sodium in it than any amount of salt that you could have added.

Don't blame the salt shaker, blame canned/frozen/packaged foods.

I haven't tried salt substitute in, well, decades...but your post makes me think I might try it again...(after I use up my sea salt and himalayan pink salt...)

You beat me to it, sushipup.

Deeby, salt is salt is salt. You may be saying that the salt in prepared food doesn't make you feel or look bloated, but it's unhealthy just the same. Maybe worse, because it's there without being added and it's often in food that really doesn't need salt for taste purposes.

I'm guilty of POURING salt rather than shaking the salt shaker. I'm really glad that I gave salt sub another chance. It used to be like chips of potassium that kind of burned. This is like regular salt. If I thought pancakes were bland I'd salt them. Not good.

Recently in the frozen food isle while I was reading the nutritional labels I came across an 8 ounce tamale (no sauce) with a total sodium content of 4000 mg. Holy cow!!!!!! I was hoping it was a mistake, so looked up the company online, called them and there was no mistake.

Read the SODIUM content on the "frozen dinner" you dumped the "salt substiitute" on. SODIUM = SALT

It's really hard to quit salting everything cold turkey, at least for us. We've actually weaned ourselves off salt. For the past year I've been decreasing our salt/sodium to the point where I rarely, if ever, add salt to anything I cook anymore and am very careful about reading labels when grocery shopping.

My husband was in the hospital for five days last month and his doctor told him to lay off all salt. I told him that we rarely ate salt anymore then asked him what was a good substitute for salt. He said "pepper". :)

Jenna

On topic in the news this week an interesting study in New England Journal of Medicine.
Article here Title
"Low-Salt Diets May Pose Health Risks, Study Finds
Findings Are Latest Challenge to Benefits of Aggressively Low Sodium Targets"

Interesting read.

Here is a link that might be useful: Recommended salt levels in question

New substitutes may be better than the earlier nasty ones, (same with sugar). I use regular, but not excessively. I do refill the pepper grinder quite frequently.

There are many on line lists of the sodium content in foods and drinks. Anyone who is serious about reducing their sodium intake to a healthy level needs to educate themselves on the hidden sodium amounts in the foods you eat.

Get ready for a shock if you've never investigated this before.

Have you ever asked the doctor why you crave salt so much? It would be interesting to hear what s/he says.

Also experiment with different herbs instead of salt/substitute Are you on any meds? Check with the pharmacist if you are as some herb don't do good with certain meds. I have seen some warnings about the substitute thru both Good housekeeping and Consumer's guide. Like any habit it will take awhile to break the habit of pouring salt. Look for information on how to break a habit one day at a time. Also check with the dietitian at your medical center to find some alternatives.
Good luck
.

My ex-, the dietitian (head of food service in a psych. hosp. for about 20 years, after having been second head for several) said that most docs' knowledge of nutrition was rather sketchy (forty years old info, here, please note: don't know if there's been an improvement in their training and/or experience, lately).

ole joyful

And learn a couple of facts.... Sodium is the culprit, and it comes in many more forms than just salt, sodium chloride. And sodium does not necessarily taste salty.

There are few foods that don't have sodium in them naturally....something that most of us don't think about. Even our raw fruits and veggies have very small amounts.

I didn't find it that difficult to re-train my sense of taste at all even though I cannot tolerate salt substitutes. I was a very typical over consumer of salt and sodium laden foods at one time. Never again.

I wish anyone needing or wishing to reduce their daily sodium intake the best of luck. If there is anything I can do to help, I hope that you'll email me. :-)

READ THE LABLES! after my hyst and almost kidney failure (they dehydrated me during surgery) that it took almost 2 years of a very expensive drugs to get me back to more normal rages...we have a salt shaker (called lite salt) that hasn't been replaced in 5 years we use so little....if the sodium content is excessive it isn't bought...but to hear you put salt on pancakes or tv dinners??? omg...

i'd like to see you do what sjern suggested and have the dr do some blood work...it's a lot cheaper than having to see the kidney dr 4x a year!

Lemon juice and vinegar can be great if a dish needs something extra.

Deeby, I hope I can give you a bit of unsolicited advice, as I mean it from a concerned perspective. I remember you saying your breakfast is always diet coke and cigarettes, and now your post here on salt substitutes sounds a bit misinformed about nutrition.

Salt can be very addictive, with some studies linking it to similar physical responses like cigarettes and drugs. The amounts you talk about do not seem normal, even for people who like salt. Do you drink enough water each day? You should be drinking more than 8 cups a day if you have such a salt-heavy diet.

I think you should consider seeing a nutritionist to try to balance your diet, and also to try to get to the root of the problem of the salt rather than try out substitutes. Putting salt substitute on already salty food isn't really addressing the underlying issue.