I saw the recipe on the Aetna site but could not find it on the spark people site. I saw that the Aetna one was 8 servings. That would be 1 oz ground beef per serving. So it will depend on what kind of ground beef you are using. I don't like when recipes don't specify what they are using. I use 96% lean ground beef so 1 oz would have just over 1 gram of fat and .25 g of saturated fat. You will have to calculate depending on what meat you decide to use.

well--that is rather a nasty surprise, isn't it? i guess the first thing i'd do is look at the preparation/cooking instructions. does one say to saute the beef in butter and the other says to steam over a double boiler or something? if you can't see the differences there, i'd write to both sites and ask THEM to explain where they got their info from/how things could be so different. i'm certainly interested in knowing the answer--good luck to you and DH!

What is the serving size for each - some recipes, that claim to be low fat or low sodium have such ridiculously small serving sizes that no one could possibly eat that small amount of food and be at all satisfied.

One quarter teaspoon of salt has between 500mg and 550mg of sodium - if you divide the above recipe into 4 (very small servings with a lot of rice), that's about 137mg sodium per serving, if you divide it into 3 servings - that's about 183 mg per serving. As far as fat, it depends on the cut of meat and how much fat is cooked off and drained - maybe they are starting with different cuts of meat.

The difference between 125mg and 143mg is really negligible - since the amount of sodium listed in a recipe is usually an average, not an exact amount. You should be doing the same with your husband - averaging his sodium and fat intake over the entire week. There may be meals when he has very little of either one, and there may be meals where he has a little more (or even a lot more), but on balance, he should keep his sodium and fat intake to a reasonable level.

Be aware that the food has to be tasty and satisfying - too little salt and fat makes food taste pretty awful - since salt and fat are what give food it's satisfying taste and texture. When food is routinely awful, people snack and it's not always healthy snacking - since healthy snacks can be hard to come by.

It's pretty easy for a physician or dietitian to say you should eat a very low fat low sodium diet, but very few of them have ever had to try it, day after day, week after week for years and years. Some of these recommended diets are so extreme that no one can follow them, and so they completely give up trying - rather than finding a more moderate approach that they can live with and still eat healthy.

Good luck.

On the Sparks site you list the ingredients, it has a nutrition calculator... I copied the ingredients, word for word... It was lean ground beef on both sites and the serving sizes were the same... But....

I think MomJ47 nailed it... On the Sparks site there is no place to state that you've drained off the fat... Don't know why I didn't catch that... Guess it's just because some days are harder than others and today was one of those days... Thanks for the support and advice...

Rita

Rita: Can you get all the specs on the internet,Dept. of Agriculture.
I went in somewhere to get a list of Calories, Cholesterol etc.
So many things have been reversed thru the years, you don't know what to believe.
When you figure it all out. I would like to know too.
LOU

Lou, I have a booklet from the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Nutritive Value of Foods ( out of print now but the site says there's a newer one out there ), but it was much easier to use the Sparks site... lol

MomJ47's explanation is probably the reason for the differences though..

Don't think I'll ever figure it all out, just when I think I have a good handle on things something else changes... Now his triglycerides are way out of whack and he's forgotten how to put his belt through the loops on his pants...

Rita

Okay, this has nothing to do with food or the recipe, but the Aetna company.

Personally, I'd NEVER trust anything from Aetna if it's the same Aetna that used to provide people in my school district with health benefit coverage. I found the company to be less than stellar and honest and apparently my district felt the same way because their health insurance benefits program was not renewed as an option for us employees after --during the course of a year--there were so many complaints. My personal dealings with the company left me wondering how they could stay in business with the practices they used.

Glad I could share-- I really hate Aetna!
Sooz

Momj47, I absolutely love what you said:

"It's pretty easy for a physician or dietitian to say you should eat a very low fat low sodium diet, but very few of them have ever had to try it, day after day, week after week for years and years. Some of these recommended diets are so extreme that no one can follow them, and so they completely give up trying - rather than finding a more moderate approach that they can live with and still eat healthy."

My husband has been on a low sodium diet for two years now (diagnosed with congestive heart failure & high blood pressure). He's done very well with it, but it has been a tremendous amount of work for me. If I hadn't been a good cook to start with, familiar with all kinds of spices & herbs, and always interested in experimenting with inventive techniques or borrowing them from others, the meals would have been far too boring for him to live with.

I have friends whose husbands have had heart attacks and could not continue on their physician-directed diets. After several months of plain vegetables served with plain, unseasoned grilled chicken breasts, who wouldn't give up? If sprinkling on some Mrs. Dash is your only flavoring adventure, you know you won't be able to stick with it!

I took a "class" for living with a salt restricted diet. A lot of emphasis on what to avoid but very little help with what do use instead of salt. The suggestions were pretty pathetic -- Mrs. Dash & lemon juice! What do you do once you get sick of the Mrs. Dash products and get sick of having everything lemon flavored?

As you hinted, I'd love to have the doctors try living on a sodium restricted diet with their current (and probably limited) knowledge of cooking and see how well they handle it.

Sorry, my rant is over...