I would first want to know why things are tasting too salty to him when everyone else is saying the opposite.
It seems there are a number of reasons people experience this: too much potassium (in vitamins or BP medication),dry mouth (from meds) also causes things to taste overly salty, Sjogren's disease, dehydration (is he drinking plenty of non-decaf fluids?), etc. If it isn't an obvious cause, he may want to talk to his physician.

This post was edited by lizbeth-gardener on Mon, Mar 24, 14 at 20:37

You need to check out posts her by Sue, forum name Shambo, and Sue's blog on low salt cooking.

Sue totally changed the way she cooks because of her husband's health problems.

Here is a link that might be useful: Please, DON'T pass the salt!!!!

There are a number of low-sodium members who have a lot of great information and have freely shared it in the past - as posted above.

I always suggest sticking to whole foods and skip the processed foods as the quickest way to avoided added sodium in your food.

You can instantly cut sodium by using less of something. You can make a grilled cheese sandwich with half of a slice of cheese. Or better yet, find a low-sodium cheese and use grated cheese - about 1/4-1/2 ounce. You can use a stick of mozzarella string cheese (170 mg. sodium) and grate it for topping a 12-inch homemade pizza. Or, grate 1/4 of a stick of mozzarella string cheese (42.5 mg sodium), and that is enough for a grilled sandwich, or as a topping for any Mexican entrée, Italian entrée, salads, etc.

A trip to your local library and you will find any number of low-sodium cookbooks if you need inspiration and some new recipes. I also like to have nutritional information for recipes printed in cookbooks, and can adjust them accordingly to lower the sodium, if necessary.

I'm a big fan of Salt-Free Mrs. Dash seasoning blends and use them for all kinds of things. I make potato chips and sweet potato chips in the microwave - no added salt. I dehydrate zucchini slices with Mrs. Dash Salt-Free seasoning blends on them for a chip substitute. I also use a lot of herbs (fresh and dried) out of my garden.

I use Coconut Aminos because it is soy-free and less sodium than soy sauce. In order to avoid added sodium in tomato products, I use low-sodium tomato powder (The Spice House and other sources on-line) and make tomato sauce and tomato paste, pizza sauce, pasta sauce, and can even make ketchup and bbq sauce with a few pantry ingredients. Some commercial low-sodium products just have too many questionable ingredients in them - even if they ARE low-sodium. Better off making your own!

Make sure you have some Hain Sodium-free Baking Powder, and ENER-G Baking Soda (double the amount to substitute for regular baking soda) for low-sodium baking.

Try making your own vegetable, beef, and chicken broth - they are far tastier than store-bought. I use homemade broth I freeze in cubes to make a quick pan sauce. Melt a couple beef or chicken cubes and bring to a simmer. Add a pat of unsalted butter and heat through. The butter will lightly thicken the broth - no additional thickener needed. Add some herbs or spices, but cracked pepper may be all it needs.

For a Type II diabetic, the less high-glycemic foods, like flour, the better. Try using almond flour and coconut flour in baked goods, instead of high-glycemic wheat flour. Go wheat-free.....

I try to make 3 new recipes each week, so that helps keep me interested in new dishes and new ways to make old favorites.

Another thing.... it's a LOW sodium diet, not a NO sodium diet. We all require some sodium in our diet to function properly. I'd just rather have it naturally-occurring in real food (even if it's just a small amount for flavor). I'd suggest skipping the low-sodium salt products, which can cause a whole bunch of other issues.

Get creative.... Can't have celery? Use celery seed for lots of celery flavor. Lemon and lime juice are your "friends", OR True Lemon and True Lime crystalized lemon and lime product which has 0-mg of sodium and lots of flavor. Make low-sodium breads and baked goods - especially those made with coconut flour and almond flour.

Good luck on your search!

-Grainlady

Let me second some of Grainlady's suggestions: The Mrs. Dash brand has no-salt-added seasonings, marinades, and even dip & cooking mixes. You might be able to find some in your local grocery store.

Also, the Hain Weatherweight baking powder is a heaven-sent product for low sodium diets. I've been using it for years now. No fussing, doubling, etc. Just use it like you would regular baking powder, and all your non-yeast baking will be fine.

The Ener-G baking soda (must be doubled) is used by plenty of folks on low sodium diets with great success. (Unfortunately, I had a bad experience with it when I used it for a bran muffin recipe that called for quite a bit of baking soda. When I doubled the amount of Ener-G, I ended up with a super heavy, dense, unpalatable mess. So now I only use it rarely and never with any recipe that calls for more than 1 tsp. of baking soda. I now try my hardest to steer clear of baking soda recipes.)

The Coconut Aminos is another great product. It tastes just like low sodium soy sauce and comes in at about 320 mg. sodium/tablespoon.

I use the True Lemon & True Lime products too. They're great for rubs. The lemon makes a wonderful salt-free roast chicken. I add a couple of lemon, lime, and orange packets to slow-cooked pork carnitas.

And, finally, I use tomato powder instead of tomato paste. It provides the same flavor but with a lot more convenience. I especially like being able to make just the right amount needed and not have a bunch left over to deal with.

If you check out my blog, you'll see a list on the right under the heading of "Low Sodium Products." I'd encourage you to check out the Healthy Heart Market site. I order from them regularly.

Regarding no-salt-added seasoning blends: not all of them taste good enough to want to use on a regular basis. I prefer some of the blends from Penzey's and even World Market over the Mrs. Dash blends. It's taken me several years of buying all kinds of low/no salt "stuff" and discovering which products I like and which were a waste of time & money. So don't get discouraged.

I think Lizbeth gave you some good advice. You may need to find out exactly why your husband thinks things taste too salty. That's a weird phenomenon. Especially if he doesn't complain about restaurant food.

Good luck with your search.

Shambo (aka Sue)

Here is a link that might be useful: Healthy Heart Market

I think many low-salt cooking sources are for people who want the taste of salt but for medical reasons have to limit sodium. Your husband has, I gather, the opposite problem. He doesn't necessarily have to limit sodium, but he wants a less salty taste.

So it seems you could simply cook without using salt at all, and without using processed food ingredients that have sodium added (ham, cheese, commercial bread, etc).

Can't you simply make your usual dishes but never touch the salt shaker? Don't cut the salt in recipes by half: leave it out entirely?

There are very few dishes that absolutely cannot be made without salt (e.g. those that are based on salt curing).

Maybe I am misunderstanding.

P.S. It is true that a minimum amount of sodium is required for health reasons, but that amount is very low. Most sources say 200-300 mg/day, appx 1/8 tsp of table salt. Unless he sweats a lot (e.g. exercise, heat) in which case more is needed.

This post was edited by johnliu on Tue, Mar 25, 14 at 2:23

I agree with lizbeth gardner. Maybe something is amiss. Has he has his electrolytes checked, thyroid maybe, is he drinking enough liquids during the day?

Everyone needs some sodium in their diet, if your serum sodium falls to low, normal cell function is disrupted.

Thank you all for your helpful responses, much appreciated! My husband mentioned this to his Dr. who said it could be the change in his medication. He has never been a lover of salty food, so I have never used a lot of salt in my cooking, but lately it seems I can't use ANY salt without him complaining. To my taste, using no salt seems to leave the other flavors sort of flat, but I guess I will just have to get used to it. Thanks again, lots of options to look into now!

Penzey's has a lot of good salt free mixes. (I generally don't like most spice mixes, but Penzeys has some excellent ones)

I'm addicted to Arizona Dreaming ( a non-hot but very flavorful southwestern seasoning blend). It goes great on everything from eggs to steaks. I gave some to someone in my office and she said her teenage boys went nuts for it, putting it on everything.)

Sunny Spain is a salt-free Lemon Pepper blend. Sunny Paris is a herby blend with shallots. Tuscan Sunset is an Italian herb blend.

There are lots of others that I haven't tried, but I can vouch for the quality of the ones I mentioned. While you're putting in your Penzey's order, be sure to order some of their granulated garlic. That's salt free, of course, and I find it head and shoulders over what you can get at the supermarket. Also, if you have a particular herb or spice you like, you might consider getting a supply from Penzeys. Their turnover is so fast that you're pretty well assured that it's gonna be fresher than that little jar of McCormack's that has been sitting on the grocery shelf for god knows how long. I bought some dried tarragon from them; it was so intense, closer to fresh tarragon than what you get at the supermarket spice aisle. Wonderful stuff.

Now, as far as being sensitive to salty tastes: I find that I am. I really don't like going out to restaurants because I find most stuff oversalted. And most bar food is overly salty (hey, they want you to buy more beer!). I do find that some medications aggravate the salt sensitivity. I was on Nexium for a while and it altered my taste sensitivity for a while.

Here is a link that might be useful: Penzeys salt free mixes

This post was edited by arley on Tue, Mar 25, 14 at 21:04