My husband was diagnosed with CHF about four years ago. Since then I've been cooking low sodium dishes exclusively. I've also got a blog that chronicles my low sodium experience. I've listed quite a few resources for information, recipes, & products on the right side of the blog. Take a look. You might find a valuable resource there. Regarding flavor for bean soup, or any other soup, for that matter, I've used the low sodium ham flavored broth base from Redi-Base. It gives you that smokey ham flavor without all the salt. Redi-Base has a nice selection of low sodium bases too. http://www.redibase.com/products/index.php?arr1=0amp;itemid=13 Also, I've stirred in a teaspoon or more of Wright's liquid smoke in bean soup. It adds that smokey flavor too. I've used plain old pork chops (the kind without salt added) to flavor bean soup. Brown them really well and deglaze the pan with water or low sodium chicken broth. It's not smokey or salty but still pretty tasty. Soupbase.com is another source for good quality low sodium broth bases. I've found that Redi-Base & SoupBase have good flavor and much lower salt content than any of the so-called lower sodium broths available at the grocery store. https://www.soupbase.com/view.asp?cid=24 Here is a link that might be useful: Please, DON'T Pass the Salt!

It will be most difficult to make a true "low carb" bread in or out of a bread machine. Flours used to make bread must contain gluten in order for the gluten web to form to trap gasses from fermenting yeasts. "rice flour" does not contain gluten. Rice is not low carb but is also high glycemic (converts to sugar fast). I had the opportunity for a baking techonologist to provide a low carb bread recipe for me. He sent it in bakers percentages instead of cup and spoon measurements. I asked a professional baker to translate the recipe to cups & spoons. He was gracious and translated the recipe but not in measurments but in percentage of carbohydrates for each ingredinet needed/used in the bread recipe. All ingredients contained 99% or about carbohydrate. He proceeded to tell me how bakeries make low carb bread for the market. They bake a smaller loaf and slice it thinner. In other words there is no bread that is truly low carb. The professional baker tried for several months to make a low carb bread for the market but by the time enough fillers were added the bread was not fit to eat/had no taste. There are fiber fillers used in commercial bakeries that is not available to the home baker but if you used enough to make a real low carb bread you would not want to eat it. Marie_

I was looking for the same thing a few days ago. I haven't tried them yet but they sound good. If you try them, good or bad let me know. Here is a link that might be useful: Low-Carb Luxury Recipes

I am not diabetic but I do have insulin resistance as part of another medical (gynocological) condition called PCOS. I have been on Metformin (usually prescribed to diabetics) for a few years now. My dad is diabetic and I am at some risk of developing diabetes, too. I used to be thin-normal weight but began gaining weight when I developed PCOS and insulin resistance. The Metformin has helped control my weight a bit, but I am still overweight because I have relied too much on this drug and continued eating whatever I want. I don't smoke or drink or do drugs, so food has always been my vice. Especially when I am stressed or down, I go to "comfort foods" which are high in carbs. (High-carb foods such as white potatoes are comforting because they actually help increase the level of serotinin in your brain, which is how antidepressants such as Prozac work.) Anyways, a year ago I decided to stop eating meat as part of a health kick to eat lighter, healthier and lose weight. I had been stuffing myself daily and eating lots of chicken. At first I was always hungry, because I was used to eating a lot and the truth is, nothing is quite as filling as meat. I ate all the whole grain bread and veggies and fruit I wanted, but I was always hungry again soon. Then my body adjusted and it became much easier. If you eat whole grain bread, pasta, rice, et cetera, you should feel fuller than if you eat refined carbs. The fibre content in whole grains slows down the rate at which your body converts the carbs into blood sugar, which prevents your blood sugar and insulin levels from spiking up and crashing. When choosing carbs, think of eating high fibre. High fibre is the key to helping to control insulin levels. Refined carbs have little to no fibre left in them. Anyways, I lost weight and then fell off the wagon when Christmas rolled around, as there were delicious cookies and candies and chocolates everywhere! Also, it was hard to eat whole grain carbs all the time, because most restaurants and cafeterias use refined, white flour bread, pasta and rice; they also usually serve white potatoes, not sweet potatoes (sweet potatoes are much better for you). I only managed to lose weight at first as a vegetarian because I packed homemade snacks and meals with whole grain bread from the grocery store, and carried my food around with me all day while I was out and about. Normally I am not so good; normally I buy lunch everyday at work. It's not that hard anymore to eat out and eat vegetarian, but it IS still hard to eat out and eat whole grain carbs instead of refined, white flour carbs. You may see my problem here: I like to eat out a lot but I don't like eating meat or eating refined, white-flour carbs. That REALLY limits my choices when I go out. If I want to eat the way I know I should, I basically can't eat out. Also, there is a misconception that the biggest enemy of insulin resistance/diabetes is sugar and carbs, but the real enemy is saturated fat. It's just that most fattening foods are also loaded with sugar. You need the sugar to make the lard palapable. About 30% of the weight of chocolate, for example, is due soley to its lard content. Saturated fat is the real enemy, but when you eat out at a cafeteria or restaurant, you don't know what kind or how much cooking oil they use. You don't really know the ingredients. This also makes eating out hard if you are concerned with diabetes/insulin resistance, or just weight control in general. I heard that the Canadia Liberal government is planning to get rid of trans fat from school cafeterias, and there is some organization trying to get rid of trans fat cooking oils from all restaurants altogether. I think the next step may be to demand better quality carbs. Diabetes is an epidemic now, afterall! Anyways, I have decided to ween myself off the Metformin because of its side effects. This will mean that in order to avoid becoming obese, I will have to get strict again about what I eat, prepare homemade snacks and meals to take out, and exercise more (strenuous exercise increases insulin sensitivity). When I first told my family doctor I had gone vegetarian, she wasn't very happy. My blood tests had shown that I had very low vitamin B12. Because vitamin B12 is derived primarily from animal meat (it is absent from plant food), my doctor assumed my low B12 levels was due to my dietary changes. I started taking vitamins from the drug store. I'm not sure, but I think that helped a bit. Vitamin B12, like iron, is essential for a lot of things, including hair health. For a couple years now I have been concerned that my hair falls out too much. Well, I recently read that 10-30% of patients on Metformin long-term experience vitamin B12 deficiency (and can subsequently lose hair) because Metformin can actually interfere with the body's ability to absorb vitamin B12! It's all becoming so complicated. For a while I considered just going back to eating meat so that I could stop filling up on refined carbs everyday and then relying on Metformin to help with the resulting insulin spikes, but I have decided no, meat is gross, so I am instead going to just carry around homemade whole grain food with me all day as I go about my business, eat out less, exercise more and get off the Metformin. I know I can lose weight without meat because I did it once before, a year ago. It just takes discipline. Hopefully, my hair will also thicken up again after being off the Metformin for a while. One more thing: a good alternative to rice is quinoa. It is a good grain with lower carb content. It also cooks much faster than rice. It tastes lovely and fluffy. It works well as a side dish in place of rice.