Get the Salt Out (68 page)

BONUS TIP:
If you suspect that your waiter doesn’t understand your request for no MSG in your food, try saying “No may gin to get your message across.

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Fast food is a way of life for many people these days,
but understand that most fast food is a disaster in terms of excessive sodium, salt, sugar, and nonessential fat. To get an idea just how high in sodium fast food is, consider this: other than salad, the lowest-sodium choice at the major fast-food chains is a plain hamburger, which by itself has between 500 and 600 milligrams of sodium. (This amount is for the hamburger by itself. If you add a sodium-rich shake and an order of salty fries with ketchup, the sodium content skyrockets, supplying in that one meal much more than some salt-sensitive individuals
should have in a single day.) For your best health, try to limit your intake of fast food as much as possible. If you do occasionally eat fast food, ask for a Nutrition Facts brochure at the restaurant and choose the lowest-sodium item possible. Then emphasize low-sodium natural foods the rest of the day to negate the fast-foods high-sodium content.

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Fast-food sandwiches make extremely high-sodium meals.
The bread itself is high in salt, and so are the extras like ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise. In addition, sodium-rich processed meat products are the rule in fast-food sandwiches. Arby’s roast beef, for example, is not real roast beef. It is a processed beef that contains added salt, water, and sodium phosphates. So is the turkey meat in deli sandwiches and the MSG-laced chicken meat in Burger Kings BK Broiler Sandwich. When you add up all the unhealthy sodium sources contained in fast-food sandwiches, it’s easy to see how one sandwich can single-handedly provide more than half the recommended daily sodium allowance. One of the most effective ways to get the salt out of your diet is to ban fast-food sandwiches from your life.

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Look for prepackaged salads
that are offered at a number of outlets, including some of the bigger fast-food hamburger chains. These often are your best fast-food choices, as long as you avoid the salty dressings that come with them. If you know your schedule necessitates your picking up a salad to go, take along your own dressing (as described in tip 410) to avoid the sodium-rich processed varieties.
One to Three Salt Shakers.

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Try to find salad bars
where you can choose the items you want so you can have more control over the amount of sodium you consume. When you fill your plate at a salad bar, load up on as many fresh, unprocessed vegetables as you like, but be sure to avoid the high-sodium extras: bacon bits, croutons, pickled foods, mayonnaise-based salads, and premixed
salad dressings. This suggestion is helpful to everyone wanting to get the salt out, but particularly for those who are sensitive to MSG.
One to Two Salt Shakers.

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When you have to eat on the run,
you can find healthier food at “home-style” fast-food restaurants like Boston Market or Kenny Rogers Roasters, but you still need to be careful about what you order. For example, a roasted chicken pita sandwich may sound healthy, but one offered at Kenny Rogers supplies 1,527 sodium milligrams—three-quarters of the amount most of us need per day. A chicken pot pie also sounds wholesome, but just one pot pie from Boston Market supplies an entire day’s worth of sodium (2,380 milligrams)! Fortunately, however, choices are available that are much lower in sodium. The first thing to know is that much of the sodium on rotisserie chicken is on the skin or within the skin itself. If you eat a quarter of either white-meat or dark-meat chicken with the skin removed, and if you also order low-sodium side dishes such as steamed vegetables, baked sweet potato, corn, a side salad, or fruit salad, you can enjoy an entire meal for about 500 milligrams of sodium, a respectable amount that can fit into most low-to moderate-sodium diets.
Three Salt Shakers.

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For an on-the-go snack or mini-meal,
try a balanced nutrition bar such as the Balance bar made by BioFoods. Many of my clients enjoy this product because each bar contains a nutrient blend that provides both quick and long-term energy, and its convenient enough to carry anywhere. Its also healthier than a candy bar and much lower in sodium than fast food or other high-protein snacks such as beef jerky. Look for Balance bars in health food stores or call 1-800-678-7246 to order them directly.
Two Salt Shakers.

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The most comforting fast food for lunch
is low-salt soup or leftovers from home. If you invest in a wide-mouthed thermos, you can take your favorite foods to work with you, and
lunch will be ready whenever you want it. Homemade foods are much lower in sodium than typical take-out foods and cost a lot less. They’re also more satisfying and more nutritious.
One to Two Salt Shakers.