Sodium Restriction....Blah!

JennieBSN · Apr 16, 2001

I swear there's someone on this board who's sister is a registered dietician...can't remember who it is!! Try posting it in the 'just conversation' area under some heading like 'DIET ADVICE NEEDED' or something. I bet you'll get a hit from someone who has a clue, unlike myself, a bred-in-the-bone SALTAHOLIC!! Good luck!!

Rileycat · Apr 16, 2001

Thanks kday, I'll give it a shot.

MollyJ · Apr 17, 2001

I am a big fan of Jane Brody and I like her book, _Jane Brody's Good Food Book_. She is not a dietician but she is a health writer and a fan of good food. This is a book about healthy eating with many many recipes in it. Some of the recipes in this book are multi-ingredient production numbers, but some of her food is just tasty and really pretty family oriented. She emphasizes watching sodium content and fat content and teaches you to use many different herbs and flavorings. My family defines pancakes as her multigrain pancake recipe. She has a great vegetarian chili recipe and her vegetable curry is wonderful. I also like _Laurel's Kitchen_, which is a classic vegetarian cookbook but very healthy food oriented and seems to understand that we all don't have time to chop veggies all day.

Of course the most difficult part of a low NA diet is that most fast food and prepared foods get crossed off your list and that is hard when you are trying to do school and have a real life. Laurel's Kitchen has vegetarian sandwich fillings that go together pretty fast if you use canned beans (which you will need to rinse because of the salt content).

As a nurse it is easy to refuse the dietician consult that might or might not have been offered to you. My advice would be to take it or ask for one, not because you don't understand the diet but because you are going to need some guidance in fitting it in to your real life circumstance. Some of the best RD's I knew could be very helpful at this.

Good luck. This will be a real empathy experience in your work with patients.