And here I thought I was going low-sodium...

Sodium. Delicious, delicious sodium. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Here at Chez Parker, we consider ourselves on the lower end of the sodium consumption totem pole. I mean, I love salt as much (maybe more) than the next person, but being vegans, we eat very little processed or pre-packaged food. I'd say that easily 80-90% of our diet starts from whole fruits, vegetables and grains. Not bad, so I was surprised to find during a few days of recording every single thing I ate that I was still going over my recommended daily amount of salt. So I started to look around for alternatives and ways to cut down on salt.

I drink a ton of water every day. I've increased my daily intake to almost a gallon of straight water, in addition to other beverages, to combat ongoing kidney issues, among other things. As I've become better hydrated, I've become less concerned about having a bit of extra salt in my diet. I kind of feel like it all gets washed away in the end (you really don't want to know how many times I have to pee during the day. It's freaking ridiculous.), and having the smidge extra probably helps maintain an electrolyte balance or something. *hand-wavey pseudo science* But since heart disease runs on both sides of our family, and Allen has moderately high blood pressure anyway (though way down since he adopted a vegan diet), I thought cutting a few more corners couldn't hurt.

One big step I took was not salting during cooking. I've stopped adding salt to soups and stir-fries and whatever else during the cooking process and I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan of finishing salts. It's a great way to control the amount of salt, and really let the salt flavor shine through with a lot less. I found that I had to add so much salt to notice any flavor change during cooking, but only a fraction if I add it right before eating.

My biggest victory, or so I thought, was Bragg's Liquid Aminos. Normally, we use tamari, which is identical to soy sauce except that it also has wheat in it. I've seen Bragg's all over the place - in vegetarian recipe magazines, on vegan blogs, in all sorts of hippy places. It seemed like a good time to try it. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "Bragg's is so awesome! It's like soy sauce but without all the sodium!" I was skeptical. I mean, the reason soy sauce is tasty is because of the sodium. But a recipe I am making for dinner tonight used it as a flavor boost ("without all the sodium!"), so I decided now was the time to try it.

It tastes so delicious. I couldn't believe it! Tastes just like soy sauce but without all the sodium! I immediately proclaimed to Allen, "I'm never using soy sauce or tamari again!" The primary ingredient is the same - vegetable protein from soy, with "naturally occurring sodium - no table salt added". Sure enough, if you look at the nutritional information, Bragg's has only 160 mgs of sodium per serving, while our "low-sodium" tamari has 700 mgs. But...

But.

You knew it was coming, right? The "but". The serving size for tamari is 1 Tbsp. The serving size for Bragg's? 1/2 tsp. Which puts the sodium content at a whopping 960 mgs for the same serving size as low-sodium tamari. "The same taste without all the sodium"?! Are they kidding?! This kind of praying on consumer ignorance really pisses me off. Here you have a product billing itself as a healthy alternative, which is absolutely, demonstrably not. I want to email the writer of the blog that sings the praises of Bragg's and warn her! Read the serving size! It's the same sodium! Wait, no! It's MORE sodium!

Now, as a final caveat, I do not have soy sauce in my fridge for comparison. I only have low-sodium tamari. But if you are looking for a way to lower your sodium intake, I'd suggest switching to low-sodium soy sauce or tamari long before I'd suggest switching to Bragg's Liquid Aminos.

This blog post was really a long-winded way to get to complain about Bragg's Liquid Aminos and rail against so-called "health conscious" companies praying on consumer ignorance. Mission accomplished, I think.