By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

A friend recently confided that she was trying to reduce her sodium intake because her blood pressure is elevated and she’s trying, with her doctor’s approval, to see if she can lower it through diet.  As we talked, I realized, that, despite being open to the idea of reducing sodium, she wasn’t sure what changes to make.  She’s already on the right track – she doesn’t use many processed foods and she eats a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables and she enjoys cooking. Here are some ideas I shared with her.

1. Read the Nutrition Facts section of the label. Different companies have products that vary in sodium content. Even if the label doesn’t say “low sodium,” you may find a product that is lower in sodium than its competitors. For example, looking at a supermarket shelf of canned beans, I found a range of 90-450 milligrams of sodium per ½ cup serving. Choose the lowest sodium product and you’ve saved as much as 360 milligrams of sodium.

2. Drain and rinse canned beans.  You may have noticed that many recipes in Vegan Journal call for canned beans, drained and rinsed. The reason we suggest this is that up to 40% of the sodium in a canned product can be rinsed away. So, if you choose a can of beans with a label value of 200 milligrams of sodium, you can reduce the sodium by as much as 80 milligrams by draining and rinsing the beans.

3. Add no salt added tomato sauce to jarred pasta sauce.  Jarred vegan pasta sauce can be a convenience whether you’re using it to top a pizza crust, in vegan lasagna, or tossed with pasta.  You can reduce its sodium content by mixing it with purchased no salt added tomato sauce in the ratio of your choice – 1 cup tomato sauce to 1 cup pasta sauce, 2 cups tomato sauce to 1 cup pasta sauce, etc. Add a little oregano and basil, if you like. If you decide to use the 1:1 ratio of pasta sauce to tomato sauce, you’ve reduced the sodium in a ½ cup serving of pasta sauce from, say, 470 milligrams to 255 milligrams. 

4. Mix salty snacks with unsalted snacks.  If you like to snack on salted nuts or salted pretzels, buy a bag of unsalted nuts or unsalted pretzels and make your own reduced sodium mix. You can adjust the ratio of salted product to unsalted product and as you get used to eating food with less salt, you may find that you’re using much more of the unsalted product and less of the salted one. If you start with a 1:1 ratio, you might save 75 milligrams of sodium in a ¼ cup serving of nuts or as much as 250 milligrams of sodium in a 1 ounce serving of pretzels.

5. Toss the flavoring packet.  Products like ramen noodles are convenient but they are super salty. Much of their salt comes from the flavoring packet. You can discard it and flavor the noodles with a low sodium spice blend. If that’s not an option, start by using just a small bit of the seasoning packet and taste before adding more. If you’re eating a package of ramen noodles, you could reduce their sodium from 730 milligrams to 25 milligrams just by discarding the unopened flavoring packet.

6. Make your own condiments. Salad dressings, barbecue sauce, salsa, even catsup can be sources of lots of sodium. While you may not want to make all of these products, choosing a couple that you use frequently and finding recipes for them where you control the added salt (and use reduced sodium ingredients where possible) can cut sodium markedly. For instance, a commercial barbecue sauce might have 300-400 milligrams of sodium per 2 Tablespoons. Making your own with tomato paste could give you a product with 20 milligrams of sodium per 2 Tablespoons. There are some commercial reduced sodium barbecue sauces, but I could only find one kind in area stores.

7. Find or make a low-sodium vegetable broth. Many vegan recipes call for vegetable broth.  Aseptically packaged vegan broths could have 600 milligrams or more of sodium per cup.  Vegan broth base or bouillon could result in broth with as much as 800 milligrams of sodium per cup of broth.  You could make your own broth using fresh vegetables and adding little or no salt, use a commercial low-sodium vegan broth, or you could replace the broth called for in a recipe with 1 part of regular commercial broth and 1 part of water (or even more water and less broth). If you’re working with a well-seasoned recipe, it’s likely that you won’t even notice that you didn’t use as much broth as was called for. Replacing a cup of commercial vegan broth with a cup of low-sodium vegan broth could save as much as 680 milligrams of sodium.

8. Flavor food creatively. Salt is often added to commercial products as an inexpensive way to flavor food instead of using more expensive herbs and spices for flavor. If you do your own cooking, you can change that. Experiment with herbs, spices, vinegars, fruit juices, and other ingredients to enable you to cut the salt without sacrificing flavor.

9. When using a recipe, don’t feel bound to use the amount of salt called for. I’ve found that in many recipes I can use half or even less of the salt in the recipe without noticing it. You can always add salt but it’s hard to take it out once it’s been added to a dish. Many of our recipes in Vegan Journal call for salt to taste, encouraging the person preparing the recipe to use their own judgement rather than relying on someone else’s idea of how salty a dish needs to be. If you don’t add a lot of salt to a recipe, people can add the amount of salt that they like at the table.

10. Be aware of salty ingredients like miso, soy sauce, tamari, and liquid aminos. If the recipe has these ingredients, it probably doesn’t need additional salt added. And, just as you might do with table salt, taste the dish before adding salty ingredients – it’s likely that you won’t need as much as the recipe calls for.

Enjoy this recipe by James Craig Thieman, demonstrated by Vegan Journal editor Rissa Miller.

See video at: https://youtu.be/1wVKxoLByOM

Get the recipe: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2020issue3/2020_issue3_bowled_over.php

To subscribe to Vegan Journal in the USA, see: https://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php

Have you had the opportunity to enjoy all the vegan dining options in Maryland? If not, Maryland Vegan Restaurant Week(s) is the perfect time to enjoy different types of vegan cuisine including soul food from Land of Kush in Baltimore (we recommend their combo platter so you can try several dishes); Koshary in Clarksville serving up Egyptian street food including soups, salads, and bowls; Harmony Bakery in Baltimore caters to the gluten-free market with delicious baked goods and savory dishes; Stem + Farm and Kitchen located in RHouse in the Remington neighborhood of Baltimore offers healthy bowls, salads, fresh juices, and more; and also located in Remington Sweet 27’s vegan menu includes gluten-free items such as Orange Tofu, Garlic Tomato Tofu, Cauliflower Manchurian, and Ginger Cilantro Tofu.

See: https://www.mdveganeats.com/

The Vegetarian Resource Group is a vegan activist non-profit organization that does outreach all-year-long. For example, VRG has been participating in numerous virtual events by providing speakers on a wide variety of vegan topics. We also send literature free of charge to other groups/individuals doing educational activities in schools, hospitals, camps, restaurants, libraries, offices, etc. Our ability to continue doing this depends on people like you! Your donations allow us to promote the vegan message whenever we’re called upon for assistance. Please consider becoming a monthly, quarterly, or single-time donor to The Vegetarian Resource Group.

Thanks so much for your support. You can make a donation online here: www.vrg.org/donate    

Once again VRG staff members ate a delicious lunch at Franchia located at 12 Park Ave. in Manhattan, NY. We were able to dine outdoors (indoor seating is also available) and greatly enjoyed their Asian fusion dishes including Mango Salad, Penang Noodles in Spicy Curry & Coconut Broth, and Soy ‘Meat’ & Wonton with Noodles in Vegetable Broth.

More information on this restaurant can be found here: https://franchia.com/

Also, see VRG’s online guide to veggie restaurants throughout the USA and Canada: https://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php

Have you ever wondered if an ingredient listed on a food label is vegan or not? The Vegetarian Resource Group has an online guide to food ingredients that lets you now whether a specific food ingredient is vegan, vegetarian, non-vegetarian, typically vegan, typically vegetarian, may be non-vegetarian, or typically non-vegetarian.

You can search through this guide here: https://www.vrg.org/ingredients/index.php

To support this type of difficult research, please consider making a donation to The Vegetarian Resource Group: vrg.org/donate

Are you searching for vegan sporting goods? If so, you might want to check out Eco Sports. Here you’ll find items for both children and adults including basket balls, soccer balls, and volley balls.

Share this handy poster with family and friends. You can also print it out and post it on your refrigerator. See: https://www.vrg.org/nutshell/VeganDietsinaNutshellPoster.pdf

If you have an opportunity to visit Chinatown in New York City, you should dine at Bodhi at 77 Mulberry Street. This vegan Chinese restaurant serves a wide variety of vegan Dim Sum along with soups, sushi, and main dishes. VRG staff members recently enjoyed their wonton soup and vegetable chicken and corn soup, along with braised soybean skin with vegetables and chow fun with vegan chicken.

They are open daily for lunch and dinner. Further information can be found here: https://buddhavegetarian.com/

Also, see VRG’s online guide to veggie restaurants throughout the USA and Canada: https://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php

By Gene Sager, Palomar College

A colleague of mine, a philosophy professor, sat me down to listen to an allegory which he said sheds a great deal of light on the vegan way of life. Since the time of Plato, allegories have been used to convey insights about important issues and problems.

This allegory begins with a massive number of extraterrestrials arriving on the earth. Since these ETs are more intelligent than humans and have far superior technology, they easily take control of the planet and suppress the human population.

The invaders sample the various foods and resources available on the earth and, unfortunately, the aliens develop a taste for human flesh. What is more, they begin to consume “human products,” considering them richer and more nutritious, even though the aliens do not need human flesh or milk for their physical health.

A delicacy for the ruling class is the soft, pink flesh of 18 week old humans who are separated from their mothers at birth and confined singly in small stables so their flesh is tender. Human females are subjected to intense control so that their breeding and lactation suits the perceived needs of the aliens. Women are forced to endure the breast vacuum machines every day. Human skin is the preferred upholstery material, especially for spacecraft.

Confinement is the most efficient way for the new earth rulers to insure access to humans for their various uses. Random mating, lactation, and feeding would disrupt the rulers’ economic and cultural values. To produce the preferred taste of human meat, CHFOs (concentrated human feeding operations) are built, especially for the final year before slaughter. Quality control means strict control of diet for the right taste and texture.

I became uncomfortable listening to the allegory and asked the philosophy professor about the interpretation of the story. He said the interpretation focuses on the listeners. Everyone naturally feels sorry for the humans. Especially interesting are the two types of individuals who hear or read the story: omnivores and vegans.

     An omnivore who feels sorry for the humans has a problem. If you feel that the alien beings should not treat human beings as in the story, then you yourself should not treat other beings in this way. But in fact, omnivores treat animals the same way that the aliens treat humans in the story. The omnivores violate a form of the Golden Rule of ethics: “Do not do to others what you would not want others to do to you.” The positive form of the rule is more familiar: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

The heart of the Golden Rule is compassion. It is based on both feeling and logic. If I myself would feel harmed or violated by someone’s action, then I should have the sense (compassion) to avoid performing that action myself.

The allegory is effective in teaching us lessons about the real world we live in. Who knew that consuming animal products is a violation of the Golden Rule? It is sometimes said that the vegan way of life is a compassionate way. The allegory helps us understand this aspect.