I have been placed on a very restrictive, less-sodium (salt) diet. That is, I have to do without sodium as much as possible. The upper limit is 2,000 milligrams of sodium daily. When the doctor first said that, I thought, “Oh, that’s not too bad. I don’t really add salt to much anyway.” The reality of the situation came home quickly.
Almost everything we normally eat has sodium content. Much of what we drink is filled with sodium. For example, I regularly drink diet green tea that is sold in a bottle. No calories at all. That single bottle of tea has 170 mg of sodium. I was going through 6 – 10 a day. Okay, that’s out.
Also out is about anything that comes in a can or anything that comes in a package. Bacon? Out. Cheese? Out. Bread? Mostly out. Maybe one sandwich a day, max. All of a sudden nearly everything in our cupboards and refrigerator was out. When the realization hit, panic set in. Well, not panic, really, but the sincere question of what I was going to eat was real.
Why restrict my salt? About nine weeks ago, I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and heart failure. A cardioversion, where the heart is electrically shocked back into normal rhythm, failed. A cardiac PET scan determined that I had no blockages so that’s good news.
After being on certain medications for a couple of weeks, a second cardioversion was attempted. So far, it seems to have worked. At the last check, my heart was thumping along at 67 beats per minute, which is worlds better than the 130-150 beats I was experiencing earlier. But there was another problem.
My body was retaining water, which made it hard to walk and made it especially hard to breathe. When the doctor discovered that I had basically put on about 16 pounds in a few weeks and that lower extremities were painfully swollen, he quadrupled my diuretic medication and put the no-salt rule into effect.
So, I am learning to eat differently than I ever have before. I have decided, rather than lament my situation (which does no good and only serves to irritate people around me), to treat this new world as a culinary adventure.
Time will tell whether this approach will be successful but, so far, so good. It must be working because I dropped 11 pounds in two days and the ankle swelling was down significantly. And, thanks to the diuretic, I am getting some exercise in as I race-walk to the bathroom.
Because I am not yet restricted on calories, I can still eat things that taste good as long as the sodium content is low or non-existent. I can saute veggies in olive oil. In fact, I can fry sliced potatoes in olive oil. I can have fish and even meats in limited quantities.
Hamburgers are in, to a point, but hot dogs are out. Sausage is out but eggs are in. Nuts of all types are in, candy and cookies are out. Almost all fruits and vegetables are in as long as they don’t come in a can or a package (for frozen stuff in a package, check the sodium content).
The other day, I was behind a car that had a sticker in the window. It said, “Salt Life.” Ah, not for me, at least not the kind of “salt life” I’ve been living. I wonder if I can find a window sticker that says, “The Salt Free Life?” That is now the life I live.
[David Epps is the pastor of the Cathedral of Christ the King, Sharpsburg, GA (www.ctkcec.org). He is the bishop of the Mid-South Diocese which consists of Georgia and Tennessee (www.midsouthdiocese.org) and the Associate Endorser for the Department of the Armed Forces, U. S. Military Chaplains, ICCEC. He may contacted at frepps@ctkcec.org.]
