This book, by Graham MacGregor, provides some helpful information in the beginning of the cookbook about salt in our diets, and includes a list of sodium sources in foods. There is also a chapter on “How to cook without salt” that provides some guidelines about cooking for a salt-free diet.

Unfortunately, many of the recipes and tips also focus on minimizing the fat content of the recipes – not a concern for those trying to provide their children with a low-sodium diet (in fact, some parents look for ways to increase the caloric value of foods – often by adding fat).

Nutritional analyses for the recipes include amounts for sodium, potassium, and calories.

If you’re looking for a decent recipe for a sodium-free tomato sauce or mayonnaise, this cookbook provides it. Other recipes include, among others:

As with other low sodium cookbooks, this one focuses on issues surrounding a healthy heart. While definitely a good thing to keep in mind, this might not be the first thing a parent of a child with NDI is concerned with.

While the recipes seem like they would be very flavorful, some, such as lettuce wraps with chicken and vegetables at 266 mg sodium/serving or Creole tuna steak sandwich at 348 mg sodium/serving hardly qualify as low sodium, especially if you’re aiming for a daily intake of 500 mg sodium or less. On the other hand, there are recipes such as chicken cacciatore at 65 mg sodium/serving and apple pie with raisins at 38 mg sodium/serving that make up for the occasional high-sodium recipe.

Nutritional analyses for the recipes include amounts for calories, protein, carbohydrates, cholesterol, total fat, saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, monounsaturated fat, fiber, sodium, potassium, and calcium.

Most of the recipes are pretty sophisticated for those seeking kid-friendly foods, but at least these recipes will keep adults eager to sit down to the table. Despite this, there are plenty of recipes that will appeal to younger tastes.

Although most of the ingredients are likely to be available at your local supermarket, unfortunately, some recipes, such as Cajun snapper, call for “very low sodium or low-sodium Worcestershire sauce” without advising how to obtain such a hard-to-find ingredient.

This cookbook offers recipes for, among others:

This cookbook is more than just a cookbook. In addition to 410 low or no sodium recipes, there’s a 28-day low-sodium menu planner, advice on finding low-sodium prepared foods, advice on getting low sodium foods in restaurants, where to find low sodium products – Trader Joe’s (www.traderjoes.com) and Healthy Heart Market (www.healthyheartmarket.com, 800-753-0310) – accurate sodium content of every ingredient, and substitutions for high-sodium flavorings.

As a result of congestive heart failure, the author, Donald Gazzaniga, was told to restrict the amount of sodium in his diet – advice he followed so closely that he avoided needing a heart transplant. He brought down his daily sodium intake to less than 500 mg (average adults can eat in excess of 3000 mg sodium/day), and the book and the recipes are a result of what he learned.

Most of the completed dishes have less than 100 mg sodium per serving, although a couple of dishes have greater amounts. Paella, at 155 mg/serving, has the highest amount of sodium per serving. Many of this cookbook’s recipes come out below 30 mg/serving!

One of the helpful aspects of the recipes in this cookbook that wasn’t present in the others is the inclusion of brand names among the ingredients, for example, the recipe for beef goulash includes “Herb-ox low sodium beef broth.” Although completing this recipe without this specific ingredient could be problematic, now, however, you know of another low sodium product that’s available and which could make your life a lot easier in the kitchen. (Herb-ox low-sodium broth products are available from Healthy Heart Market.) Another helpful aspect is the sodium content of each ingredient, so that if you make substitutions, you’re able to do the math and make an exact determination of how much sodium ends up in the dish.

Overall, there’s a good mix of simple, down home recipes, such as chicken pot pie and easy pork chop casserole, as well as more sophisticated or ethnic dishes, such as gingered wonton treats and Nasir’s chicken curry.

Nutritional analyses for the recipes include amounts for calories, sodium, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, cholesterol, calcium, iron, potassium, total fat, saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and monounsaturated fat.

This cookbook offers recipes for, among others:

If you’re just getting started with limiting the sodium in the meals your family eats, this is an excellent cookbook. It provides simple recipes for several basic sauces (barbecue sauce and steak sauce), as well as recipes that make sense for complete families (parents and their children), such as meat loaf.

In the back of the book, there’s advice on how to obtain those hard-to-find low sodium products, as well as a sodium content guide that can be helpful. It is worth noting, however, that the book does make assumptions, such as that your local supermarket does indeed carry “no salt added mozzarella cheese.” It’s a sad fact that many supermarkets don’t.

Like the American Heart Association’s low-sodium cookbook, this one also includes a few recipes that top 200 mg sodium/serving, making it hard to incorporate these dishes into a daily total sodium intake of less than 600 mg.

But most of the recipes are below 100 mg sodium/serving, which means there’s no reason you can’t find a good low-sodium recipe for just about any dish you want to make. This cookbook offers recipes for, among others:

This is a solidly helpful low-sodium cookbook and a worthwhile addition to your cookbook collection.