Healthy Salt Substitute
- Ready In:
- 10mins
- Ingredients:
- 2
- Serves:
-
1
ingredients
directions
- Cut up the celery into fairly small pieces. Put it in the dehydrator until very dry.
- Place it in a blender or mini food processor until powdery.
- Put it in your salt shaker and get rid of the salt!
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Reviews
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This is a common misconception that salt in celery raises blood pressure. Salt found in vegetables as organic not inorganic like the kind found in the ocean and the ground. Plus their are certain ingredients in celery that have actually been shown to lower blood pressure. See comments below and link to the website is:http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/21/131.cfm One of the best ways to lower blood pressure is to eat more celery, which contains an oil that can lower blood pressure, adds registered pharmacist Earl Mindell, R.Ph., Ph.D., professor of nutrition at Pacific Western University in Los Angeles and author of Earl Mindell’s Food as Medicine and other books on nutrition. Celery oil allows muscles that regulate blood pressure to dilate, says Dr. Mindell, and scientific studies show that rats who consumed the equivalent of four stalks of celery a day lowered their blood pressure an average of 13 percent.
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The "sodium" issue may be very confusing here; perhaps one person is talking about sodium chloride, which is table salt, and the other is talking about sodium nitrate, which occurs naturally in celery, as it does in many other vegetables. If you look at the nutrition list on the right, you'll see this is extremely high in sodium chloride and probably should not be used by those with hypertension (high blood pressure). Being aware that sodium nitrate has been blamed for being a carcinogen, I can uderstand the caution. However, I suggest that those who are concerned about sodium nitrate read the article here: http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/seasoningflavoring/a/nitrates.htm<br/><br/>The newest information is that sodium nitrate does not cause cancer, but hot dog maker Oscar Mayer sells hot dogs labeled "nitrate-free" and "uncured". If you read the label, though, you'll see that they contain celery juice, which is a natural nitrate that becomes a nitrite in the intestines. Celery juice is a natural killer of the organizm that causes botulism, and I think the best concensus is that it is safer to protect from that than it is to worry about the possibility of carcinogens being formed by nitrites. <br/><br/>As far as using celery as a salt, I wouldn't, simply because sodium chloride will be greatly intensified in dehydrated celery, which shrinks down to tiny, tiny amounts and is therefore highly concentrated. I have to be on a low sodium chloride diet, so I won't be doing this at all. <br/><br/>A cup of fresh celery contains about 100 mg. of sodium chloride. It will become highly concentrated in dehydrated celery; it's rather incredible to see how much it shrinks during dehydration, actually. I wouldn't fear eating fresh celery in a recipe, but I'd think twice about making this celery "salt". 71 mg. of sodium nitrate in an individual weighing 143 kg. is toxic. <br/><br/>The term "sodium" is added to a lot of chemicals. Please be aware of which one you're discussing. The sodium shown in the Nutritional Facts is more than half that which is recommended for an entire day's intake. No, this is NOT a table salt substitute, by any means.<br/><br/>I am an R.N./Nutrition counselor
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
I'm a mom and I love to cook. Started cooking when I was 20, and found I love to do it! I love to experiment with new stuff all the time, and I hate prepackaged foods and recipes that use them, so I always try to figure out the ingredients on my own to copy a recipe. I just don't think that opening a can of baked beans and adding something to it makes for homemade beans!!)
My husband had a heart attack last year at the age of 39! So now, we try to eat a lot healthier. I am always looking for ways to get more veggies into him. In my recipes, I never add salt, but I post it here cuz I know most people still like the taste. It takes a while, but you get over it when you cut it out of your cooking. We don't even have a salt shaker anymore. Poor guests!
I love that when I post something here, I can see the nutritional breakdown so I know what he can and can't have. I've printed all kinds of recipes that I've found here and made up a heart friendly cookbook for us.