Healthy Salt Substitute

Submitted by C and Ds Mommy

"I need to change this description again. At first, I posted it as a healthy salt substitute, then someone rated it as unhealthy, stating celery was not recommended for someone on a low sodium diet. Then someone else rated it as healthy and gave a website to check. So I did my own research. This is what I found. According to the Heart and Stroke foundation of Canada, (www.heartandstroke.ca) celery is a healthy choice for people on low sodium diets. This is what they wrote in response to my question about it; "We are not aware of such claim regarding celery being an unhealthy food choice and acknowledge that incorporating 5-10 servings of vegetables and fruit a day is healthy for you and can help reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer. Vegetables provide nutrients that are important for health." 1 stalk of celery (raw) only contains 40 mg of sodium. According to my husbands cardiologist, he is allowed 240 mg sodium/day (or foods with no higher than 10% sodium on the label). Also, according to the way the nutrition info is listed on my recipe, one serving is listed as 1440g. This is for the entire recipe of 2 bunches of celery!! If someone poured the WHOLE THING on their food, yes, perhaps that would be unhealthy. But who would do that? So go ahead and use this recipe as a HEALTHY SALT SUBSTITUTE!"

 

• Ready In: 10mins
• Ingredients: 2
• Serves: 1

ingredients

• 2 bunch celery, plus
• 1 bunch celery (or as much as your dehydrator can handle)

directions

1. Cut up the celery into fairly small pieces. Put it in the dehydrator until very dry.
2. Place it in a blender or mini food processor until powdery.
3. Put it in your salt shaker and get rid of the salt!

Reviews

[Melissa and her Pan]

Thanks so much for posting this! Sorry you were wrongly rated.

 

[RosemaryBurton]

Thank you for the awsome natural substitute and your extra research.

 

[smilin20]

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.

 

[sunetic2]

Oops! The creator of this recipe missed one important fact - celery naturally contains the highest level of sodium of any vegetable! Celery is forbidden for people on low or no-salt diets, even when eaten plain. This is not a healthy substitute!

 

[Chilebeanz]

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