Almost exactly one year ago Dennis’s entire family, including us, made a monumental shift in our eating patterns.

We started watching our sodium intake.

Like a hawk.

My father-in-law started keeping his sodium levels down and naturally we all jumped in to do the same.  Dennis and I thought we were already on top of things as we only used sea salt for cooking and the percentage of processed foods in our pantry keeps dwindling down as we continue the quest to eat well.

Boy, were we surprised.

Do you know how much table salt lurks in processed foods?  Even the “good” ones?

Okay, let’s say you are super-jazzed about using your slow cooker more often and are cutting back on pizza delivery. You pinned some delicious looking meal with ooey-gooey dumplingish yumminess and before heading out the door you dump all the ingredients in the crock and walk away with a jaunt to your step.  The recipe called for a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup and you even managed to chop a few vegetables in with the chicken. You pat yourself on the back because you are feeling like you proactively conquered dinnertime.

Let’s hit pause for a moment…

Do you realize that one can of mushroom soup has approximately three cups and, get this, a whopping 5,220mg of sodium? Yikes. To put it into perspective, the American Heart Associate recommends less than 1,500mg per day. Yikes!

What to do?  What to do?

1.

We all need to make sure we are reading the labels on food. Sorry, I know that is obvious.

2.

There are many pantry staples that we can make ourselves. Yes, including cream of mushroom soup.

3.

More and more brands are offering salt-free options of their best sellers. Isn’t that great? This means we can still have the ingredients that we enjoy only WE get to decide how much sea salt we want to add.  Next time you are out grocery shopping, look for these and buy them.