When I was faced with the prospect of giving up salt, I was scared. I LOVE salty things. It is my biggest weakness. But I learned about using vinegar instead of salt. And my health, weight and waistline has changed for the better.
As you have learned from my book, BREAK THE CYCLE, salt is one of the biggest no-no’s as far as our health is concerned. If you want inflammation, just add salt. If you want high blood pressure, just add salt. If you want, arteriosclerosis, just add salt. Salt is also bad for weight loss. Everything tastes better with a little salt on it. Salt triggers the release of dopamine in our brains and makes us feel good so we eat more food. Dr. Alan Goldhamer mentioned in his talk on the 2021 Weight Loss Summit that if you conducted an experiment, you could see the difference. Imagine there are two big bowls of rice in front of you. One bowl is plain rice and the other has salt in it. With the plain rice, you would eat until you were satisfied and then stop eating. But there is something about that delicious salted rice that makes you eat the whole bowl. It’s the salt that makes you eat more calories than your body needs. So, if you want to lose weight either give up salt or be VERY careful with portion control. Our taste receptors for salt are right on the tip of the tongue. But guess what is right beside them, our taste buds for acid. So, an easy way to trick our tongues is to add an acid like vinegar or lemon juice. A great habit to get into is to finish your soups, stews and chilis with a tablespoon or two of vinegar or lemon juice. What I mean by finishing is once the soup or stew is cooked and it is cooling, add some vinegar. It really helps enhance the natural flavours of the dish. We are so lucky to live when we do. Designer vinegars are available in almost every town and are available online. My town has no less than 3 boutique oil and vinegar shops where I can get lots of experimental flavours. I like to buy the small sampler sizes to test out new flavours. They are also perfect for putting in your purse to take to restaurants. Then you can order undressed salads, vegetables or potatoes. You will always be prepared with a complaint topper to jazz them up. The white fruity ones can be quite sweet. Some people like to add them to sparkling water as a refreshing drink. They are also nice to dress salads with. Even the dark flavored balsamic vinegars can be sweet. So, if you are not a fan of sweet, stick to plain vinegars like balsamic, red wine or apple cider. I find the best deal for Balsamic Vinegar is COSTCO. The recipe I use all the time chef-ajs-barefoot-dressing.html requires over a cup of balsamic vinegar. So, I go through a lot of it to make my dressings. The vinegars pictured above are from CALIFORNIA BALSAMICS. Here is the website: California Balsamic. The two flavours that I couldn’t get anywhere else are the curry flavour and the teriyaki. So, I simply had to have them. Unfortunately, they can’t ship bigger bottles to Canada. So, if you are up here like I am, the solution is to get Chef AJ’s Sampler Set. They are all in plastic bottles and if you mention Chef AJ in the Promo Code you get two more flavours for free. Shipping is expensive to Canada so I recommend putting this on YOUR Christmas List. It won’t be a surprise as you would want to choose your own flavours. But they are nice to have to jazz up and change the flavour profile of your dishes. I find that this simple trick of using flavoured vinegars has really helped me give up salt. And I am not scared anymore! |
Karen WarwickI am not a doctor but I am a RHN. Here is what I would do, if I were you. Archives
May 2022
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