Worcestershire sauce low/no sodium substitute

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brothers
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Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:18 am
Location: Oklahoma City USA

Worcestershire sauce low/no sodium substitute

Post by brothers »

Is this something that I can buy? Is there one that's really good?
Gary

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EL Alamein
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Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:55 pm

Re: Worcestershire sauce low/no sodium substitute

Post by EL Alamein »

Gary, I hope so for your sake. Worchestershire sauce has always been loaded with sodium from what I remember. It's supposedly a secret formulation etc, etc.

Anyway I'd think it would be hard to faithfully reproduce in a low/no sodium formulation.

As a side note it's a fantastic flavoring for sauces etc. It's even got fish in it from what I read. Nothing like it really, but good stuff.

Do you use it straight or as an addition to stuff like sauces etc?

Chris
ShadowsDad
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Re: Worcestershire sauce low/no sodium substitute

Post by ShadowsDad »

Gary, I'm going to ask a question that I don't need or want an answer to. Why do you want to restrict Na (sodium) intake and to what degree? The answer is just for you but I'll tie it in in a bit.

The reason I ask is because it's suggested that we restrict Na to 1000 - 1500mg. Unless you're swigging Wor' sauce direct from the bottle it's not going to add much to your diet in normal amounts used in cooking and eating proper serving sizes. Generally it's not what we add from normal cooking at home that's the culprit for our abnormal Na intake but foods that we get by eating out and prepared foods from the supermarket. All of that stuff is absolutely laced with high levels of Na (become a label reader and adhere to serving sizes top monitor your Na). It's much less expensive to add it for flavor than it is to use actual ingredients to add flavor and that's why it's in prepared foods... profit.

I mentioned becoming a label reader. If one eats fast food go onto the restaurants web site and get the nutrition information. Be sitting down when you see it. One chain had over 3500mg of sodium for one burger! No wonder they tasted so good! The same goes for pretty much all food we don't directly prepare from scratch.

OK, now here's my experience with low sodium and the reason I asked the question that I don't need the answer to. After my cardiac event I was told to restrict my sodium. I had been eating probably upwards of 3500mg daily and sometimes more. It was far too much but white european genes... we like our salt. Anyway, I went from that intake to some days no salt whatsoever. I would eat a few olives to get my salt for the day. Understand that I cook most of our food (much of it from scratch) so getting rid of the salt was very easy for me. I put flavor into the food by other means. Then I read the statistic that people on ultra low Na diets have recurring cardiac problems at a rate over 80%. So I relaxed my Na intake and get between 1 - 1.5g per day now. I also have included Potassium Cloride (KCl) as a way to back off on the Na a bit more. A byproduct of that is no more charlie horses when I stretch my legs in bed when I wake up. At least I attribute that to the KCl; when I noticed it that was all I'd been doing differently. One byproduct of that ultra low Na diet is that I can eat very low amounts of Na and whatever it's on tastes salted to me. In the past I would load it up with the salt shaker but no more. I reset my taste buds to be more normal.

I'm not saying not to restrict your sodium, I just want you to be aware that it's needed for life and there is a downside to restricting it too much. If you add KCl to your diet add it in very small quantities. Too much screws up the signals sent to the muscles and the heart is a muscle. But potassium is required to help the body work properly. Potassium can also be gotten through the diet, in veggies. That's the safer way to get it.

To answer your question about low sodium worchestershire sauce just google it. You'll get lots of hits from recipes for it that you can make, or premade versions to buy. I have no idea what they taste like or what they use as a preservative since the salt is missing.
Brian

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brothers
Posts: 21514
Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:18 am
Location: Oklahoma City USA

Re: Worcestershire sauce low/no sodium substitute

Post by brothers »

Chris and Brian (thanks for the information posted here), my interest is triggered by taste. A few days ago I made a simple recipe for marinated chicken that includes about 1/3 cup (but specifically says don't add additional salt), but we didn't appreciate how incredibly salty the Worcestershire seems to have made it taste. I did google it, and it seems there are one or two low sodium versions being sold. I'm making an effort to stop adding additional salt to foods I eat, and I'm also getting into a habit of checking the mg content of things we cook and eat. I recall reading a few posts discussing the avoidance of inappropriate amounts of salt in our diets. I knew that someone would point me in the right direction. In the supermarket I see that soy sauce is in the process of being modified to reduce salt/sodium also.
Gary

SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
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