I have high blood pressure and have to take drugs to control it.  I’m not a doctor, but here are some of the changes I made to lower it. Read labels! They tell you the percent of your recommended daily value (DV). As always follow your doctors advise.

1. Replace regular bread crumbs with Panko bread crumbs.  Regular bread crumbs can have as much as 15% DV; Panko has only 2%.

2.  Replace soy sauce with low sodium teriyaki sauce or oyster sauce.  Soy has up to 38% of a day’s sodium, and teriyaki, the low sodium style, has 13%! That’s a huge difference.  Oyster sauce has 15% – again a huge difference.

3.  Use other things: citrus, wine, onion powder, and garlic powder.  They will add flavor and brighten the natural flavor.  One note: don’t use cooking wines; they have added sodium.

4.  Make fresh food instead of packaged processed foods.  Take mac and cheese: if you want to make it homemade, you can cut the sodium in half.

5.  White cheeses are lower in salt (most of the time). One slice of cheddar cheese has 8% DV. Swiss cheese, by comparison, has 2%.  Bleu cheeses are the exception; they usually have over 10%.

6.  Bread can have a lot of salt; white bread can have 10% per slice. (If it’s a national brand, just look on the back of the bag.)

7.  Baking mixes, like pancake and waffle mixes, have hidden sodium, but you don’t know it because the have extra sugar to mask it.

8.  Watch out for take-out food.  Look at the menus online to see what are your best choices.  Stay away from things heavy in the items listed above.

9.  Shrimp are higher in sodium than you think, 40%! Bay scallops have 9%, and fish are much lower in sodium unless it’s canned fish. Anchovies are really high.

10.  Use salt substitute.  You didn’t see that one coming?

I am not a doctor and don’t play one on TV.  This is not medical advise.