“Wait, How much or how little is 1500mg of sodium?” is the question that I asked my doctor during my last annual check-up. To give you a better idea, that’s less than 1 tsp of salt. If you have one cup-a-noodle, you are pretty much done for the day. To be perfectly honest, I dreaded writing this post. I waited until I was actually in the “mood” to write it. I don’t feel totally comfortable talking about something personal (like my health) here but I feel the need to bring it up since I cook and share recipes here on my blog, the way I eat, the way I choose to cook has everything to do with it.
After going through the round of blood tests, my doc tells me the bad news. That I have hypertension, a high blood pressure. I don’t need to go into medical details to explain but basically, if I don’t take good care of it now, it can lead to something more serious. She said I need to be on a pill everyday to keep the blood pressure down and focus on 3 things that can help me (other than pills) to get back on track. Reduce stress, walk at least 30 min everyday and reduce sodium intake drastically. Now that I quit my full time job, I think I can take care of first two without any excuse but how about the last one? 1500mg of sodium per day? Is that even possible? That’s like saying don’t use any salt in your cooking, don’t go near any processed food. This is going to be a challenge as someone who cooks Korean food on a daily basis, someone who develops recipes and shares them online, someone who cooks and serves at events. “Ugh, my food will taste terrible, everything will taste blaaaand and nobody would want to try my recipes again.”…is the initial thoughts that went through my mind. But I’m beginning to accept this change and hoping to make a positive impact in my life. Yes, it’s going to be extremely hard. It is about taking baby steps, long-term goals and a life style change. It just took a doctor’s ultimatum to make a change but I feel good about it. I already started making small changes at home and instead of using salt and sugar, I use Shim’s homemade savory and sweet sauces to season. Check it out!
So if you notice that I write ‘adjust to taste’ repeatedly in my recipes, this is the reason. I think of recipe as just a guide, never really to follow down to every teaspoon. Having more flexibility to cook is the fun, creative part and it’s what got me into cooking in the first place. So if you have any ideas about low sodium cooking (cookbooks, blogs, articles…etc.), please please send it my way. Appreciate any help I can get here!
