does anyone make a low sodium pizza?

[CTyankee]

I have hypertension and must be very careful about sodium in my diet. I have given up pizza, even just the plain. But even that tastes salty to me and I love pizza. We have the best pizza in the universe here in New Haven and I feel left out.

Any suggestions?

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

1. Yes a suggestion. ....

I have the same problem. 4 or 5 heart attacks and a couple strokes. Have to watch the salt.
It's all about balance.

Cook your own meals. Watch the sodium, use less. Stop, if you do, using anything from a package.
If it comes in a box don't eat it. Processed food has a sneaky way of slipping sodium into it.
The allowed amount of salt is one teaspoon. One teaspoon, measure it remember it.
Then every once and a while enjoy, you may at that meal get a little too much but in the overall scheme your ok.

The longer you break your salt addiction the more things will taste really salty. Just be aware of that fact. Balance.
I have taken over all the meal preparation. I determine the amount of salt used. No one has complained yet. Use other spices to flavor your food.

Biggest thing is stay away from any processed foods.

Remember tho you need a certain amount of salt in your diet to be healthy.
Hope this helps a little. If you need any more advice please ask me.

[Warpy]

2. Sure. You can cut the salt in homemade pizza dough

by about a half, although you can't cut it out or it's cardboard.

You can make a sauce or just use low sodium canned chopped tomatoes sprinkled around. Then it's toppings and most of the sodium will come from the cheese unless you're nuts enough to use bacon or pepperoni. If you must use pepperoni, cut it into very small pieces and sprinkle them thinly. I like to use the plain tomato, maybe some sauteed mushrooms, sprinkle on Parmesan, sprinkle on a generous pinch of either oregano or basil, layer on the mozzarella.

My parents went low salt for hypertension when I was ten. I never did get used to eating a lot of salt and now I have to avoid it because of kidney failure. There is always a way to cut down the salt in your favorite foods. You just need to make them yourself.

[CTyankee]

3. Thanks. I was thinking about omitting the pepperoni and using plain tomatoes.

I was unsure if the cheese wasn't the sodium culprit here...

[Warpy]

4. Cured meats are the worst

but all dairy products contain sodium. Cheese an inch thick is a nono, but enough to melt and get all gooey is just fine as long as you don't eat it three times a day.

[CTyankee]

5. Yep. I do eat Swiss cheese now since it is amazingly low in sodium but the rest, NAH!

[FarPoint]

6. Fresh tomatoes, oven roasted are great to uses instead of sauce.

Homemade dough is your friend. Add herbs, basil, garlic, shallots, mushrooms or whatever you like from the produce section.

[Luminous Animal]

7. You can use honey instead of salt in your dough if sugar is not a problem and you can use a combination

of sun dried tomatoes with fresh. Sun dried tomatoes will give it that bite you are looking for. You can make your own in your oven. If you really want meat, sauté up some ground meat with a low or no salt seasoning concoction of your one or pre-mixed. And if you want cheese, mozzarella and ricotta are both low sodium option.

What you are missing is the salt, not the flavor and there are many ways of substituting flavor for salt. In your tomato sauce you can add kombu, dulse, shitake mushroom powder, smoked paprika… are all things that are useful to bring out depth of flavor that override the use of but a minimum or none of table salt.

[SheilaT]

8. If you make the dough from scratch

the amount of salt in an entire crust will be trivial.

Personally, I have no problem with salt so while I make my own crust, I then use a prepared pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni. But I suspect if you make your sauce from scratch, you can again make it with no salt. The other topping are only slightly problematical. Surely there are low or no salt cheeses, and if you're fond of veggies on the pizza, you're all set. Maybe some sausages are low or no salt. That would be nice for you.

[CTyankee]

9. Thanks. In the summer fresh tomato slices atop a pizza is a best seller at

one of the best New Haven pizzerias. Heavenly!

Since I can get fresh shucked clams in my local supermarket, it would be possible to make a clam pizza. I already use a little tub of them for linguine with clam sauce. The sauce consists of olive oil, garlic and fresh flat leaf parsley. No sodium.

[daleanime]

10. Same boat here....

finding I feel better at 750 instead of the 1500 the doctor allows. My advice is to start compiling your own cook book, just google low sodium receipts for a ton of choices.

[CTyankee]

11. Yep, I've been looking up recipes. What I find is that the fresher the better and the

lower in sodium. We also have a lot of fish options here in New England and that sends me to heaven! I don't think I could live in the middle of the country. I need that variety of fish and sea food. We eat it two or three times a week and each chicken the rest of the time.

[dem in texas]

12. You have to have a little salt in the pizza dough

The salt stops the action of the yeast and you need to add a small amount or your dough will be spongy. For the topping, the cheese has salt in it, you can control every thing else, use unsalted tomatoes and make your own sauce, use browned hamburger meat and fresh veggies like bell pepper and mushroom brushed with a little olive oil. Step up the seasonings to make up for the missing salt. Also, just eat a smaller amount of pizza. Moderation is the name of the game, you need some salt in your diet. I have hypertension also and I totally agree that you need to make your own food from scratch; tastes better and you are in total control of the ingredients. Don't buy processed foods, too much salt.

[Nac Mac Feegle]

13. I've seen some research over the last couple of years

That salt itself isn't so much the danger in many cases that it was thought to be. The important thing is to drink enough water to keep the electrolyte balance right. It's not the great villain as thought for so long, but it is overused in food processing because it does preserve foods and intensify flavors. As with anything, considered moderation is the watchword. And individual circumstances.

D\Staying properly hydrated may be more important than it seems.

That said, the advise concerning home made vs. prepared is still valid, if for no other reason than the knowledge of what exactly is in your foods.

Another thing I've heard is that wine decreases the taste for salt.

[CTyankee]

14. Interesting. Here's my back story on sodium.

Late spring last year I wasn't feeling well and visited my doctor. My b.p. was extremely high and he wanted me to go to the ER which I did. They kept me overnight at the hospital running tests. I recovered OK but in scrutinizing my diet I found I had been using LOTS of frozen entrees for dinners. When I looked at the sodium levels I was astounded...in some cases 1100 mg each serving! I did a serious re-ordering of my diet, sodium-wise, and my b.p. went down.

I had been "scared straight" as it were. I won't go back. What happened was great: I began eating fresher foods, more fruits and vegetables (no sauce) and cooking low sodium fish and chicken. Now my palette is attuned to less salt and it is better all around (still high in unsalted butter and robust olive oil but is that good!).

[blackcrow]

15. Amy's

Amy's has a lot of low sodium options:

http://www.amys.com/health/special-diets/sodium

I also had heard that salt was not the criminal element it has been reputed to be.

I was in the hospital for a few days some years ago, and they had me on a low sodium diet until my doctor came by and rescued me. Gak, it was awful. Probably a better kitchen could have done better. Ther was zero compensation with spices or anything.

[CTyankee]

16. well, I am definitely sodium sensitive. But I can tell you that I am tasting food better

now that I don't use salt at all in recipes. I feel that salt masks the true taste of food. My low sodium clam sauce for pasta is a case in point. You can do so much with garlic, olive oil, white wine why worry?