Low-salt work lunch ideas?

Cafe Society
1

So last week I was hospitalized for, among other things, a blood pressure reading of 181/120. The paramedic was so shocked at the reading, he thought he’d done something wrong and tested me a second time. I’m doing better now but my BP is still in the 130-135/90-95 range (from a lifetime baseline of 110/80), and my doctor has recommended a low-salt diet among other fixes.

But I’m struggling to think of some good low-salt lunch options. Our faculty dining room has a daily low-salt dish, but it’s closed for the summer. Obviously processed meals and lunch meats are out, and I’ll bring leftovers from home when I can…we do have a microwave at work. I’m planning to bring fruit and raw vegetables, and small amounts of good cheese, but eventually I’ll need something more substantial.

Thanks in advance for your help. As you can imagine my life’s been turned upside down lately, and I’ve barely been able to start thinking about things like this.

2

How low is low? The RDA is 2300mg/day. My doctor never told me what to shoot for per day…I just decided on 1800mg lately.

I’ve been checking out frozen meals and while they are generally high in sodium, I am allowing myself to try dishes that are under 600mg. I figure if I have 2 between 500 and 600, and keep my breakfast and snacks low in sodium, I am doing ok.

That being said, Healthy Choice in general is under 600mg per meal. Usually over 500.

Lean Cuisine has a way for you to search and sort meals by nutritional info. This link should show you all of the items under 500mg of sodium, starting with the lowest. If not, use the tools on the left-hand side of the page.

There are 18 items under 500mg and my favorites are the pizzas. Unfortunately they cost like $4 apiece :-/

Anyway, these meals have been pretty filling for me. I choose high-protein and low salt pizzas, and they’re good.