Anonymous wrote:The vast majority of sodium in our diet comes from processed food, not from salt on a couple of eggs and buttered toast, even at a restaurant. I wouldn’t stress about that.

Part of my issue is the health aspect, but lots of times the food is just so salty that I just can’t eat it. The vegetable scramble I ordered is sitting in the fridge waiting to be rescrambled by me with extra onions and unsalted eggs added.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm trying to cut back on sodium for health reasons. When DH or I try to say "no salt" or "Please don't add any salt if possible," it often doesn't seem to register OR they add EXTRA salt. I'm talking about food prep that actually involves adding salt during cooking, like breakfast burritos, egg scrambles, stirfry, etc, not already made food like soup.

What phrase or explanation have you used to get consistently less salty dishes from restaurants?

You might like mealkiting, OP. They do the shopping, portioning, chopping, sous chefing and all you do is saute and bake or peel the wrapper and bake or drop in boiling water. You can omit the salt or put it on the side. Minimal dishes/cleanup. Also consider eating at health speciality restaurants such as https://greenfare.com/

Thanks, I’ve never done mealkits because I don’t like the idea of plastic waste. But maybe I will look into it. I do cook a lot at home but I get burned out. There’s a local coop grocery store I’ve been buying from and they offer salad bowls, sandwiches, etc in their fresh foods case and those aren’t too salty.

I do admit I’d like to be able to get a good breakfast burrito that I don’t cook myself that’s not inedible salty. PPs are right that restaurant food tastes salty to me because I’m not used to eating that much salt. I hadn’t considered food picking up residual salt! That makes sense.

Ha and here I am wondering how to get a diner to salt and pepper my scrambled eggs while they cook them. They’re always so bland and I hate the texture of crunchy undissolved salt on my food.

The vast majority of sodium in our diet comes from processed food, not from salt on a couple of eggs and buttered toast, even at a restaurant. I wouldn’t stress about that.

Anonymous wrote:I'm trying to cut back on sodium for health reasons. When DH or I try to say "no salt" or "Please don't add any salt if possible," it often doesn't seem to register OR they add EXTRA salt. I'm talking about food prep that actually involves adding salt during cooking, like breakfast burritos, egg scrambles, stirfry, etc, not already made food like soup.

What phrase or explanation have you used to get consistently less salty dishes from restaurants?

You might like mealkiting, OP. They do the shopping, portioning, chopping, sous chefing and all you do is saute and bake or peel the wrapper and bake or drop in boiling water. You can omit the salt or put it on the side. Minimal dishes/cleanup. Also consider eating at health speciality restaurants such as https://greenfare.com/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sauces, proteins and sides are already prepared in large batches before you come, OP. It’s amazing you and your husband don’t know this. Restaurant cannot reduce salt for you,

I'm questioning what makes it so hard to get two fried eggs with no salt on them. These eggs are not cracked and salted in advance.

Ah, that kind of customized food. The griddle is already full of melted salt and butter, OP. agree with PP that if you don't eat salty at home, any increased salt intake will really stand out to you. I don't eat salty usually, to keep my blood pressure in check, and every time I have a processed snack, or eat restaurant food, the salt content hits me like a ton of bricks. There are some foods I just can't tolerate anymore, because they seem so salty now.

+1 It will be hard, OP, but you will need to make dramatic changes in your ordering patterns when you are in a restaurant. Any item that is cooked on a grill will need to be off limits to you because that's where it is picking up residual sodium. And even foods in their own pots, like perhaps risotto, should be out because of what's added in (like grated parmesan cheese). A savvy cook or chef will ask about the cheese, but most line staff will just keep on with the regular prep.

I, too, eat foods cooked at home with no added salt. When I go out to eat in a restaurant, which we do frequently, I notice that everything seems over-salted...but that's because I eat no salt so, of course, everything seems over-salted.

Stop ordering high fat/high salt food. Stick to things like salads with dressing on the side, sandwiches that are not toasted and no condiments etc, plain proteins. Fast casual places are going to struggle more than fine dining. For breakfast stick to oatmeal etc.

Sauces are pre-salted and for many dishes might be impossible to reduce. When I was a waitress, the instructions I would give to the kitchen was "easy on the salt".