Rating: 
Summary: Excellent guide to low sodium eating
Review: I bought this book because my husband is currently battling very high blood pressure. Within 4 days his blood pressure dropped 10-15 points, and that was only following the diet moderately. He's now 30-35 points down, eating 700 mg of sodium a day, and this book shows you how to cut the sodium even a little more.I like this book for several reasons: 1. The recipes are ones that are palatable and that people want to eat. You cook things that you used to cook on a normal diet, just with low sodium. The recipes are for dishes that everybody would want to eat, not some weird vegan dish that only people with heart problems would eat because they have no other choice. 2. You get building block recipes as well as full dishes. Don shows you how to make different sauces that you can combine with raw ingredients such as meat and vegetables. There's also full entrees. 3. Recipes are not hard to make. You don't spent the entire day in the kitchen. 4. You get hard to find recipes. Salt free bread. Relish. Soy sauce substitute. 5. You know exactly what the nutritional value is. Don has it broken down to every last mg of sodium. Other values such as calories and cholesterol are also listed. Don also warns you about some traps like watching out for some maple syrups which have sodium. 6. Informative front sections tell you about spices, sodium value of some raw ingredients, and other basic information. 7. Active website. You can e-mail the author (...). I wrote him once and received a reply within 10 minutes. Other e-mail was answered within a day. Things I didn't like: 1. Book contains typos/errors. Author has published an errata page on his website. 2. Author uses some substitute items which have potassium salts. Some people watching sodium intake also can't have large amounts of potassium, so I felt it would have been better to call this out more prominently, perhaps somewhere in the front sections. The recipes which use potassium salts, however, are a small minority. I wouldn't let this prevent me from buying the book; just be aware of what ingredients you're using. ----- The author has doubtless spent many hours experimenting in his kitchen and testing the results. He's already blazed a trail for you. Why not benefit from what he's already discovered?
Rating:
Summary: Thanksgiving, here we come!
Review: I bought this book for my wife who was recently diagnosed with advanced stage CHF. Before she became ill, she cooked occasionally, with mixed success. After her dx, we both cooked more often, just omitting the salt from out favorite recipes and struggling to find no-salt/low-sodium products. Since getting this book, she is actually excited about cooking and enjoying everything she tries. I'm sure that doesn't mean that every recipe in the book is worth it's salt (bad pun) but nothing nasty so far. As I type this review, she is planning a thanksgiving menu for 15 people. (She will have help preparing it) She has this book in one hand and a highlighter in the other. We have decided to make it heart-friendly. We still have a salt-shaker if any wimps can't handle it. She also felt very encouraged by the author's personal story as a CHF patient.
Rating: 
Summary: Too many brand name ingredients!!!
Review: I didn't keep this book because of all the brand name ingredients. Maybe that isn't a problem in US, but here in Canada we don't have any specialty low-sodium products. Almost all the recipes require some of these products. I was looking for a natural, whole foods cookbook. This isn't it. If you are not in USA, this book would be worthless. If I make the recipes with regular canned goods, they would be LOADED with sodium. I guess I'll have to keep looking....
Rating:
Summary: Extremely helpful and interesting!
Review: I have been using Don Gazzaniga's cookbooks for over a year and love them. They are the only low sodium cookbooks to list the sodium amounts for every ingredient. The book is also filled with useful and helpful information. My doctor also has both books and now recommends them to her patients. I have been able to get many of the recommended ingredients online or from health food stores. A low sodium diet is a challenge but I have learned how to live very well with it. With help from Don's books I can now make tasty meals which we can all enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Doctor Recommended It
Review: I have congestive heart failure and must limit my daily sodium intake drastically -- it's a part of life. This book has excellent recipes to help me do just that. More importantly, the beginning 20 or 30 pages have informaton useful to every heart patient, especially CHFers, not to mention their family members. Pick up a copy and give it a read -- you'll be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: Good stuff -- well worth the $$$ for any heart healthy folks
Review: I have congestive heart failure and must limit my daily sodium intake drastically -- it's a part of life. This book has excellent recipes to help me do just that. More importantly, the beginning 20 or 30 pages have informaton useful to every heart patient, especially CHFers, not to mention their family members. Pick up a copy and give it a read -- you'll be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: CHF, Hypertension diagnosis? This book is a must have.
Review: I have recently been diagnosed with CHF and have been searching for books and publications about CHF and cooking with a low-sodium diet in mind. The adjustment was kind of a shock to this self admitted table salt "fiend". I used to add an unhealthy dose of table salt to everything... even before I bothered to taste it. Everything dish that I tried create on my own tasted like grass from the lawn, or bland like cardboard. The recipes in this book have helped me meet my low_salt goals and also are very tasty. The forward to the book was helpful, hopeful, and enlightening. The book is a must have.
Rating:
Summary: A life saver
Review: I love salt. I'm in trouble because of salt. And sodium too, I guess. This book saved me...the recipes are delicious and allow me to add even more spices like curry, cumin, coriander, sage, and even ginger and red cayenne pepper and all that. The plan in this book is a life saver. After a year I can vouch for it and tell you after finally shaking the salt habit, foods now taste soooooo much better. Thanks for this book Amazon. Great job.
al in Northern California
Rating:
Summary: Life Saving
Review: I own a copy of the cookbook. I think it is great. I am also a CHF patient. I have improved so much that they have started to take me off of some of my medication. Two years ago I was given a poor prognosis. - Pat M.
Rating:
Summary: Great Bread
Review: I was diagnosed more than a year ago with terminal heart disease. They had me in the transplant line. After a year on this cookbook's meal planning guide and after eating no bread except what I made from this book and the author's baking book...I'm so much better that I'm off the list. I can't thank this publisher and author enough. The breads are stupendous...really, all of them. And the meals, the snacks, everything is top drawer. Only a dummy could mess up these recipes -- and when it comes making my own meals...I'm a dummy. Highly recommend this book.
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