What's the best low sodium broth? I'm thinking it needs to be low sodium, last night instead of binging, I had two cups of chicken broth, 5 cal each, that's ALL but I'm all bloated this am, it must be the SALT right? I'm thinking broth might be one of the answers to my "need" for comfort food, I'm developing a taste for it, but I feel like I"m pregnant this am...

I really really enjoy Gaylord Hauser's Vegetable Broth. Sometimes I'll drink it by itself but it is awesome in recipes. Whole Foods sometimes carries it.

When you are looking at sodium in ingredients, what do you look for, the number of grams, and less then how many? Or the percentage? I'm new at reading labels but after drinking tons of water this am I'm feeling better. I think it was the salt.

The other day I bought broth to make soup, and discovered that the College Inn "99% Fat Free" in the can had 2% fat and the "99% Fat Free" in the cardboard containers had only 1%. How can this be?

Also, I discovered that while regular salt has 590 grams of sodium, and sea salt has 580 grams, Kosher salt only has 280! Why has this been kept such a secret?!

It's a volume thing. Kosher salt is bigger and flakier than the other kinds of salt, so 1 tsp means less salt (and therefore less sodium) than 1 tsp of regular or sea salt.

Hi there,

I like Pacific Natural Organic Low Sodium stocks. I use their vegetable stock and chicken stock.

Good luck,
Lory

Make your own. I save chicken bones in a gallon freezer bag. When it is full, I roast them off with some veggies. Then I pour all that into a big stock pot. I don't add any more salt, just some thyme and other herbs. It simmers for a few hours and is strained once it is cooled.

Then I pack it in labeled quart freezer bags until I need it. If there is any left over, I put it in ice cube trays and freeze. I stick those in labeled quart bags as well.

You can really control the sodium and fat this way.

I don't like the taste of most soups and canned broths because they taste way too salty for me. I always check low or reduced sodium broths for "potassium chloride" as an ingredient. It's a salt substitute that to me has an extremely unpleasant metallic aftertaste (and is still too salty to boot). Yucky.

Some people do not taste the metallic aftertaste, so if you want to try a broth or V-8 juice that contains the potassium chloride - buy a small amount and taste it before adding it to your recipe.

There's an online and mail-order company called Spices, Etc that sells "stock powders." They also sell mushroom powders, and wine powders. The stock powders (several flavors beef, chicken, and I think pork) contain no salt or seasonings, but it boosts the beefiness or chickeniness in soups, gravies... without adding salt. The wine is powdered wine (no alcohol, at least after dehydration) and the mushroom powders only contain the mushroom.

I love using them as flavor boosters in homemade stocks and soups. I bought the smallest containers of each (about $3 - $4) and they lasted for quite a while, though next time I will definitely buy bigger to save money.

If you don't use stock very often, or have no desire to make your own, check the nutrition label. I always check fat, calories, sodium, carbs and check for the presence of the dreaded potassium chloride, and price. Often, the store brand comes out ahead (and I've always been happy with the taste). Walmart, Kroger, Jewel have had pretty good options. I remember comparing Sue Bee to College Inn, and remember one came out way ahead, but I don't remember which one. I think College Inn.

I never put potassium chloride and the yucky taste of some stuff together. Thanks for that. I'll have to look. I always thought it was the taste from the can. Maybe that's why I make my own.

I'm not sure I would have ever made the connection, except my grandparents lived with us when I was a kid, and my grandma used "Morton salt substitute." Aagh, the stuff tasted so godawful, and yet my grandmother never tasted the yuck factor saying it tasted "just like salt." I figured her tastebuds were just "old." Later I learned that some, but not all people detect the metallic taste.

Once I bought some low-sodium V-8 and scanned for the potassium chloride and didn't see it listed. I made a huge pot of soup with a big can of the V-8, a big can of chicken broth and tons of veggies. I mean, one honking pot of soup - and didn't taste it until I had most of the ingredients in. Awful -- I'd used the chicken broth brand before, so I dug the V-8 can out of the garbage and there it was in the ingredient list, I had just missed it. I tried to doctor the soup with spices and TONS of dried garlic and hot pepper thinking surely that would counteract the nastiness. NOPE, just ended up throwing out the whole mess (as my husband is definitely a PC "taster" as well).

That's what it was! My dad had to have "co salt". Yuck! I can still taste it. Thanks for reminding me of something truly horrible! Do they still make that vile tasting stuff?

I don't know if I dislike anyone enough to even give it to them.

According to their website, they still make it, and also a "lite-salt" which is half salt and half potassium chloride.

The thing is, no matter how much I've diluted the stuff, it doesn't seem to improve the flavor, so the "lite" salt sounds doubly hideous - contains sodium and still tastes like (insert profanity of your choice).

I was looking at the broths the other day. The regular College and Swanson brands had around 900. Even their low sodium still had 400+. I grabbed the Great Value Walmart brand and it was only 190. I started looking at the cubes and powders and found a chicken one that was sodium free. I haven't tried it yet though. Makes me wanna go look at the label for the crappy tasting stuff.

I need to get some homemade kind cooked and in the freezer.

I do what Mare does in terms of making my own. Just made some last night in the crock pot. Bought a whole chicken, boned out the legs and breasts. The rest got roasted a bit in the oven and then tossed in the crock pot overnite with onion, garlic and some seasoning. Strained this morning and the big bowl is in the fridge overnite. Will take off solid layer of fat that floats to the top tomorrow and package into containers. I keep one in the fridge at all times and the rest go into the freezer. De-fatted stock rules for adding a little flavor, a quick soup, etc. I can no longer eat the canned stuff- tastes like a can, or a box depending on the container. Also is made even more tasty with the addition of a chicken foot or two (Asian market). Gets real jello-like and is sort of lip smacking good. Plus the dog gets all the bits of meat from the cooked bones as a treat- so no waste. His reward for having to smell the tantalizing odor all nite.