How To Watch Your Salt Intake This Thanksgiving

When it comes to varicose veins and your overall vein health, sodium isn’t doing your body any favors. And because sodium is in almost everything that we eat in the American diet, it can be a hard thing to avoid if you suffer from any sort of vein condition or disease; especially around Thanksgiving. To keep your veins healthy, we have listed a few ways that you can reduce your sodium intake this Thanksgiving.

Watch The Gravy

Gravy is not only full of saturated fats which aren’t good for your veins or health, but it also usually contains a lot of salt or even chicken broth. Rather than using a whole heaping ladle of gravy to cover your turkey, try just using a small amount or reach for the cranberry sauce instead.

Don’t Add More

That salt shaker that sitting on the Thanksgiving table shouldn’t be anywhere in your site. Whatever you do, make sure that you don’t add any additional salt to your already salty food (no matter how bland your aunt made the potatoes). The additional salt intake is one of the fastest ways for you to speed up your overall sodium intake and cause vein swelling and other vein issues.

Green Bean Casserole

If you and your family make the traditional cream of mushroom soup, french onions, and canned green bean casserole every year, this is usually loaded with a bunch of salt. To make a similar recipe but with less sodium, use a low sodium cream of mushroom soup and then top it with corn flakes rather than onions.

A little bit of salt is good for your body because it helps you retain water but too much salt can have an adverse effect on your body; especially our veins. If you want to learn more about waist that you can eat healthier for your veins, contact Dr. Heeringa at our Traverse City or Cadillac office today at (231) 936-2068.