The No-Salt, Lowest-Sodium Cookbook Book

In 1997, after suffering a collapse while rowing, 63-year old Donald Gazzaniga was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Unlike other heart ailments, bypass surgery is not a treatment for this; and although there are medications, congestive heart failure patients must look to a heart transplant -- for relief -- assuming they survive until their name reaches the top of the transplant waiting list. Don was placed on the list at Stanford University Hospital Medical Center.He was told to watch his diet, which he had always tried to do, and especially to consistently eat foods that are as low as possible in sodium content.It is surprising how many people do believe that a low-sodium diet means that you simply ban the salt shaker from your kitchen and table.Actually, a very large percentage of ALL the foods we eat contain varying amounts of sodium -- many very much indeed.It is naturally present in many foods, and more is often added during the preparation of commercially packaged foods as well. Gazzaniga, who had always been interested in food and cooking, now had an incentive to develop special recipes.The immediate result is the recipes in this book. They are as much as 70% lower in sodium than those of other low-sodium cookbooks.Whereas doctors often use the figure 2000 mg or 2500 mg daily as a "low-sodium" goal for their heart disease and hypertensive patients because they don't believe it's possible to concoct a diet lower in sodium than that, these recipes, whose sodium content, carefully calculated according to existing standards, a menu of these recipes will yield no more than 500 mg.daily.What will delight those who go to them for health -- and their families -- is that by some magic Gazzaniga has been able to present the cook with finished dishes that are varied, easy to make, and as delicious as any "regular" dishes. The second result is even more impressive: after following the recipes in this book, Gazzaniga's medical tests show improvement that his doctor calls "amazing" and he has been taken off the transplant list! His doctor credits his daily walks, his medication and above all the diet he has created, and is enthusiastically telling all his patients to get the book and follow it faithfully as soon as it is available.AUTHORBIO: Donald A. Gazzaniga (GaZANiga) is a former writer for television and has owned his own small publishing house.He is the author of A Few Good Men, the story of the first Marines into Vietnam, published by Signet Classics, as well as other works.Gazzaniga is a native Californian who now lives in the foothills of the California Gold Country with his wife of forty years.Read More