HOME & LIVING
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021
THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD— B3
Finding hidden sources of sodium
By BARBARA INTERMILL
Monterey Herald
A patient with dia-
betes and heart disease
told me he hardly uses
salt. “I do buy more con-
venience foods since my
wife died, though,” he con-
tinued. That’s an issue,
according to new guidance
to food manufacturers from
the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration.
Citing that more than
70% of the sodium we
ingest resides in pack-
aged or restaurant foods
— before we ever pick up
the salt shaker — the FDA
recently asked food proces-
sors to gradually reduce the
amount of sodium in their
products. (Note: Salt is a
combination of sodium and
chloride. It’s the sodium
part of this popular sea-
soning we’e discussing
now.)
Sodium is not all bad.
It enhances fl avors and
helps preserve food from
spoilage. And it’s an essen-
tial nutrient for the body to
maintain the right balance
of fl uids.
It’s our current obses-
sion with excess salt that
has health experts worried.
Diseases like osteoporosis
(excess sodium can leach
calcium from the bones)
and high blood pressure are
all related to a diet too high
in sodium.
And high blood pres-
sure is nothing to ignore,
says the American Heart
Association (AHA). Too
much sodium pulls extra
water into the blood, which
makes the heart work
Dreamstime-TNS
An adequate intake of sodium is 1,500 milligrams a day for anyone over the age of 19, says the National Academy of Sciences.
harder to pump nutrients
and oxygen through the
body. Like a garden hose
under pressure, over time,
the walls of blood vessels
can stretch and get dam-
aged. This, says the AHA,
can lead to a stroke or other
diseases of the heart.
An adequate intake of
sodium is 1,500 milligrams
a day for anyone over the
age of 19, says the National
Academy of Sciences. Yet
we Americans typically
consume more than double
that amount, an estimated
3,400 milligrams. The cur-
rent goal of the FDA and
Dietary Guidelines for
Americans is somewhere in
the middle — no more than
2,300 milligrams a day.
So…until food com-
panies fi gure out how to
cut sodium in their prod-
ucts, we need to be vigilant
about what we throw into
our grocery carts. Packaged
and convenience foods are
a good place to start —
even those we tend to think
of as “healthy.”
Take a look at meat sub-
stitutes, for example. Com-
pared to 75 milligrams of
sodium in a four-ounce
serving of real ground
beef, the Beyond Burger
and other similar products
has more than fi ve times
as much sodium — 390
milligrams.
Remember this when
you’re comparing food
labels: According to the
FDA, a food is considered
“low sodium” if it con-
tains no more than 140
milligrams of sodium per
serving.
“Reduced sodium”
means it has at least a third
less sodium than the orig-
inal product.
Checked your breakfast
cereal lately? Only one I
know that has no sodium is
good ol’ Shredded Wheat,
with this simple ingredient
label: whole grain wheat.
Hopefully other products
will soon improve their
sodium profi le.
———
Barbara Intermill is a reg-
istered dietitian and certifi ed
diabetes educator affi liated
with Community Hospital of
the Monterey Peninsula. She
is the author of “Quinn-Es-
sential Nutrition” (Westbow
Press, 2015). Email her at to
barbara@quinnessentialnu-
trition.com.
Chef Pati Jinich’s latkes, with a Mexican twist
By GRETCHEN McKAY
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Latkes — potato pan-
cakes — are traditional fare
during the eight-day Jewish
festival of Hanukkah,
which this year ended on
Dec. 6. Fried foods are
symbolic of the small
amount of oil that mirac-
ulously kept the ancient
menorah burning for eight
days instead of just one,
more than 2,000 years ago.
Each family has its own
recipe, and think they do it
best. Some insist on grating
the potatoes by hand while
others are content to shred
the spuds unceremoni-
ously in a food processor;
binding options include
egg along with all-pur-
pose fl our, potato starch or
matzo meal. But all would
agree that a latke should be
crispy on the outside, with
feathery edges, but still soft
and full of fl avor on the
inside.
The key to successful
latke making is to fry the
pancakes in a neutral oil
with a high smoke point,
such as vegetable, canola
or peanut, and to get the oil
pretty hot — between 350
and 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Otherwise, they’ll soak up
the oil instead of simply
being fried to a golden
brown crunch in it.
You also need to squeeze
every last bit of moisture
out of the potatoes before
adding them to the pan. A
clean dish towel or piece of
cheesecloth does the trick.
While simple potato
latkes are a holiday
favorite, it’s also nice to
spice up the dish with dif-
ferent fl avors. Mexican
chef and cookbook author
Pati Jinich, who is Jewish
(her paternal grandpar-
ents immigrated to Mexico
from Poland in the early
1900s, and her mother’s
Austrian-Czech parents
fl ed the Holocaust), created
this recipe in 2013, to cele-
brate the rare occurrence of
Thanksgiving falling on the
the fi rst day of Hanukkah.
A blend of cultures and cui-
sines, it features a mix of
russet and sweet potatoes,
with a little grated apple
mixed in for a sweet, acidic
note. There’s also a dash
of ancho chile powder and
cinnamon for the tiniest
kiss of heat.
As for the accoutre-
ments? Forget the tradi-
tional toppings of apple-
sauce or sour cream. She
serves them with a crunchy,
citrusy Mexican crema
made with fresh squeezed
lime juice and zest and
fi nely diced fennel instead.
“It is a recipe that has no
fuss,” writes Jinich on her
website, and whose third
cookbook, “Treasures of
the Mexican Table: Classic
Recipes, Local Secrets”
(Mariner Books), hit store
shelves on Nov. 23. “It lets
these three ingredients
shine through and, at the
same time, complement
each other.”
POTATO,
SWEET POTATO
AND APPLE
LATKES
1/2 pound Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup grated white onion
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
2 large eggs well beaten
1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder,
or whatever dried ground
chile powder you have handy
Pinch ground ceylon or
true cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup all-purpose fl our
For fennel and lime
crema
1 cup Mexican style cream
or creme fraiche
1/2 cup fi nely diced fennel bulb
1 tablespoon fennel
fronds chopped
Zest of 1 lime
2 tablespoons fresh
squeezed lime juice
1/4 teaspoon kosher or
sea salt or to taste
Wash and peel the potatoes,
sweet potatoes, apple and
onion and grate them, placing
them as you go, into a large
bowl fi lled halfway with ice
water. After you are fi nished,
let it all sit for a few minutes
and thoroughly drain with a
strainer. Wrap all the grated
ingredients in cheesecloth or a
clean kitchen towel and wring
energetically, squeezing out as
much liquid as you can.
Transfer to a bowl and
combine with eggs, ancho chile
powder, salt, cinnamon, baking
powder and fl our. Mix well.
Fill a large, heavy casserole
or skillet with 1/2 inch of oil
and place over medium-high
heat. After 3 to 4 minutes, test
the oil by adding a teaspoon of
the mix. If it bubbles happily all
around the edges, it is ready.
Working in small batches, to
not crowd the casserole, spoon
latkes of about 3 tablespoons
each into the hot oil. (I use large
serving spoons or my hands
and shape them in fl attened
ovals.)
Cook until the fi rst side is
crisp and golden brown, about
4 to 5 minutes, and fl ip to the
other side, letting it crisp and
brown as well, about 3 to 4
minutes. Transfer to a wire rack
set over a baking sheet. Once
you are fi nished, you may keep
them warm in a 250-degree
oven, or you may cover and
reheat later on.
Prepare crema by mixing all
ingredients together in a bowl.
Serve latkes warm, topped
with crema.
Makes about 18 latkes.
— patijinich.com
For latkes
1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes
1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes
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