The No-Salt, Lowest-Sodium Cookbook: Hundreds of Favorite Recipes Created to Combat Congestive Heart Failure and Dangerous Hypertension [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

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.

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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?

Don Gazzaniga, a heart patient himself, has saved me the frustration I've experienced trying to remake good recipes into healthful ones for my husband with congestive heart failure. I have spent countless hours in the kitchen only to find that my attempt to prepare good food that's good for my husband has failed miserably. Chef Don to the rescue!

While my favorite is the Paella, there are a multitude of good-for-you recipes, gourmet and standard fare, from bread (even with bread machine recipes!) to dessert. Well-categorized and indexed, this has beome my favorite cookbook (and I have quite a few) in a very short time. I only wish there were photos, but that's the only thing I'd change. Each recipe includes the sodium counts for both the whole recipe and also Don's suggested serving sizes. He's also included, of course, other nutritional information per serving as well.

If you are looking for recipes to help protect your heart health, buy this book. If you already have a form of heart disease, buy this book RIGHT NOW. As for author Don Gazzaniga, I can't thank you enough, and I hope you're writing the next cookbook. You're a Godsend!