Struggling to keep my salt intake up is a daily battle for me, unlike my husband and grandmother who I swear could eat salt from the shaker. Anyone with POTS has been told to utilize salt pills, but they hurt my stomach so I only take them when it’s 100% necessary. To add insult to injury, I do not like to over salt my foods- so the struggle is real.

Over the past two years, I have found foods that I can hide lots of salt in, and I have also found food that when I am really nauseas I can still tolerate. Nausea is one of the main side effects of POTS and I can only eat about one meal a day with limited snacks (unless I have had an infusion) so whatever I eat I try to gain most of my calories from along with most of the salt I need. Hopefully some of these snacks and meals will appeal to you!

Snacks:

• Popcorn 🍿 : This is at the top of the list because it is my favorite! One bag of Pop Secret Movie Theater Butter Popcorn is only 120 calories- which rocks because I am pretty sedentary at this point in my life so low calorie snacks help keep me from gaining unnecessary weight. I can typically tolerate popcorn even when I am extremely nauseas, I would say almost as well as I tolerate saltines. One bag contains 1, 240 mg of salt!
• Pretzel Rods 🥨 : Pretzel Rods are great because typically you only need a couple to get about half a gram of salt. My favorite brand is made locally near my in-laws in PA called Herr’s. Three pretzel rods are 120 calories and contain 530 mg of salt. Those are my quick go to when we are traveling.
• Peas: Yes this is a veggie but a can of peas are a great mid day pick up! I prefer Le Sueur Very Young Sweet Peas which one whole can is 175 calories with 1,015 mg of salt. As an added bonus there are 14 grams of protein in one can!

Meals:

• Eggs 🍳: I am a huge egg sandwich fan and what I love about eggs is that if I add in the salt while they are cooking I can add quite a lot of salt without really tasting it. I put about a third to a half a teaspoon of salt which is between 775 mg- 1,162 mg of salt!
• Mashed Potatoes 🥔: Mashed potatoes are amazing and they are also great at hiding salt. Sometimes I just use salt instead of butter so it isn’t overwhelmingly salty.
• Boxed Mac and Cheese🧀: Now despite all my nutritional knowledge as a former pre-professional athlete and coach myself now, I still love boxed Mac and cheese. I prefer Annie’s white cheddar shells or regular Kraft Mac and Cheese. These are hefty in calories but I don’t add butter to the Annie’s, and use half the butter suggested for Kraft. A whole box of Annie’s is 650 calories and contains 1,425 mg of salt, and whole box of Kraft is 960 calories with 1,720 mg of salt.
• Egg Noodles: When I was training to keep my carbs and electrolytes up, I would make an egg noodle dish. I had about 2 cups of eggs noodles with olive oil, garlic powder, sea salt, and pepper to taste. I would put about a teaspoon of salt which is 2,640 mg of salt and this is still one of my favorites meals to date. For 1.5 cups its about 275 calories.

What are your favorite salty foods that help keep your sodium up? Let me know in the comments!