Little Crystals: A Low Sodium Journey Through the Salted Land tackles the challenge of reducing sodium intake on a sustainable and manageable basis. Readers will learn how to make the needed changes while still having a healthy, fulfilling and good tasting diet. An optimistic and realistic approach to dealing with salt is taken. This book takes the reader through each stage of the journey, from initial understanding and awareness of the problem, to making changes that will bring about the transition to low sodium living. Little Crystals will help anyone who needs to reduce daily sodium intake to 1,500 milligrams per day, or anyone who would like to achieve any degree of sodium reduction. This is a must-read for anyone who is dealing with high blood pressure, kidney disease, heart conditions, diabetes, swelling of the limbs, or who is over the age of 50. Many people have been told by their doctor to reduce their salt intake, but then are left mostly to their own devices to find the tools and information available to achieve this goal. Locating these tools and information and figuring out how to actually implement measures is an extremely daunting task. Little Crystals will greatly benefit anyone who is facing that task! There are plenty of low salt cookbooks on the market, but Little Crystals will help readers change the way they shop, cook and eat, with time saving ideas and an emphasis on great flavors and healthy combinations. There are chapters devoted to specific cuisines (Italian, Asian), food types (beans, soups and stews) or situations (holiday meals, restaurant dining). Learn how to modify your favorite meals and recipes. Solving the low salt challenge can be a key step toward improving one's life, and perhaps even saving it!
About the Author: Brett L. Marks was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1957. He attended Lehigh University in Bethelehm, PA and graduated in 1978 with a degree in Government. He then attended law school at the University of Houston in Houston, TX and after graduation in 1981 began his legal career as a corporate attorney for one of the largest companies in the world, where he has spent his entire career. Brett met his wife, Marjorie, in law school, and they were married the day after graduation. They have two adult daughters. Today, Brett is a passionate advocate for low sodium living. Given his profession, Brett admits that he has lived a high stress lifestyle and as the decades advanced, he paid the price for it - high blood pressure, high cholesterol and reduced kidney function. And nighttime headaches that by his late forties, were getting worse and more frequent. A doctor's advice to reduce sodium intake to no more than 1,500 milligrams per day has literally changed his life. Along with medication, a change in diet and a regular exercise program consisting of weight training and cardio work, he has been able to eliminate the symptoms and become much healthier. He worked at reducing sodium intake first, and then added the diet and exercise components as he began to feel better. The challenge is to get started. Brett has extensively researched sodium sensitivity, the benefits of a reduced sodium diet, and how to make the needed changes in shopping, cooking and eating. There are few comprehensive resources available to learn how to make these changes. Hard work and persistence are the keys. He did not want all of this research and work to end up in a thick manila folder in the closet, so he began to put his discoveries and ideas into a loose manuscript which eventually morphed into his first book, Little Crystals. Brett plans to focus on sodium management for the rest of his life. He loves to stress to people that salt is not evil, it just needs to be aggressively managed. Attitudinal adjustment is half the battle. Millions of people are in the populations identified by the government and medical professionals as needing to follow this path. Brett hopes to reach out to as many of them as possible with this book.