Market opportunity

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 4:34 pm

I am sure that there would be a market for a chain of restaurants that offered "no salt added" food with full nutritional info on EVERYthing, for people who have health concerns.

Background...

My mom has recently had bypass surgery, and is on a low-salt diet. It's not THAT low, technically - 1500-2000 mg/day, which fits into some of the "normal" recommendations, depending on which ones you look at.

The difference is that she really, really, really has to take it seriously.

And.... our family can no longer eat out together. Period. The one time my parents tried, mom ended up in the hospital.

We also have to watch meals at home closely. It took some adjustment. At my dad's request, my sisters and I went through mom's pantry and removed all the boxed/canned things that she could no longer eat. The amount was staggering.

The funny thing is that, with some practice, we have been able to cook things that all of us can eat and enjoy with her. And our tastebuds have shifted... my sister found a bought Angel Food cake that was low enough in sodium that mom could have it. My parents ended up throwing it out because it "tasted salty."

But traveling - even going out shopping for a day - is very hard on my folks. They can't eat fast food at all. They can't eat anything where they don't KNOW what's in it.

There are enough people in the US who have heart disease or diabetes or other conditions that require them to watch their intake carefully... I would think there would be a market for someone to cater to this need.

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 5:39 pm

Unfortunately, most people don't take their restrictions seriously enough to do anything about it.

I've worked with patients who have varying dietary restrictions for over 20 years. Many don't even try. If I had a nickel for every patient who followed their restrictions -- well, I wouldn't have very many nickels to rub together.

I think the best thing for many people with salt restrictions, for example, is to look for a restaurant where they make their own food from scratch. It may not be salt free, but there's going to be a lot less salt than at a fast/casual chain or places who rely more on processed ingredients.

I'm aware of a couple of restaurants like that near me and I do go to one of them about once a month. The only thing they serve that they don't make is bread. Everything else is made in-house, including stocks for soup and salad dressings.

I don't know why, but I'm surprised that it was difficult to find an angel food cake that met the requirements. There's typically very little sodium in them.

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 5:58 pm

So sorry to hear about your mother, KCCC. That's got to require some major life overhaul. I do agree that a low sodium restaurant would be much welcomed, especially as the baby boom starts getting up there in years.

I think about this as high blood pressure runs in the women on my side of the family. The rule of thumb I've read is if a food item has more than 200 mg of sodium per serving then you should not eat it and that's for non-restricted diets.

It used to be that once upon a time if you were going to be gone for any length of time, you would pack a hamper. I may start gathering recipes that travel well just so I can do this more. This makes overnight travel difficult, I would imagine.

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:47 pm

wosnes wrote: I don't know why, but I'm surprised that it was difficult to find an angel food cake that met the requirements. There's typically very little sodium in them.

The cake actually did meet the requirements, which is why my sis got it for them. It's just that after having very little salt for months now - and being picky about using that little bit "where it mattered" - the little bit of salt that the cake DID have was suddenly obvious to the taste buds. Enough to affect enjoyment.

That story is more to show that (1) most of us are so used to salt that we don't taste it at all, or expect it in things that logically don't need to have salt and (2) it's pervasive.

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:54 pm

wosnes wrote:Unfortunately, most people don't take their restrictions seriously enough to do anything about it.

The doctor has been very complimentary about how well we've adhered to the guidelines, and has credited how well mom has recovered to that level of compliance.

But it's incredibly hard. I'm not surprised that most people don't do it.

I have two sisters, and all three of us put our collective efforts into locating food that my parents could eat AND would like (otherwise they won't stick to the diet). One sister is good at shopping and reading labels, and she located a lot of substitute brands. I make homemade bread and pies without salt, and managed to locate a non-brined Thanksgiving turkey (no mean feat, I assure you). My other sister made up custom "mixes" for biscuits, waffles, pancakes and the like. We all cook entrees and freeze them so that it's easy for my folks, and are always on the lookout for things mom likes in a low-salt variant.

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:27 am

You are stellar daughters.

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:16 pm

oolala53 wrote:You are stellar daughters.

That's very kind of you, oolala. Really, we've got it down to a routine now and it's not that hard at this point. And it's just what needed to be done.

Figuring out what we needed to do to manage this diet and locating resoures was the hard part... and in that MOST people ought to be following something close to these guidelines, I'm still shocked at how challenging that was!

As Blithe Morning identified, we can pack coolers/hampers for travel. So we're exploring "foods that travel well." But we do miss the occasional meal out as a group.

So I really, really do wish someone would open a line of NSA (no salt added) restaurants where EVERY ingredient is on the menu so that people with restricted diets could eat out easily. And I do think it's a real market opportunity, with all the aging baby boomers with health issues.

BrightAngel · Post by **BrightAngel** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:24 pm

KCCC wrote:
oolala53 wrote:You are stellar daughters.
Figuring out what we needed to do to manage this diet
and locating resoures was the hard part.

KCCC,
I agree with oolala53.
Looks like you are doing everything any daugher could do.
Hoping your mom has a speedy recovery.

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:17 pm

The restaurant that I mentioned above -- they even make their own bacon. It's very good. They make a few things, the bacon being one, that I wish they would sell in their restaurant.

I think the market opportunity lies not with NSA, but with not using processed foods, since 75% of the sodium in our diets comes from processed foods. I've seen them featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

Which reminds me -- DDD filmed at this restaurant late last year, but I don't think the episode has been on TV yet (I don't have cable now!