And, in equating salt with all that is good, she is like the vast majority of Islanders, for whom the increasing evidence that diets high in salt are dangerous to your health is very bad news, indeed.

(A quick aside: Sodium is a nutrient that occurs naturally in many foods. The body needs a certain amount of sodium — a little more than 2,600 milligrams a day is considered enough for a healthy person. But most Americans consume more than twice to three times that amount. Salt is typically 40 percent sodium, one of the most sodium-rich foods there is. For certain salt-sensitive people, over-consumption of sodium may cause high blood pressure and lead to congestive heart failure, heart attack or stroke.)

Especially for people who eat a primarily Asian diet — with shoyu, miso, MSG, fish sauce, bagaong, salted or pickled vegetables, dried fish, kim chee, fish cake, harm har and dashi central to recipes — it's extremely difficult to know how, and what, to eat, when a doctor orders a low-sodium diet.

Laborte began retraining her palate to appreciate the savor in substances other than salt. She learned to use vinegar instead of shoyu, herbs and spice rubs instead of bottled marinades. She started reading nutritional labels and buying low-salt or no-salt products. She eats more fruit and vegetables.

"But, you know, my diet is more haole now," said Laborte, who is of Hawaiian-Chinese descent, and married to a man of Filipino descent. "I grew up with shoyu chicken, now I'm eating chicken with herbs. There is just no way to make a really low-sodium shoyu chicken — believe me, I've tried."

Does she miss Spam and eggs, jumbo saimin with teri sticks and umeboshi musubi?

"Are you kidding? For a while, I didn't even want to go to Zippy's with the kids anymore because I get jealous," said Laborte, who has two sons, 10 and 8. "But I want to live to see my kids graduate and get married."

Laborte at first kept to 1,500 milligrams a day, which was quite difficult, requiring her to cook pretty much everything she ate from scratch. "On the Mainland, there are a lot more low-salt products available than there are here," said Laborte, who visited a Trader Joe's store in California recently. With her blood pressure well established within normal range again, Laborte is allowing herself 2,000 milligrams or a bit more now.

"It's pretty easy now because I've found some products I like and recipes I like; I know what to avoid," she said.

So does a low-sodium diet mean you'll never eat musubi again? No, it's not that bleak, unless you're very ill or salt-sensitive.

Nutritionist Elizabeth Meahl, who works with Alu Like's Ke Ola Pono No Na Kupuna program and edited "Alu Like's Healthy Local Recipes for Hawai'i's Kupuna" (Mutual Publishing, $12.95), says her advice depends on the individual.

There are some people who can stick to a regimen of using very little of a salty ingredient as an occasional garnish — a bit of chopped Spam on top of fried rice, for example.

"But some people can't use just a pinch. For them, I say you better not eat it at all," said Meahl, who works with caterers who provide healthful lunches to seniors at kupuna centers around the state.

Meahl said a common problem for the elders is confusion between low-fat products and low-sodium products. "They pick up the low-fat salad dressing or the lowfat mayonnaise and they think it's healthy. Come to find out, it's got more sodium (than the regular kind)," she said. Manufacturers of low-fat foods sometimes use salt to perk up flavors.

A further source of confusion is a belief that Hawaiian salt or 'alaea is somehow OK, or better for you. Meahl explains that salt is salt — it all contains a lot of sodium. If a person is eating a truly traditional Hawaiian diet, composed mostly of plain grilled fish, poi, roasted sweet potatoes, sea vegetables and so on, a little sprinkle of salt here and there isn't forbidden, she said. But few follow such a regimen.

Another pitfall: seeing low-salt products as permission to use twice as much. Even lower-salt shoyu has just under 600 milligrams a tablespoon — about one-fourth of an entire day's allowance if you're on a 2,300-milligram regimen.