Keeping an eye on sodium

sekaie

Hey everyone, it's been a while.

After living abroad in Japan for the last year, the food has been healthy and naturally I've lost a little weight, despite not sticking to any weight loss plan. However, the diet is naturally high in carbs and especially sodium.

Now I'm back in Scotland and working on my diet again. I don't add any salt or pre made spice mixes to my food, and most are all natural, yet I'm still over the amount of sodium I'd like to be having. Does anybody have any advice on this? It's starting to look like having a really low sodium diet requires having a very limited diet.

ana3067

If there is no medical reason for you to limit sodium, then why are you bothering to be super conscious about it? I track sodium, mostly to be able to know when I'm having high-sodium water retention days. Or just to know if I'm dehydrated after a high sodium day then I probably just didn't drink enough water, etc.

Otherwise, don't eat anything premade/precooked. Or canned.

Kalikel

A lot of people here will tell you to wait until you have a cardiovascular problem before you bother to watch your sodium. But keeping your sodium under control and skipping the whole cardiovascular issue is a smarter thing to do.

Sodium is extremely high in all processed foods. Healthy foods have a lot less sodium, so the more healthy stuff you eat, the better off you'll be.

It's really hard to keep it under control. Many doctors would argue that MFP has set the sodium levels too high...cardiologists, especially, lol. And even at the MFP level, it can be tough.

Good luck.

FaylinaMeir

I agree that you shouldn't stress out about salt. Some cultures, especially asian cultures, add a lot of salt to their foods. A LOT of Japanese food is full of salty soy sauce, fish sauce, bonito broth, etc not to mention msg. Koreans have been known to eat 7-10grams of salt a day (7000-10000mg) and they're fine, puffy, but fine.

And not to disrespect anyone but my father in law has high blood pressure and a low sodium diet (less than 1000mg a day) has done nothing for it. It isn't that black and white.

My personal opinion is, if you eat less than 3000 mg of salt a day you're probably fine. Drink lots of water because water moves water (or salt). Remember that salt causes water retention, perfectly fine, but it effects the scales. You can also get a false sense of accomplishment in weight loss because it could just be all water weight.

My advice? Add a little salt to your food and be fine. Also iodized salt is important in your diet. I speak very personal on this that I really didn't eat iodized (table salt) salt for most of 10 years and became low in iodine and it started to effect my thyroid. Within a week or so of eating iodized salt it got better. Every natural eating and healthy plan and whatever (vegetarian, vegan, raw foods etc) diet I was told to eat like Himalayan salt or pink salt or sea salt. It turned out to be very not healthy. Goiters are starting to become a problem in this country again because of the anti-salt trend.

Solar_Cat

I set my sodium goal to 1250 mg/day, which is what some sources recommend for folks over 50. (MFP's default is quite high, even for younger people, imo.) It's one of the numbers I watch most closely (along with calories and protein), and I rarely exceed the goal.

Yes, it means many processed foods are out of bounds. There are a few kinds of frozen dinners and canned soups that are truly low-sodium, but not many. Restaurants are difficult, though I've found that when I ask about menu items that can be prepared low-sodium, I often get great cooperation from the kitchen.

At home I now eat cheese (which I love) only in small quantities, and I've mostly cut out salty snacks. I eat lots of other dairy, such as yogurt and eggs. I prepare vegetables and meats without salt. It doesn't seem all that difficult to stay under 1250. What daily goal are you looking at?

lyrics09

I try to keep mine under. I go over once or twice a month. I just like my water retention to be lower/normal. I drink a LOT of water to make sure I stay hydrated and all that as well. I have to watch some processed snack foods or frozen things. Frozen veggies are usually the worst culprits.