Reducing salt intake.. need help

tedmondson69

After I started using this program I immediately notice that I have been eating way to much salt. My first day was 5000 grams!! The Weight Watchers Program I was on never had me looking at the sodium intake. I have started to reduce where I can and I do not salt my food, but the amount of salt in some foods is amazing, even my oatmeal. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

obscuremusicreference

Whole foods as often as possible--but even things like eggs and kale are going to have some sodium. Are you eating oatmeal packets? Switch to regular oatmeal and mix in things like vanilla, cinnamon, berries, etc in place of the chips of fruit.

obscuremusicreference

You might also want to look into the DASH diet. It's for lowering blood pressure and everything is low sodium. There are several books about it: http://dashdiet.org/

sskitka

with sodium kick out the cans, kick out the hams. No frozen TV dinners or processed foods. Frozen or fresh.... a good level is like 2000mg of sodium a day. You must have some sodium to maintain homeostasis.

tedmondson69

Thank you all good comments I am off and running (walking actually) ;-)

FatFreeFrolicking

Eating less processed food will help reduce salt intake.

troutrouter

If you are new to a low sodium diet, I would suggest reading labels. There is a lot of hidden sodium in places that you would never guess it to be. For example, chicken breasts. Companies often inject them with broth or saline to plump them up.

maxit

Making your own food from raw ingredients will give you what you need in terms of control over sodium levels. I typically average 1500-1800 g of sodium a day this way - and the food is great (I use salt in cooking for flavor - you would be amazed if you read labels on things how much sodium is added and it doesn't even taste salty!)

sympha01

I've got my sodium under control now, but do be aware that not everyone really needs to get their sodium down real low. You might want to ask your doctor for her advice about it at your next checkup, especially if you've never been diagnosed as hypertensive. If so, make sure you frame your question "Since I DON'T have high blood pressure, how concerned should I be about my dietary sodium?" to make sure you get a more meaningful response and not just a stock one -- doctors don't actually have a lot of training in nutrition, and oftentimes they'll try to be safe and just give you the generic advice or most conservative advice for everyone that you can get from the internet yourself instead of taking your specific medical needs / condition into account. I find it's always worthwhile to qualify dietary questions to my doctors with something about "How important is it to ..." or "Given my {relevant medical condition; exercise routine/activity level; other dietary habits} what might it mean for my health if I ..." rather than just asking what to do. I'm more likely to get a thoughtful response that's targeted to me.

I found that reducing my sodium had a bigger learning curve than reducing my calories! some of that is just that it took time for me to change what was in my pantry -- I'm too frugal to just throw things out and replace everything LOL!

But yeah, the biggest change you can make is cooking with whole foods in place of using packaged foods or pre-prepared stuff. Frozen meals, most packaged snacks, pickles and olives, restaurant food, pizza. God, pizza.

Things you can cut back on that will make a big difference to your sodium levels:
1. Processed meat (sausage; bacon; ham; processed lunchmeat of any type, canned meat and fish; most frozen seafood even "not processed" tends to be heavily brined for some reason).
2. Condiments in bottles and jars. Mustard, bbq sauce, salad dressing, soy sauce, fish sauce, hoisin, salsa, etc. etc. etc. Learn to use smaller amounts, or make your own (homemade salsa is easy and delicious!).
3. Bread, tortillas, and baked goods in general. Bake your own to control sodium if you don't want to cut back.
4. Cheese. {Sad sigh.} You can find cheeses that have less sodium than others, and it's not always a sodium bomb, but some varieties (hello feta!) are very very salty, and some brands tend to be saltier than others regardless of variety. It's worth reading labels when you can.

twinkfran

^What she says :-)

I cook meals for us (husband and I) that are baby friendly. The baby is 1 so allowed up to 1g of salt a day which is the equivilent of 2 slices of bread (with nothing on). Anything processed is nearly always high in salt so we cook most our meals from scratch to be sure. OK, so occassionaly he gets a jar or baby food or something we've batch cooked in advance and eat something processed but we try and make most of our meals home cooked with no added salt. We buy unsalted butter because its better for him than low fat but chemically margerine or spread. Don't add salt to pasta etc when cooking. Even things like tinned tomatos when making a 'healthy' home cooked pasta or curry can have salt in (not all do so check) so I tend to blend real tomatoes myself.

I've become slightly obsessed since I started checking. Its in everything.

tedmondson69

Thanks for the input. Low sodium is a lot more complicated than I thought, but I am getting the hang of it. Shopping today I read the labels on everything I picked up (put a lot back to high in sodium) Made my shopping trip about twice as long, but I am sure that with time I will know whats good.