No chips, crackers, or fried food and still can't keep my sodium down!

ForeverSunshine09

I was put on a 2000mg diet and I stick to it 99% of the time. I just prelog and move things around til it is at or under 2000mg.

DirrtyH

AshleyCMoody wrote: »

HeySwoleSister wrote: »

I don't monitor sodium in my diary, but if you do, you should be able to scan your diary and see where your sodium is coming from.

Chain restaurant food and canned and frozen foods tend to carry a lot of "hidden" sodium. Are you cooking your own meals? That's the easiest way to cut your sodium, just cook with less salt.

I wish that premium membership ranked my foods with sodium rather than just carbs, fat, protein, and calories. It would make it easier to monitor this.

I do cook, but often don't use salt at all. I rarely have canned foods and eating out is usually salad and soup.

You don't need premium to track your sodium. I track my sodium here. I don't particularly care if I go over, but it's something I track for kicks and giggles. Just go to your settings.

HeySwoleSister

jgnatca wrote: »

You are going to have to educate yourself to understand which foods have salt. The Asian salad screamed salt at me.

Yup. And soup and chili is no slouch in the sodium department, unless you are making it at home from scratch. (and then sometimes it tastes terrible without tons of salt--looking at you, chicken noodle)

AshleyCMoody

SueInAz wrote: »

AshleyCMoody wrote: »

HeySwoleSister wrote: »

I don't monitor sodium in my diary, but if you do, you should be able to scan your diary and see where your sodium is coming from.

Chain restaurant food and canned and frozen foods tend to carry a lot of "hidden" sodium. Are you cooking your own meals? That's the easiest way to cut your sodium, just cook with less salt.

I wish that premium membership ranked my foods with sodium rather than just carbs, fat, protein, and calories. It would make it easier to monitor this.

I do cook, but often don't use salt at all. I rarely have canned foods and eating out is usually salad and soup.

We've always been able to track sodium in the diary. That setting is still there. Go into the Food tab and click "Settings." There are 5 options in the "Nutrients Tracked" list. Change one of those 5 to Sodium.

Thanks I didn't know about that!

AshleyCMoody

amyrebeccah wrote: »

AshleyCMoody wrote: »

amyrebeccah wrote: »

Open your diary. My partner eats a lower sodium diet and we haven't found it hard to stay there as long as we home-cook most meals, so maybe I can offer some suggestions for substitutions.

The culprits yesterday were vegetarian chili and Asian salad, both over 1,000 mg.

Easy enough. Make from scratch. Substitute the canned beans for dry beans. I cook them in a crockpot and freeze them in pre-measured portions. They take no time to defrost. You can buy no-salt-added crushed tomatoes, and corn, if you add that to chili. Get fresh or dried chiles instead of canned. I don't know if you do a meat substitute in your chili, but TVP (textured vegetable protein) is very low in sodium.

Not sure what's in "asian salad" but my guess is the dressing with be a major factor. I would suggest making your own with a little lime juice, a touch of sesame oil, and fresh or powdered ginger and garlic. Slivered or sliced unsalted almonds, mixed greens, carrot, cucumber, and that should give you enough of a cushion to splurge on a small carefully weighed serving of the crunchy noodles, if you like those (and I do).

I usually eat a processed salad for lunch for ease. I have room to do this because I home-make my breakfast and dinner at low sodium levels like this.

In all seriousness, you have like five threads open asking for help. If you open your diary people will be able to give you more tailored advice rather than guesses.

Thanks I will do that!