Continuously going over sodium
amycurtisqueen
Posts: 22 Member
I'm a busy mom. I don't have hours to spend on food prep from scratch and we eat a lot of stuff from freezer to oven or in a can. Supper seems to be the hardest. Any tips?
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It's hard if you eat tinned or frozen as the salt is already added. Try looking for reduced salt tinned food. Do you have time to make big batches of food a the weekend and freeze it? then you can control the salt added. Look through other foods you eat at the salt content and see if you can substitute them for foods lower in salt.
Edit: also check the foods you enter in your diary from the database, as a lot of people enter sodium incorrectly so you may be eating more or less than you think.2 -
great ideas. thx!0
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Sodium might not be s big health issues in your family. Only certain specific populations need to be overly concerned about sodium.
That said, Fresh fruits do not have salt. Neither do fresh veggies. Try roasting or grilling veggies because they have a lot of flavor. Add a little oil or low salt butter instead of salt perhaps.
Perhaps, add one or two meals a week that are lowish in salt. (Do not aim for perfection.)1 -
I look, specifically, for canned goods that say, no salt added. Why they add salt to things that are already high in sodium, I'll never know. However, I've found that by looking for canned items which say, no salt added, I have been able to shave sodium quite a lot. That said, sodium has always been awful for me. On an average day, I am almost always at double my sodium goal and it's not unlikely that I will be triple my sodium goal, once or twice a week. I have lost 103lbs since last October and I've also had full blood panels done, three times at my doctor since last Oct and my sodium is always within the acceptable healthy range, so I'd try not to concern yourself with it too much, unless you have some kind of medical condition that requires you to limit sodium intake.2
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If you can keep your potassium higher then your sodium that will help offset it. It's what I do.
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Everyone is busy. Make food you can use for several meals like brown rice, quinoa, beans, soup, casseroles, ect. It makes it a lot easier.0
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Is sodium an issue with you? If not don't track it.1
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I do every day. I used to have high blood pressure, but it under control now.1
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Thanks for the post! Was going to ask the same question as mine is always way over the recommended amount in the tool.1
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Some great ideas on this thread. If supper is the biggie I suggest you take more time in the store reading labels on the pre-packaged food. I bet chicken nuggets and hot dogs will be a shocker. Soups are all bad. Try adding salad to dinner instead of a salty side.
I have decided on taste alone I am buying regular V8 instead of the salt reduced kind.1 -
I don't have issues with sodium, but I also try to stay in range due to the unpleasant side of bloating...
It takes a little bit of advanced planning, but I either make dinner in my crockpot (with fresh ingredients rather than pre-packaged kits) or when I have some time on Sundays I make some extra meals from scratch, divide them into reasonable-sized servings and pop them into the freezer for a later date. We're a family of 3--both my husband and I work, and our high school-aged son is a 3-sport athlete, so weeknights are chaos! This way we don't have to rely on prepackaged or takeaway food very often.1 -
I also spend a couple of hours on Sunday cooking up food for the week.1
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Is sodium an issue with you? If not don't track it.
I just track it because I weigh every morning and sometimes I see a gain (or not see a loss I was expecting) and it's a water retention issue. I'm trying to push past a certain number and trying to get everything in my favor to do so.0 -
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I don't have issues with sodium, but I also try to stay in range due to the unpleasant side of bloating...
It takes a little bit of advanced planning, but I either make dinner in my crockpot (with fresh ingredients rather than pre-packaged kits) or when I have some time on Sundays I make some extra meals from scratch, divide them into reasonable-sized servings and pop them into the freezer for a later date. We're a family of 3--both my husband and I work, and our high school-aged son is a 3-sport athlete, so weeknights are chaos! This way we don't have to rely on prepackaged or takeaway food very often.
I love how organized you are. I want to be this way!0 -
I do not have medical issues with sodium, but I watch sodium so I do not get issues in the future. I personally hate eating 3 - 4 days worth in a single day.
I buy foods (canned items) low sodium or no sodium added. I do not ever buy frozen meals any longer. They do not taste good for one, but as you say the sodium is horrible. I only buy things like hashbrowns, frozen veggies, and spring rolls (yeah I do not make those very well homemade). I buy no salt added Rotel, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, kidney beans, refried beans, etc..
Crock pot is a staple for me more in the fall/winter months. So yes to the crock pot. You can do breakfasts, lunches and dinners and even desserts. You get a recipe you like, shop all the ingredients and choose lower sodium when possible. Min prep and cooks all day and you get many servings.1 -
amycurtisqueen wrote: »Is sodium an issue with you? If not don't track it.
I just track it because I weigh every morning and sometimes I see a gain (or not see a loss I was expecting) and it's a water retention issue. I'm trying to push past a certain number and trying to get everything in my favor to do so.
Good! Far too many fall for the "salt is bad" mantra which has little to no foundation in fact.
Everyone retains sodium & water at a different rate, but once you get into a dietary groove your body will cycle ~3-5 days. This is what many see in the "whoosh" of weight loss - losing 5-7 lbs in a matter of days. Especially after travel, eating out more than usual, or increased stress - always a good idea to drink a bit more and flush your system.1 -
I don't have issues with sodium, but I also try to stay in range due to the unpleasant side of bloating...
It takes a little bit of advanced planning, but I either make dinner in my crockpot (with fresh ingredients rather than pre-packaged kits) or when I have some time on Sundays I make some extra meals from scratch, divide them into reasonable-sized servings and pop them into the freezer for a later date. We're a family of 3--both my husband and I work, and our high school-aged son is a 3-sport athlete, so weeknights are chaos! This way we don't have to rely on prepackaged or takeaway food very often.
Same! I was a single mom for a long time and my daughter is involved in a ton of extracurricular activities. If I pick her up after work at 5:30 and we have an activity at 6:15, there is no way she could eat before (after is too late) if I didn't freeze portions. Just today she's eating a veggie rich turkey chili. Tomorrow we have (pre-made) zucchini/chicken nuggets on the menu with tomato salad and egg noodles.
I would also get really annoyed with packing lunches if I didn't cook on weekends. I just go down to the freezer, and pick one from my many portions of soups, stews, chilis, stir fries, curries, etc.1 -
I go over just about every day. However, I also workout six days a week and sweat a lot with cardio and lose electrolytes. I also drink at least a gallon of water a day. That usually means the RDA isn't going to be enough for me anyway. I do try to keep myself to around 4k or under per day but it doesn't always happen. It's the days when you hit more that can be an issue. About the only way to reduce it is to stop buying pre-packaged food. Do some googling on food prep and start using your freezer more. Sodium/Salt is a preservative and it's what companies use to make their food last longer on the shelves. But honestly, if you don't have high blood pressure or another reason to lower your sodium intake, just keep it to a respectable level and don't worry about it too much. But if you're hitting 6-10k sodium a day you might have a problem down the road, so consider meal prep on the weekends for the entire week.1
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If you eat lunch meats anything out of a can soy sauce canned soups you will always go over on sodium. If you must eat what you don't cook they do have low sodium items in most stores. A great cook book for low sodium is ( The new american heart association cookbook).1
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Sodium is a big issue for me as well, though I take a sodium-binder diuretic so it's not as big an issue as it could be, but I like to keep it down anyways.
Some tips would be to rinse tinned items under water [for a lot of them it's the water itself that has the sodium and not the food item itself. Rinsing should reduce the sodium level quite a bit]. Another is to replace salt with other low/salt-free spices [Mrs Dash has quite a few salt-free alternatives, and a recent kickstarted spice maker called Spice Cave has quite a few low-sodium ones]. I also tend to replace some ingredients in recipes with lower sodium variations [unsalted butter for butter, lite soy sauce for soy sauce, etc].1 -
amycurtisqueen wrote: »I don't have issues with sodium, but I also try to stay in range due to the unpleasant side of bloating...
It takes a little bit of advanced planning, but I either make dinner in my crockpot (with fresh ingredients rather than pre-packaged kits) or when I have some time on Sundays I make some extra meals from scratch, divide them into reasonable-sized servings and pop them into the freezer for a later date. We're a family of 3--both my husband and I work, and our high school-aged son is a 3-sport athlete, so weeknights are chaos! This way we don't have to rely on prepackaged or takeaway food very often.
I love how organized you are. I want to be this way!
YOU can be. Start working towards that goal now. You will fail at times and other times you will succeed and during this time you'll be up and down, some recipes will suck, won't freeze well etc. but I promise you, over time, as long as you stick to it and keep working towards this end goal, YOU WILL become more organized. As with everything in life, practice makes perfect. My husband and I find it easier and more rewarding to go home and eat well, then to eat out these days. Because we've also learned that standing in the kitchen cooking is a family activity! I'll have my kiddos do their homework, read to me, help out etc. during this time. The recommended amount of sodium set on MFP is actually high in the rest of the world, so even though there are no problems now, there could be in the future! Plus, remember, you are teaching your kids lifelong goals during this season of your life....1
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