Sodium

irshkds6295

I had the same struggle in the beginning. Best idea is reading labels. I have found sugar free pudding actually has less sodium then regular pudding. Also switched to low sodium soups. And there may be other chips that have less sodium. Just a matter of googling good items pr reading the labels at the store.

Annie_01

When I first started low sodium I went to the store and read all the labels on the products that I would have normally bought. If the sodium was too high I then looked for an alternative to replace it with. I admit...it was a long and frustrating trip but it was time well spent.

Also if you will google "what is considered low sodium" you will find a chart telling you the different levels of sodium. Be careful of those things that say "reduced sodium" they only have to be 25% less than the original.

Foods that have 140 milligrams or less of sodium in one serving are considered low-sodium products. A “very low-sodium” product has 35 milligrams or less per serving, and any food that supplies fewer than 5 milligrams per serving is sodium-free.

Just make sure that your serving size equals the serving size on the package.

ezriealan

Honestly, no one has told me anything about sodium, my blood pressure is always at normal levels, my doctor has only told me to cut out the soda and to focus more on meats than carbs because my liver function numbers were a little high. I just entered the stuff on food log and saw it in red and got worried.

My body has been able to make up for all my bad decisions for most of my life, now it's giving me warning signs, so I'm doing the major life change thing.

cwolfman13

ezriealan wrote: »

It seems like every low calorie item I eat is packed with sodium. Yesterday I had 1,504 calories on a 2k calorie diet, but the sodium is off the charts at 3,420 mg (1,120 mg over). I'm not really trying to lose weight, I just want to lower my cholesterol and improve liver function. I'm ok with eating just about anything, have no food allergies other than being a little lactose intolerant (that really only happens when I drink milk, not triggered from cheese or other dairy products). Any suggestions for getting all the calories I need without all the sodium?

Processed foods tend to have a lot of sodium...it's a preservative that extends shelf life. Read labels...eat more whole foods...

ejbronte

Lots of practice with low sodium, first having to cook that way for my parents and now for myself. Avid label-reader here (when I do weekly shopping with my friends, they have to wait for me to finish scanning ingredient lists). Yes to cooking with spices, acids and wine (and spiced rum!).

When I started, I also didn't know how to cook, and was reluctant to learn. But as I got more into it, and learned to be successful at it, a feeling of empowerment came along. It's really great to prepare something with your own hands and watch people enjoy it. And also to know that you determined what went into the dish, not someone or something else.

We're lucky these days too, because we have Google and Youtube as instruction guides. When I was learning to cook, my parents and I glued ourselves to PBS on Sunday afternoons and took notes from Lidia Bastianich ("The Italian lady Who's Mean to Lobsters"), Martin Yan (Mr. "Nice-and-Golden-Brown"), Jacques Pepin and Jacques Torres.