LOW SODIUM DIET

miacara1

Hey all.. I've been advised to go on a low sodium diet. 2000 mg or less a day. Anyone else trying this? Any dieting tips, ideas, etc. It's very hard to manage and I feel like I am reading EVERY label. I can't believe the amount of sodium in everything... It's frustrating... So any tips, recipes, experiences, etc would be great.....

cwolfman13

You're probably going to want to limit foods that have labels...most of those are processed and going to have a lot of sodium unless they are low sodium varieties. If you need to watch your sodium, the best thing you can do is to eat mostly whole foods and prepare your meals from scratch, whole or minimally processed foods and limit eating out.

StaciMarie1974

Its simple. Less packaged products and more cooking from fresh ingredients. Store bought, prepared foods are going to be high in sodium in most cases.

JeromeBarry1

I have noticed that canned vegetables can be found labeled as having "no added salt" or something similarly plain. You'll need those. You'll also need fresh vegetables. You won't be able to use any sauces except in tiny portions. Bread and cheese are your new enemy. Sorry. Chicken just suddenly became expensive because cheap frozen chicken is injected with 15% of its weight as a saline (salty) solution. Isn't that a fun thought? Natural chicken, which is not injected with saline solution, costs an extra 50% for the trouble of less processing. I don't understand it either.

angel7472

it can be done...I've been doing low sodium 1500mg or less a day for years now. Heart disease and high blood pressure run in my family. I've had recent blood work done and all my labs were normal. Which for my age is good.
Anyway, label reading goes on forever. I've found frozen wild caught fish that has no added salt. My beef is bought and processed locally. I usually buy half a cow through my husband's co-worker and send it to a local processor. Chicken I usually don't eat. Some processed foods are low in salt. You just have to find them. Pasta sauce I use is Hunt's no salt or I just came across Gia Russa low sodium. If you can find them. As far as pizza and that I don't really eat it. Too much sodium. I've found low sodium protein powder that I add to Fage greek yogurt. Swiss cheese is very low sodium. Ezekial makes a sprouted grain bread that is no sodium. Mrs. Dash makes many no sodium spice blends that are good on lots of things to give flavor.
After a while you get used to how stuff tastes and eventually when you eat out everything will taste overly salty. Good luck

cmtigger

cwolfman13 wrote: »

You're probably going to want to limit foods that have labels...most of those are processed and going to have a lot of sodium unless they are low sodium varieties. If you need to watch your sodium, the best thing you can do is to eat mostly whole foods and prepare your meals from scratch, whole or minimally processed foods and limit eating out.

Actually, for some things labels are better.
Meat is often brined or salted- especially seafood and chicken. Labels help a lot there.

Frozen vegetables are often unsalted, so if fresh is hard to get just double check.

Eating out and most prepared foods are the hard things, most of those are a no. Way too much sodium.

jgnatca

Add zest without salt with garlic, onion, pepper, lemon zest, and Mrs. Dash.

I got to be a better cook.

cmtigger

Mrs dash has some marinades too. I've only used the teriyaki one, it was sweet but otherwise not bad.

allyphoe

I average 1,500mg most days; I just came back from a week of vacation full of salty foods, and my blood pressure was up 15 points. After a day at home at 1,500, it was back to normal. So I guess diet really is helping.

I'm at 1,500 calories and 750mg of sodium today. Breakfast: steel-cut oats, flax, frozen triple berry blend; 5mg. Lunch: black beans (cooked without salt; they're kind of boring but you get used to it), sugar snap peas, a single-serve tub of guacamole; 207mg (200 from the guac!). Dinner: giant salad with a head of romaine, couple of tomatoes, 2oz fresh mozzarella, 2 hard-boiled eggs, and balsamic vinegar as dressing, and then a separate bowl with 2C of blueberries; 336mg (split about evenly between eggs and cheese). Snack was 3 eggs and a guava; 212mg.

I've been eating less meat and poultry, and more legumes and fish. Also fewer frozen convenience foods and more eggs-of-convenience. (My cholesterol has improved with exercise, and never improved with diet; having to limit both sodium and saturated fat would require further adjustment.) I also stopped adding salt to anything. After a while, your taste buds adjust.

Prepared fresh salsa and rotisserie chicken are the things I miss the most. They are enormously full of sodium, and enormously delicious, and used to be my staple easy dinner.

Fathater36

My doctor also advised me to go on low sodium diet. The best way to do it is to cut all packaged foods. I use plain salt while boiling meats, vegetables.I do not eat salt raw, like salt with salads. I use half a tablespoon of plain salt a day. I did not cut plain salt out as it makes me feel very weak and energy-less. All the best to you. You can do this.

allyphoe

Fathater36 wrote: »

My doctor also advised me to go on low sodium diet. The best way to do it is to cut all packaged foods. I use plain salt while boiling meats, vegetables.I do not eat salt raw, like salt with salads. I use half a tablespoon of plain salt a day. I did not cut plain salt out as it makes me feel very weak and energy-less. All the best to you. You can do this.

Do you mean some kind of low-sodium salt when you say "plain salt"? Because normal table salt has 3,500mg of sodium in half a tablespoon, which I personally would not consider to be low sodium, even if you got no additional sodium from your food.

cmtigger

Fathater36 wrote: »

My doctor also advised me to go on low sodium diet. The best way to do it is to cut all packaged foods. I use plain salt while boiling meats, vegetables.I do not eat salt raw, like salt with salads. I use half a tablespoon of plain salt a day. I did not cut plain salt out as it makes me feel very weak and energy-less. All the best to you. You can do this.

Why do you use any salt- as mentioned above table salt is very high in sodium.

I don't boil meat, but cook in other ways where I can more easily use herbs and spices for flavor.

Sheisinlove109

Ditch the processed foods and going out. The amount of sodium is insane! At least, super limit it. Also I cook with very little salt and use spices to my advantage.