Question about Sodium

clugg1
clugg1 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello everyone, can anyone offer me some advice. Since signing up to myfitnesspal and starting my new drive to eat healthily and exercise more I've noticed that I frequently come in well under on the amount of sodium consumed in a day, which to me sounds great, sodium= salt, and too much salt is bad right? But is it unhealthy to regularly be taking less than 1000mg of sodium in your diet? Or am I worrying over nothing?

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Sodium is an essential electrolyte...too much can be bad...not enough can be bad.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    edited January 2018
    It is unhealthy to regularly be taking in less than 1g sodium. When your bodily supply of electrolyte falls below your bodily needs, your body quits working. Muscles don't work right. Nerves don't work right. If you haven't yet noticed such symptoms, good. Don't keep on like this until you do. It took me about 6 months of such nonsense to develop hyponatremia.

    Are you sensitive to sodium? Insensitive?
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member
    @JeromeBarry1 is right on: you need enough but not too much. You can get into trouble if you do regular cardio. If you're feeling weak one day, eat a bag of chips or something.

    Let me add that it's pretty hard to eat less than a gram a day. I am very careful and I'm almost always above 2g.
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
    edited January 2018
    The AHA's recommendation is less than 2g a day, and 1.5g is considered a low sodium diet. For those over 51 years old, the recommendation is no more than 1.5g per day. I average around 1.5g per day, with some days lower, some higher.

    I agree with the last poster - going under 1g per day is difficult. I personally would shoot for the 1.5g per day, since that's what's recommended for a low sodium diet. Are you sure you're counting right, and you're not setting your calorie goal too low?
  • speedingticket
    speedingticket Posts: 73 Member
    I think the database isn't inaccurate. Mine rarely comes in over 1g. Some days that might be right, if I'm only eating fruit and veg then I don't imagine there's a lot of sodium in those?...But today I've eaten bread twice and it says there's no sodium in the bread I ate! I would check the packing of food you're eating, to get a better idea of how much sodium you're consuming.

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