Sodium in meat

sungoddess337

Why does meat have so much sodium?

janejellyroll

Meat doesn't have that much sodium. Are you sure you're not pulling up entries for meat that is pre-seasoned or marinated? That does tend to have more sodium.

quiksylver296

As a preservative. I assume you mean lunch meat and not, say, chicken breast. Because raw meats don't have much unless they've been injected with it.

cwolfman13

sungoddess337 wrote: »

Why does meat have so much sodium?

What meat has a lot of sodium? Most foods have minerals, including sodium that are naturally occurring, but I don't see it as being a lot.

If you're talking about lunch meat, they are high in sodium as it is added as part of the processing as a preservative. Some meats are also injected...example would be many store bought ready to eat rotisserie chickens.

wilson10102018

You might consider other options to reduce your high blood pressure and/or water retention. Low sodium intake is more dangerous than high sodium. Sodium is that electrolyte, the absence of which causes bad things to happen.

Aaron_K123

Why is string so long?

sungoddess337

Thanks everyone. I thought unprocessed meat had little sodium so was really shocked when my entry for turkey was over 1000 mg. Went back and looked at entries. I had baked turkey and had selected 1 slice (which, I realize thanks to you all) was lunch meat not fresh. Difference of almost 1000 mg. Will definitely be more careful.

missysippy930

sungoddess337 wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I thought unprocessed meat had little sodium so was really shocked when my entry for turkey was over 1000 mg. Went back and looked at entries. I had baked turkey and had selected 1 slice (which, I realize thanks to you all) was lunch meat not fresh. Difference of almost 1000 mg. Will definitely be more careful.

A lot of frozen turkey is injected with a brine solution too, adding sodium. Not just lunch meat. Frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts are soaked in a solution before being frozen too.
If you are trying to avoid added sodium, fresh is best.

Dilvish

turkey by itself is low in sodium, around 80 mg per 100 g (3oz) serving. Turkey as a sliced deli meat or sold in a package can have 10 times that amount as sodium is used as a preservative.

Essentially almost all packaged foods contain significant amounts of sodium as it is a cost effective preservative and it is also an addiction level mineral...much like sugar. Salty foods make you crave more salty foods the same as sugary foods make you crave more sugary foods.

Sodium also makes you retain water...the more sodium you consume the more water you retain...both men and women!

The WHO is trying to clamp down on this issue because it's getting way out of control
https://who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/salt-reduction

kshama2001

sungoddess337 wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I thought unprocessed meat had little sodium so was really shocked when my entry for turkey was over 1000 mg. Went back and looked at entries. I had baked turkey and had selected 1 slice (which, I realize thanks to you all) was lunch meat not fresh. Difference of almost 1000 mg. Will definitely be more careful.

Unfortunately, the "verified" green check marks are used for both user-created entries and system entries. To find system entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and plug that into MFP.

For packaged foods, I verify the label against what I find in MFP.