Too Much Salt

sfrogley2
sfrogley2 Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
According to my Food Diary I have consumed nearly 18,000 mg of sodium in the main dish of tonights dinner.
I used a new recipe, so have have now checked the ingredients several times, and counted up the sodium total for the quantity of each ingredient as shown in the database. I can't get it to add up to as much as 3,000 mg.
I expected it to be a bit high in sodium as it contains feta cheese, but not over 9 times the recommended daily amount. As I have hypertension this is a bit if a worry

Where can all this extra sodium have come from? There must be a miscalculation somewhere.

Replies

  • sfrogley2
    sfrogley2 Posts: 8 Member
    I will check it all again tomorrow - I can't believe that total so I'm now suspicious of all the others
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    sfrogley2 wrote: »
    I will check it all again tomorrow - I can't believe that total so I'm now suspicious of all the others

    Unfortunately, the database is bloated, and filled with inaccurate entries. There was once upon a time a clove of garlic for 10,000 calories.
  • pamhardwick8899
    pamhardwick8899 Posts: 16 Member
    I agree. You really have to watch the database. If you have uploaded the recipe from the web you might try to add it in manually to get a better sodium count. I have also noticed that some of the foods have been uploaded with too few of calories. It’s like I think some of the posters are “cheating” so they can consume more daily calories. Lol
  • moonangel12
    moonangel12 Posts: 971 Member
    edited October 2019
    The first uploaded recipe I tried kept coming in at 20000 calories or something ridiculous so I had to manually enter it in for it to work properly... I am guessing a glitch. Mine showed normal on one screen, then went haywire on the next. No idea...
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    People enter things in grams instead of mg, people enter salt content instead of sodium (salt is only around 40% sodium).

    It's best to check the database entries thoroughly if salt is something you need to manage for your hypertension.

    You can edit most of them if they are incorrect, or enter your own.
  • sfrogley2
    sfrogley2 Posts: 8 Member
    Well, that's a lesson learned!
    Sorted it all out this morning, and it took ages. I researched all the ingredients to get a fairly reliable sodium reading for all, then re-wrote the recipe picking ingredients from the database that agreed with the sodium levels I had found (which, I realise, does not mean that the rest of the nutritional information is accurate).
    The culprit was the feta cheese which, when I checked, not only had 9 x the correct amount of sodium logged, it also logged the fat content of 50g feta as 1064g - for zero calories (if only!).
    Thanks for the advice. It was pretty scary to see all those red numbers at the bottom of my food diary yesterday - I will be much more careful in future.
  • pamhardwick8899
    pamhardwick8899 Posts: 16 Member
    I wish MFP would allow option to convert serving sizes to different sizes. Sometimes I find the right food but the portion size is not what I need. For example if the food in MFP is 1 cup/1 serving but I only need to use 1 tablespoon then the only option available is to take the number of servings down to 1/8 to get closer to the 1 tablespoon I need.
    Has anyone else run into that issue?
  • chuckyp
    chuckyp Posts: 693 Member
    That would be about 8 teaspoons of table salt. So unless it's pretty darn salty, it's not likely correct.
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    pamhardwick8899 wrote: »
    I wish MFP would allow option to convert serving sizes to different sizes. Sometimes I find the right food but the portion size is not what I need. For example if the food in MFP is 1 cup/1 serving but I only need to use 1 tablespoon then the only option available is to take the number of servings down to 1/8 to get closer to the 1 tablespoon I need.
    Has anyone else run into that issue?

    The best bet is to find entries that are in grams rather than cups, spoons and servings. You can always adjust these to 1 gram if it comes up with a random number.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    pamhardwick8899 wrote: »
    I wish MFP would allow option to convert serving sizes to different sizes. Sometimes I find the right food but the portion size is not what I need. For example if the food in MFP is 1 cup/1 serving but I only need to use 1 tablespoon then the only option available is to take the number of servings down to 1/8 to get closer to the 1 tablespoon I need.

    Has anyone else run into that issue?

    If it's a whole food, find the USDA entries that will have many different options, including 100 g. Then you can choose whatever serving size you want (I think the 100 g option is best, as you can log 28 g as .28 and so on).

    If it's a package, look at the gram amount and log yours as a percentage of the serving in the same way. That's a bit more annoying, but when it's for a packaged food the most accurate option is to use the matching package information.

  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,092 Member
    pamhardwick8899 wrote: »
    I wish MFP would allow option to convert serving sizes to different sizes. Sometimes I find the right food but the portion size is not what I need. For example if the food in MFP is 1 cup/1 serving but I only need to use 1 tablespoon then the only option available is to take the number of servings down to 1/8 to get closer to the 1 tablespoon I need.
    Has anyone else run into that issue?

    A tablespoon is 1/16 (.0625) of a tablespoon.

    And if the serving size is in mass/weight, I don't have a problem. If it's a volume measurement for a solid, like cups or tablespoons, it is kind of a pain, as I have to decide whether to go with the inaccuracy of volume measures or try to find some other source for converting the volume measure to weight measure (not too difficult for common banking ingredients, fortunately).
  • pamhardwick8899
    pamhardwick8899 Posts: 16 Member
    Thanks!
  • vggb
    vggb Posts: 132 Member
    "find the USDA entries that will have many different options" this is what I do since someone here recommended it to me. It's very useful.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,422 Member
    I always have an excess sodium macro. I don’t think the foods I eat are particularly salty. I seldom salt foods or cook with salt, and when I do, I use a fraction of the salt in the recipe. I figure I can always add salt at the table if I feel like I need it, I eat a lot of fresh fruit, and don’t use many condiments. I’ve learned to let the sodium count slide. It always looks wonky to me.
  • sfrogley2
    sfrogley2 Posts: 8 Member
    My sodium levels are always below the amount listed as my daily goal, which is why I was so shocked at the error I opened this thread for.
    I think that this is because I almost always cook from scratch, and only add a little salt to the starchy foods, potatoes, pasta and rice. I haven't salted vegetables in cooking for ten years or more, and never add salt at the table (unless having fish and chips). I don't often eat packaged food, and if I do it tastes salty to me, so I presume that is the source of much of the sodium in the modern diet.
  • sfrogley2
    sfrogley2 Posts: 8 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »

    A tablespoon is 1/16 (.0625) of a tablespoon.
    uh?
  • Dreamwa1ker
    Dreamwa1ker Posts: 196 Member
    edited October 2019
    sfrogley2 wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »

    A tablespoon is 1/16 (.0625) of a tablespoon.
    uh?

    They probably meant 1 tbsp = 1/16 cup. I always remember 3 tsp = 1 Tbsp, and 4 Tbsp = 1/4 cup. Gets you through most equivalences when you cook and are scaling a recipe, etc.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    pamhardwick8899 wrote: »
    I wish MFP would allow option to convert serving sizes to different sizes. Sometimes I find the right food but the portion size is not what I need. For example if the food in MFP is 1 cup/1 serving but I only need to use 1 tablespoon then the only option available is to take the number of servings down to 1/8 to get closer to the 1 tablespoon I need.

    Has anyone else run into that issue?

    If it's a whole food, find the USDA entries that will have many different options, including 100 g. Then you can choose whatever serving size you want (I think the 100 g option is best, as you can log 28 g as .28 and so on).

    If it's a package, look at the gram amount and log yours as a percentage of the serving in the same way. That's a bit more annoying, but when it's for a packaged food the most accurate option is to use the matching package information.

    Another vote for finding the USDA entries. I get the syntax from their site https://fdc.nal.usda.gov and then plug that into MFP.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,242 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Another vote for finding the USDA entries. I get the syntax from their site https://fdc.nal.usda.gov and then plug that into MFP.

    With the changes to the availability of the USDA database, has anyone found a better way than using: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/?query=
    and then manually restricting the search to only include the standard reference database each and every time?

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