Simply - does one reduce the sodium content in canned soup if one adds a lot of water?
I’m trying to have my dad eat less salt due to his high blood pressure but he loves canned soup - and he eats the whole can.
His claim: The fix is to just add a bunch of water - that will dilute the soup and therefore dilute the sodium - thereby reducing any harmful effects.
Me- the addition of water may indeed dilute the TASTE of the soup, but if the label says 800mg in a full can and you’re eating the whole can, you just ate 800mg of sodium - diluted or not.
If he used the water to stretch the number of servings and not the eat whole can, then I can see his point.
Am I missing something?
CeeBeeSlim
Member Posts: 722 Member
Member Posts: 722 Member
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Do his favorite soup flavors come in a Reduced Sodium variety? I think Campbell's Low Sodium line has all the hits, but if he's one of those weirdos that likes cream of asparagus he might be SOL, not sure.
What's happening is that we oldies can't expel the sodium the way we used to, so it builds up in the body. If I eat a salty meal, I'll bump up in weight the next day. If I have a "pub night" with beer and salty food, I'll bump up more. The cardio helps keep the system limber and it also directly expels sodium in your sweat. Double bonus!
As for soup flavor: I switched to buying low-sodium chicken broth instead of canned soup. I use it for a lot of things, but, if I want chicken soup, I add left-over chicken to it plus whatever other leftover rice, pasta, or vegetables are in the fridge or freezer. Heat it in the microwave or stove-top and eat it immediately. It is so much better than canned soup that it's almost comical. You can make it it minutes and get the salt level to whatever you want. Instead of a lot of salt, you can add red pepper flakes and/or lemon juice.
Anyway, once you get used to low salt, you grow to prefer it.
@goal06082021 it’s strange. Horrible analogy but he somehow equates it to a situation like this - if someone drinks straight Clorox vs someone drinks Clorox mixed with water - that latter mixture - because it was diluted - decreases the bad effects. Both are bad but one is situation better than the other. He surmises then that the sodium becomes “weaker” or less bad for you?!
I don’t know how to get through to him. He was so adamant I had to question myself!
He's be wrong about that too.
Correct.
Eta: If you like, I can have my sodium-restricted dad call your sodium-restricted dad and set him straight. However, he will also nag about sugar consumption, and probably a few other things.
And still, he deep fries pork jowls.
I’m barely surviving trying to pick my battles.
😂😂 to keep from 😭😭
Oh excellent! My dad will cheerfully rattle off a long list of the sugar content of various foods. He can probably do sat fat too.
I am also sodium-restricted so it would be awesome for my dad to have a new victim audience.
I expect he thinks the extra water helps flush sodium, a common misconception.
Since he really likes the soup, you might have more luck trying to increase his potassium intake.
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My mom thinks she can eat all the sodium and saturated fat she wants because "I take pills for that". (She is on blood pressure and cholesterol meds.) She is 87 so at this point I just let her do what she wants.
The only way this works is if he eats one can instead of two cans. If you double the volume of soup with the same amount of water, you have the same volume as two cans. You cut the sodium, fat, AND calories in half. It's not the dilution that reduces these; it's the fact that you don't have the second can.
The good news is it's easy to make soup from scratch! You can control the salt content during cooking, and you can even make it VERY low salt and adjust at the table... carefully. Other benefits are that you can save money making your own soup, and you don't risk the plastic liner from the an leaching into your food.
Well, I add bleach to drinking water. Not much. Two drops per gallon. Not tap water; it already has about 1.0 mg/L of free available chlorine that was added at the drinking water treatment plant and keeps the water safe in the distribution system. On river trips, we have to treat our own water. I have a filter that takes out bacteria, protozoa, and cysts. It does not remove viruses, so we add a little bleach and then give it time to work. This can be an alternative to boiling if you have a boil water order (Sorry Texas). Just don't use too much because the amount they USED to recommend (ten drops per gallon) tastes awful. After the contact time, you can add ascorbic acid to remove the chlorine.
But yes, if you were going to drink a quart of bleach in one day, it would be a bad idea. You couldn't dilute it to a safe level without killing yourself with hyponatremia. And the cure for hyponatremia? More salt
I do wish - although I’m sure there’s some truth to it - that my dad’s doc hadn’t told him that his cholesterol was sooo high that it has to be partly due to genetics. That’s all my dad needed to hear - he inferred “see, it ain’t my fault - it’s in the family”. 🙄🙄
My dad and mom are 77 and 81 respectively. I’m wondering at what point I also just release it all and let them do what they want. The good thing is that I’ve been so stressed having lived with them since last year due to covid - I lost 30 lbs!
Sheesh!
Are we related? My mom insisted for years that her "asthma" ran in the family (rather than, you know, the actual cause being COPD from smoking for 50 years). What are you gonna do ....
Well my 81 year old father who is a) wickedly smart (he was a physicist) b) super anal about nutrition when it comes to sugar, sodium, vitamin content, etc is also c) an alcoholic. I think focusing on fairly inconsequential things helps him ignore the real problem.