Sodium level

fairyfey244
fairyfey244 Posts: 6 Member
in Food and Nutrition
MFP has my sodium goal as 2300. Isn’t this far too high? I read on a nutrition site that the average person needs around 250. Can this be right? Could someone please advise me on the (even roughly) amount I should be having daily? I am female, 75, currently weigh 86 kgs (goal is 70) and am on a low carbohydrate diet plan. My calorie limit is 1200. Many thanks in advance for any advice.

Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    fairyfey244 wrote: »
    MFP has my sodium goal as 2300. Isn’t this far too high? I read on a nutrition site that the average person needs around 250. Can this be right? Could someone please advise me on the (even roughly) amount I should be having daily? I am female, 75, currently weigh 86 kgs (goal is 70) and am on a low carbohydrate diet plan. My calorie limit is 1200. Many thanks in advance for any advice.

    Your memory left out a zero :smiley:

    2300 g is indeed the recommended amount.

    I have no medical reason to track sodium, and years ago swapped it out for fiber, which is of more value to me.

    https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-education-resources-materials/sodium-your-diet

    ...Americans eat on average about 3,400 mg of sodium per day. However, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends adults limit sodium intake to less than 2,300 mg per day—that’s equal to about 1 teaspoon of table salt!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,287 Member
    Also, if you don't have high blood pressure or osteopenia/osteoporosis, or some other health condition that your doctor considers sodium-sensitive, it may not matter.

    That said, the sodium goal, IMU, is not seen as a minimum we need to hit, but as a limit we ought not to exceed (at least not without some insight suggesting it's OK for us as an individual to exceed it).

    The MFP goals are a mix of things that IMU are better seen as minimums (such as protein) and others that are more often to be seen as limits (such as sodium).
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,374 Member
    The minimum sodium level recommended on a low-sodium diet is 1300 mg per day.

    What most people don't realize is that the body uses sodium (among other things) to balance out other electrolytes. As your sodium levels get lower, so will your magnesium, potassium and I believe calcium. Too low of a sodium level and other functions in the body will go haywire.

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