How in the world to stay under Sodium goal?

darkangel45422

Easy way to stay under the sodium goal is to simply eat whole foods and prepare them all yourself (or at least most of them). I don't personally track my sodium but I know it's low because the large bulk of what I eat are things like vegetables and fruit (fresh or frozen because I absolutely hate the taste of canned and they're usually subpar), meats (not deli or heavily processed etc.; I'm talking packages of chicken breasts, pork roasts or pork chops, etc.), healthy fats (olive oil, coconut oil, unsalted butter, etc.) nuts (raw unsalted), some starches (rice or potatoes), eggs, etc. I prepare just about everything I eat myself, and can't really remember a time when I ever added salt to anything when cooking. I use herbs and spices most of the time to season food, and sometimes prepared sauces or marinades (which may have sodium but because of the low amount in my overall diet I don't really care).

If this is a priority for you, it's really easy to cut sodium drastically just by focusing on whole foods rather than prepared foods. Those are the foods that have a lot of sodium.

seltzermint555

Are you eating out a lot? This always affects my sodium levels DRASTICALLY.

This!! I have the same problem. Even when I cook "high sodium" stuff at home, like a stew made with canned beans & tomatoes and cheese in it, it's nowhere NEAR as high sodium as a simple meal in a restaurant.

I don't think restaurants are evil or anything. But it definitely makes a big difference, as do frozen prepackaged entrees. I eat those once or twice a week (love the Simply Nature ones from Aldi) but I always add a large amount of lettuce with the entrée and never have 2 frozen entrees or 2 restaurant meals in the same day, preferably limiting those to a couple of times per week. Not to brag or sound preachy or anything but I've almost NEVER gone over on sodium at all and I don't feel that I am making a huge effort to avoid it.

I have found out quite a bit about sodium from when my husband was concerned over his blood pressure. He cut out pickles, olives, and drastically reduced his intake of cheese and it seemed to help.

For me my main reason for wanting to keep my sodium lower is to avoid retaining water. I make a point to drink WAY more water on a day that I've eaten something like pizza from a restaurant or Mexican food.

Btw Hunt's brand "no salt added" tomato sauce is really good, and it's not too expensive. I add my own spices to that and a dash of wine and it's better than all of the prepared red sauces IMO. Good luck!

Cindyinpg

I don't track sodium (or sugar for that matter) and it hasn't affected my weightloss one bit. I get a bit of water retention if I go too crazy on the soya sauce/cottage cheese/canned soups, but it goes away.:ohwell:

KANGOOJUMPS

I do not have a prob, I just cut it out of everything I eat.

cjhex

Please don't forget that salt / sodium is an important part of the diet.
The body needs in the region of 2,400-3,000 mg/day to function properly. Salt is involved in the processes of muscle contraction, water retention and it creates hydrochloric acid which is essential to the digestive system. In addition you need to replace salt as exercise causes the body to lose salt through sweating.
Assuming mfp's calculations are accurate, you should be trying to meet your daily goals for all areas, not crawl in under the bar. (Though of course, reality means exceptions here and there are usual; over some days, under on others).

rml_16

If you're making your own food from fresh ingredients and not adding table salt, you should have no problem being under sodium.

MysteriousMerlin

1. Avoid most packaged products. Items like frozen meals, canned soups, spice rubs/mixes (especially chili powders and taco seasonings), cheeses, bottled or jarred sauces (BBQ, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, etc...), bottled salad dressings, lunch meats, pre-baked goods, store-bought breads...even check things you're drinking besides water. Sports drinks, soda, even milk have sodium that adds up at the end of the day. And do your research if eating out. Look up the nutritional info online beforehand. Some items may shock the hell out of you.

2. Drink water every day. It helps flush some of the sodium out of your system.

3. Check the amount of certain foods. A tablespoon of ketchup is not easy to 'eyeball'. Use an actual measuring spoon/cup.

And remember, blood pressure rises naturally as you age.

rml_16

The body needs in the region of 2,400-3,000 mg/day to function properly.

Where in the world did you find this figure???

The body "needs" a minimum of 500 mg a day to function properly. but more importantly is to balance sodium and potassium.

cjhex

The body needs in the region of 2,400-3,000 mg/day to function properly.

Where in the world did you find this figure???

The body "needs" a minimum of 500 mg a day to function properly. but more importantly is to balance sodium and potassium.

The statistics are present as RDA through the nhs website. (Also on a variety of nutrition sites and actually listed in mfp (for my profile) as being 2500mg for the average male). Yes, the minimum is 500mg but the recommended is higher.

My point is, unless you are diagnosed with salt based dietary issues, trying to cut out as much salt as possible is not a wise action.

rml_16

The body needs in the region of 2,400-3,000 mg/day to function properly.

Where in the world did you find this figure???

The body "needs" a minimum of 500 mg a day to function properly. but more importantly is to balance sodium and potassium.

The statistics are present as RDA through the nhs website. (Also on a variety of nutrition sites and actually listed in mfp (for my profile) as being 2500mg for the average male). Yes, the minimum is 500mg but the recommended is higher.

My point is, unless you are diagnosed with salt based dietary issues, trying to cut out as much salt as possible is not a wise action.

It's nearly impossible to get below 500. The OP is a woman.

And to say you NEED that much is assinine. You don't. Without health problems, it probably isn't bad to get that much, but again, it's about balancing potassium with the sodium, so the more sodium you ingest, the more potassium you need and it's difficult to get a lot of potassium.

I don't TRY to cut sodium, but because of how I eat I end up between 800 and 1,500 mg on a typical day and I'm perfectly healthy and my body functions just fine.

cjhex

There not my statistics and personally, I fall below too but I wasn't looking for an argument, just wishing to express the risk of insufficient salt in the diet.

cuinboston2014

WOW - OK Sodium IS a big deal even if you don't have health problems.... yet. By constantly exceeding it we are putting ourselves at higher risk for prehypertension and additional stress on our organs. She is smart to want to reduce it.

I was hoping to find suggestions myself but wasn't expecting to see so many people say don't worry about it. if you just want to lose weight, maybe don't worry. If your overall goal is ultimate health - it's legit.

I've been trying to avoid packaged foods where and when I can but it's hard. Check labels on everything and then start adding it up. I may check one item that has 35% of my daily sodium intake and think "thats not bad" but that's horrible.

Check everything that's packaged. Eat as fresh as you can. See where you are after a week or two and then try to re-evaluate.

that's all I got

jclark0523

Natural Peanut Butter is a good way to get some calories without blowing your sodium goal. 2 tbs of Smuckers Natural PB is 210 cals and only 105 mg of sodium.

ThriceBlessed

I would identify the largest sodium drivers in your diet and try to find alternatives for those.

For salad dressing, try cutting it half and half with other stuff like olive oil, balsamic, juice, lemon, or milk (depending on the flavor). I also add green onion, celery, parsley or other herbs to my salad because those help "spice" up the taste of the greens so that I can use less dressing.

For the lunch meats, you probably need to swap some out for home cooked meats. I poach/sauté a family pack of chicken and then keep it in the fridge using it in sandwich wraps for a couple days instead of lunch meat.

To reduce the salt in your cooking without feeling like your food is bland, double the other spices in any recipe.

Good salt substitutes for cooking:
Lemon
Pepper
Onion
Garlic
cayenne
balsamic
mustard

Thank you!!!!

This is helpful, I'll give it a try next time I have a salad. I like sesame ginger balsamic, so I'm assuming cutting it with a little balsamic vinegar and maybe a little water might work.

ThriceBlessed

I am trying to focus more on staying under all of my macros including sodium

I never TRY to go under on protein, I try to hit my mark or as close to it as I can.

aflawson111

I spent some time at the grocery store looking at the sodium levels on all the packaged lunch meats. I found that some brands had a lot less sodium than others, and some types of meat had a lot less sodium than others.

Maybe if you look at the back of the packages and try to find a brand and type of meat that is lower (maybe turkey instead of ham, for instance) you can cut some sodium out that way.

bkelly30

I am currently googling why all my Macros are always under including calories, but my sodium is high as can be. So as I am looking at my entries, though low never realized fresh spinach has sodium. I eat cottage cheese, and actually just made this amazing chicken salad recipe that uses pureed up cottage cheese rather than mayo, felt like I was making great decisions. Cals low, carbs low, fat low, protein high, sodium off the charts. I really would like to just remove the entire column of sodium. Mine is set at 2300 mg a day, its 11:49 and I am already at 1597. I started using Silk Vanilla Almost Milk (unsweetened) this week in my protein shakes and see it is 151 mg, so I guess I will go back to water. I don't have any advise, but kind of feel better seeing many have the same issue.