What's sodium all about?

jenialynn

Hey guys, i keep reading posts about sodium, how this can cause weight gain. Can someone explain what sodium is and why it causes weight gain? And how i can avoid this? What foods have sodium in it?

Thanks!

mariposadedios

sodium retains water in your body, which makes you gain weight - but it is not a permanent thing since it is just water weight (but it isn't good for your blood pressure, kidneys and heart to retain too much either!)

you would be amazed at what sodium is in. It is basically in everything. A lot of the higher concentrates are things like soups, frozen dinners, processed foods. Also, when foods are low in fat, they are higher in sodium, so you might buy one product to have less fat but you need to watch the sodium.

It is tricky to try and not get to much, but this site can definitely help keep track of that, and help to show you what foods you tend to eat that are higher in sodium. If you see that there are foods you eat that tend to really increase your sodium you can try to space those foods out onto different days, that way you can still eat things you like but try and stay within your sodium goal.

Hope that helps!

jenialynn

Thanks!!! It's good to know the weight gain then isn't permanent! I'm eating a lot of fresh foods, less processed so hopefully my sodium intake has gone!

trisha329

And just to add to that....the American Heart Association recommends no more than 2400 mg of sodium per day, with a minimum of 500 mg per day. We do need sodium in our bodies, so it is important to include it in our diet.

mariposadedios

very good point trisha329, thanks for adding that.

It is definitely important to make sure to include some sodium into our daily diet. Your heart and muscles work using sodium (and potassium) and both of those need to be within a small amount, you don't want too much or too little!!

Thanks for adding that clarification

jenialynn

so sodium is salt right?

mariposadedios

that's right! sodium is salt! sorry, shoulda said that!

pcw52

Sodium is a strange thing. Because our bodies are sorta like the ocean (salt water), we need water to maintain our organs which are made up mostly of water. Now we need sodium to regulate how much fluid is retained or expelled. If you have too much, your organs get high blood pressure and other things. We need it to regulate our nervous systems and muscles. Remember those salt pills that football players and the military use to take? If you have too little you get into trouble also. In my case, I have high blood pressure, so I have to cut out salt. Sodium is in almost everything. Now, I am having kidney problems and my last reports say I have too little sodium. Duh! This is how serious low sodium is, my aunt just died because her body could not maintain her sodium. She had too little and as a result her organs failed. I had never heard of too little until then. Now, I am having problems.
You can customise what you keep up with. I just changed mine to sugar and sodium.
I bought a potato soup from Sam's for my mom and it had 1100 mg of sodium. I was shocked. Gotta read those labels all the time. Don't be horrified, just conscious of it in your diet. A dietitian told me that reading a label you should buy frozen dinners with less than 600 mg of sodium. Eating out is horrible. last week I ate the least sodium laden item on the menu and it had 1100, now I am only suppose to have 1500 per day total. I ate only half of it. It took me 4 days to lose it. Tricky! I am far from mastering this wicked thing. I am just learning. Good luck to you.