Sodium intake driving me nuts!!

JustDoIt1973

and dont tracks sodium thats in food naturally. For example, a cup of steamed broccoli has 44 grams of sodium, my dr. said not to count anything grown from the earth or milk (which also has alot of sodium). Just dont add any salt (use mrs dash) and limit cheese.

cmw9696

Feel free to look at my food diary...I seldom go over in sodium unless I eat out. I also try to get high potassium foods to fight against the sodium. Sodium is huge in your weight loss journey and in your health for that matter.

Mindful_Trent

I will be honest here, food without salt sucks.

We are conditioned to want super sweet or super salty foods - anything you eat in restaurants (most of the time), recipes for stuff we make at home, etc. are filled with salt and sugar. Most people weren't raised on low-sugar or low-salt diets. However, if you give it time, you'll learn to enjoy foods for their actual taste, without all the added salt and sugar. It is an adjustment, but over time your body/tast buds do adapt.

msamcoates

I have the same problem .... sigh ... I have been trying to just drink alot of water to offset it.

FemininGuns

I have no problem staying under... Take a look at my diary.

If no salt added to food is boring, you can use Mrs. Dash (no salt or msg) seasonnings and other (like Epicure spices) to kick up the taste on whole foods.

I stay away form ANY processed meats and cook at home as much as possible. Anyone can do it, but like everything in life - it takes effort and commitment to stick with it We can do it!!

c7eat2live

I actually lowered my intake from 2500 to 2000 manually. Too much sodium for me=l=bloating and water retention and overall yuckiness. To cut down, I dont add salt to ANYTHING. If I need a little saltiness I add some (tiny bit!) of liquid aminos to my food. Also I have become aware of what to avoid that tends to be high in salt, processed food, basically anything frozen-dinnerish, "low fat" canned things, and when eating out I ask them to cut down on the salt as much as possible.

JimHeid

Wish I could enjoy Mrs Dash. My nose doesn't work well, so my tastes are hot, cold, sweet, sour, bitter, and SALT. Its easier to diet when you can really savor your food choices!

madijo41

and dont tracks sodium thats in food naturally. For example, a cup of steamed broccoli has 44 grams of sodium, my dr. said not to count anything grown from the earth or milk (which also has alot of sodium). Just dont add any salt (use mrs dash) and limit cheese.

I was just going to say that. Look at all the sodium that is in food naturally, you would be shocked and amazed. Look at all your veggies and see what they have. Its the other stuff you have to worry about.

Ge0rgiana

My goal is 1,800mg a day. I'm happy to say that (when I'm behaving myself) I usually make it. Today I'm at < 1,300mg and around 1,300 cals. If you want to see my diary, feel free to friend me.

The best advice I can give is track it, see what your highest sodium offenders are, and eliminate them. Also, I use a LOT of McCormick Perfect Pinch Mediterranean Herb and Salad Supreme to season my food. It's about 65mg per 1/4 tsp, which is plenty to flavor a dish. I stay away from most processed foods, I eat a lot of fresh meats, a lot of fresh/frozen veggies. I also avoid bread. Not low carbing per se, but bread specifically. My body isn't crazy about wheat anyway, and bread has a lot of sodium usually. I do potatoes once in a while along with brown rice and Wasa rye crackers and stuff like that.

A lot of stuff is labeled reduced sodium, but you have to watch the nutrition labels. Reducing a cup of soup from 800mg to 700mg is still a helluva lot of salt for a couple hundred calories if you ask me. (If you like soup, I highly recommend Amy's Light in Sodium soups).

This is going blind. If you would like me to look at your diary and offer opinions / guidance, feel free to ask. This is one thing that I've literally got down to a science.

TORNATO1

I have been having a hard time keeping both sodium and sugar down. Everything else is preety easy so far.

tedgardner1

Try checking sodium levels for foods in question on sites other than myfitnesspal. I have found some HUGE differences. I have no opinion as to which is correct.

Lietchi

tedgardner1 wrote: »

Try checking sodium levels for foods in question on sites other than myfitnesspal. I have found some HUGE differences. I have no opinion as to which is correct.

You've resurrected a REALLY old post.

But yes, check the sodium levels against the label for example. I'm European and I've seen food database entries with the amount of salt listed under sodium so many times (European labels list salt, not sodium) which can give the impression that you're way over when you aren't really.

FYI: not everyone needs to limit sodium intake. I have low blood pressure myself, I need to consume quite a lot of salt or my blood pressure gets too low (especially when standing up).

neanderthin

Yeah, I'm still confused about salt. The more I do research into salt consumption, the less concerned I get.

cmriverside

I stay under 2300 on most days.

What Lietchi said about checking against labels is important.

I prepare all my own meals, but I do add a pinch of salt to most dishes - otherwise the taste is off for me. As long as I don't have processed meats/cheeses, and/or store-bought bread in more than one meal, I can make it work pretty comfortably.

kshama2001

tedgardner1 wrote: »

Try checking sodium levels for foods in question on sites other than myfitnesspal. I have found some HUGE differences. I have no opinion as to which is correct.

I can't speak to sodium values in the MFP database, as I have no medical reason to track sodium, so I don't. Here's a post I wrote about iron values:

I'm anemic and don't rely on food alone to get the iron I need, but do notice that many USER-created food entries have incorrect or missing iron counts. For example, manufacturers may list iron in grams, but MFP uses percents, and I have seen when people create an entry and do bother to fill in iron, they use the gram value rather than the %, resulting in a much lower number. Often people do not bother to fill in micros at all.

I've never noticed a problem with micros on ADMIN-created entries, so try to use these as much as possible.

Unfortunately, the green check marks in the MFP database are used for both USER-created entries and ADMIN-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database. A green check mark for USER-created entries just means enough people have upvoted the entry - it is not necessarily correct.

To find ADMIN entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP. All ADMIN entries from the USDA will have weights as an option BUT there is a glitch whereby sometimes 1g is the option but the values are actually for 100g. This is pretty easy to spot though, as when added the calories are 100x more than is reasonable.

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Use the “SR Legacy” tab - that seems to be what MFP used to pull in entries.

Note: any MFP entry that includes "USDA" was USER entered.

For packaged foods, I verify the label against what I find in MFP. (Alas, you cannot just scan with your phone and assume what you get is correct.)

westrich20940

How do you stay below 2500mg of sodium?

-->You don't unless it's medically necessary. Is your blood pressure OK? Has your doctor told you that you have to steer clear of sodium? Do you have any health complications or symptoms due to sodium intake?

No? Then literally don't worry. I mean, ask your doc real quick if you are worried but usually , unless told - there's no reason to freak out about it.