Low Fat vs. High Sodium

lumberjacks94

I am noticing that many comparible foods that are lower in fat have more sodium. Is that the general rule or something I'm just now noticing since I've checked the things I eat. If that is the case is it safe to assume low fat is more important than high sodium or is it a pick-your-poison situation? Any help would be appreciated.

Elleinnz

The way my nutritionist explained it to me - flavour comes from one of 3 things - fat, salt and sugar..... The moment they cut one of these the other one goes up to compensate for taste lost.....

And your second question the answer is "it depends" - on whether the fats are healthy fats or bad fats..... if it is good fat I would go higher fat / lower sodium..... but eat very little of the "bad" fats...

perceptualobfuscator

Unfortunately, there's no easy answer. It's a balancing act. You need some fat in your diet, so don't skip it all together. You also need to avoid unhealthy fats (saturated, trans, cholesterol), so low fat is better in this department.

Many low fat options try to 'make up' for the lower appeal to your tastebuds by adding sodium to compensate. Salt and fat are things people often crave as a taste/texture, and food companies want to appeal to the consumer as much as possible. Reducing one will make the product less appealing, so they up the other to make up the difference, so to speak.

You'll eventually get used to balancing it between the two. Just remember that having a too low fat diet is bad for you, just as a too high fat diet is. As for sodium, you don't need very much of it in your diet - most health professionals set the limit between 1000-1500 mg/day rather than the 2500 mg set as a maximum by food companies (and current DNV labels).

Good luck!!

pauljsolie

Elleinnz is right. Not only sodium and/or sugar but there are a multitude of ingredients food manufacturers use to make low calorie or diet foods taste better.