So much SODIUM!!!

orsnowboard

I just finished my 3rd day of tracking and I decided to just track my typical meals.... dear god!!! Sodium is sooooooooo high! This was a defnite wake-up for me, I'm revising my meal plan to cut it down!

ilovegreg05

What foods are you eating with high sodium? Also, typically as long as you keep your sodium intake pretty consistent you shouldn't see any day-to-day weight fluctuations.

calroseangelo

I hear ya!! I never realized how much sodium was in foods until I started keeping track of it!! I try to keep mine under 1700...been losing well ever since!!

MelMena

One tip...watch the type of chicken breast that you buy. I have found that the sodium levels vary greatly. They add a "solution" and it is bacically salt water!

mbajrami

One tip...watch the type of chicken breast that you buy. I have found that the sodium levels vary greatly. They add a "solution" and it is bacically salt water!

AMEN TO THIS!

kat5556

Seeing the amount of sodium in food was my biggest eye opener on this site. It totally made me redo my food choices. I eat a lot more veggies and fruit now.

On the chicken, if you happen to have a BJ's Wholesale near you look for Harvestland Chicken. There is nothing added to it and it tastes great. I'm sure they sell it other places too. You can probably check out their website to see where it's sold.

Hearts_2015

I just finished my 3rd day of tracking and I decided to just track my typical meals.... dear god!!! Sodium is sooooooooo high! This was a defnite wake-up for me, I'm revising my meal plan to cut it down!

It can be really shocking right?! 35 years & over the sodium level is now recommended to not exceed 1500mg. As long as I cook at home and plan ahead I can stay well below that. I've gotten a wee bit obsessive about it now, it's actually the first thing I look on the pkg. for the mg. per serving.:blushing: :laugh: But once you start making changes, it really does get easier to cut back and enjoy the food in a brand new way.

Could be worse things to obsess I suppose, plus I can't even begin to tell you how much better I feel knocking it down from 2500mg to 1000 mg. less. Now when I bite into something I actually taste the food rather than the salt/fat in the product. Typically I do homemade meals but even then sometimes something catches me by surprise by my sensitivity to it now.

Cheers for noticing and looking into making changes for yourself!:drinker:

myrahonbarrier

I agree.....it's insane how much sodium is in food. I have never been one to ADD salt to my food because it surely has enough on it's own. My mom used to salt her food before she even tasted it, drove me crazy!

rockerbabyy

i dont really worry about sodium too much - i watch my potassium intake along with sodium and make sure i drink plenty of water.

stinamarie17

One tip...watch the type of chicken breast that you buy. I have found that the sodium levels vary greatly. They add a "solution" and it is bacically salt water!

YES! ground turkey too, i was SHOCKED... i've been using ground turkey in place of beef for tacos and spaghetti sauces and such for a few years now, but it wasn't until i started tracking that i realized that it has so much more sodium! gotta read those labels for sure!

Hearts_2015

Seeing the amount of sodium in food was my biggest eye opener on this site. It totally made me redo my food choices. I eat a lot more veggies and fruit now.

On the chicken, if you happen to have a BJ's Wholesale near you look for Harvestland Chicken. There is nothing added to it and it tastes great. I'm sure they sell it other places too. You can probably check out their website to see where it's sold.

OH I was so excited when I saw your post so looked up the company online... UGH

http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2010/11/perdue_labels_112910.html

I recall hearing about Purdue duping everyone and am sad to now know they duped Harvestland purchasers too. I really dislike that companies feel the need to add salt (among other creepy ingredients). I do realize it helps preserve food but enough is enough... It's really is getting harder and harder to find honest companies.

Time to hit the local Farms!:drinker:

Nicole71602

Another thing I noticed that has ALOT of sodium is those pre packaged frozen meals..weight watchers, lean cuisine, healthy choice..they are full of salt...they actually had me retaining so much water that my legs were swollen...I was dating one every 2 days or so be they were convenient to eat on lunch...I stopped immediately and the weight started coming down...also those low cal cans of soups are very salty...

BrightEyesx3

I noticed that too when I would log in my foods, and its been actually affecting me. The best part is I try not to eat processed foods as much as possible. I just eliminate the high sodium foods out of my diet when I plan my meals out ahead of time and try plugging in substitutes to get more iron or potassium in my diet.

blonde71

There's sodium in everything! I recently started limiting mine to ~1500mg/daily. I never realized there was sodium in things like: milk and eggs. Very eye-opening.

tigersword

i dont really worry about sodium too much - i watch my potassium intake along with sodium and make sure i drink plenty of water.

Yeah, this. Sodium doesn't really matter, unless you have a specific medical problem that contraindicates it.

tsh0ck

i dont really worry about sodium too much - i watch my potassium intake along with sodium and make sure i drink plenty of water.

bingo.

babycook

I watch my sodium. I don't track it but on my app I can check daily values easier. I check it a couple times a week. I also try to get enough potassium. But that's hard.
But I have high blood pressure and retain water so I need to watch my sodium.

a_new_dawn

Salt in my diet is my downfall, I've recently learnt that I get alot of water retention if I over-do it (and even drinking lots and lots of water is of little help). I had no idea I was having so much until I added that column to my diary. I never add salt to my food so I thought I had no need to be concerned. I had no weight loss for a little while but it's started coming off again as i've limited sodium to 1000 or less for the last few days.
I was shocked to see how much salt there is in what I had considered healthy "1 of your 5 a day" Heinz tomato soup! And greggs pasties are full of it too. Suddenly they don't seem as appealing.

subtractionproject

i dont really worry about sodium too much - i watch my potassium intake along with sodium and make sure i drink plenty of water.

Yeah, this. Sodium doesn't really matter, unless you have a specific medical problem that contraindicates it.

Exactly.

Cambrendle

sodium was a shocker for me too! Lunch meat and chicken breasts and chicken tenders (not breaded) were my main diet. On tracking my foods the first week I found I was in excess 5000 mg of sod per day. Now I obsess about the sodium. I can tell when I'm pushing my limit because I can literally feel my ankles start to swell, and my face starts to feel puffy too - before even looking in the mirror or at my feet.

kwin91

Yes I realized too how much I was eating. I heard someone say once that if you are trying to eat healthy and low salt, fat, and all that shop on the outside perimeter or the store. That's what I do the only things I buy on the inside are oatmeal and bread and wheat thins. that's it. and my sodium is always under 2000 usually which the daily recommended amount is 2500mg. Good luck!

bethgames

I have found that my cottage cheese and my Laughing Cow's are my worst offenders. But I make room for them. :drinker:

Flafster

Really? I'm surprised at this. Out of curiousity, I change the settings and went back over my diary. The only time I've come even close is when I've been out for dinner and gone nuts on the antipasti. Oh and bacon sandwich days, lol

Where else is all your sodium coming from? Is it mainly ready meals / packaged foods?

zombilishious

I track it. I've found it's impossible for me to get below 1500, and most days I'm over 2500. With 3 little kids, I'd do nothing but cook all day and night if I prepared myself different foods than they eat every day, so I can't eliminate processed foods entirely. That being said, it doesn't seem to cause any problems other than occasional water retention - usually on mexican food days!.

kariebo

i too noticed the amount of sodium in my foods lately. I had been working so hard and only looking at carbs and calories... then I thought... sodium.. wonder how much salt is in stuff. HOLY CRAP. For what I was eating it was ridiculous. I could stay under calories and fat and carbs and skyrocket on the sodium. So I started tracking my sodium first and I found that box foods, cans, fast food... pretty much anything convenient is chocked full of it - well duh, it sits on the shelf for like forever. So i switched to salads and cook more of my food at home and have fresher foods. Not only did i feel 'cleaner' but I lost a few pounds right away. Now I have started to taste salt in food a lot more when I go out. I dont limit myself when I go out to dinner because I know that they are salting things ... but I also try to make smarter choices so that its not outrageous. Reading some of these other posts I think I may start tracking my potassium too.... Im not a huge health nut so I dont know what everything does (I specifically have Iron on my list because I know my levels are lower than most but not low enough to be a problem), but

Cambrendle

Really? I'm surprised at this. Out of curiousity, I change the settings and went back over my diary. The only time I've come even close is when I've been out for dinner and gone nuts on the antipasti. Oh and bacon sandwich days, lol

Where else is all your sodium coming from? Is it mainly ready meals / packaged foods?

for me it was in the lunch meat and the chicken - frozen or fresh. The manufacturers are adding a "solution" - typically 3% of the weight of the chicken is a salt solution injection - to "plump it" and it increases the weight of the product, which is sold by the weight. The different manufacturers use different levels up to close to 30%, but the average is 3%.

Here's just one article on it - there's a ton of articles out there now that people are becoming more aware of their foods - http://www.cracked.com/article_19896_the-6-creepiest-lies-food-industry-feeding-you.html

ahamm002

Fortunately you don't need to limit your sodium intake unless you have uncontrolled hypertension. Like saturated fat, it got a bad rep that it doesn't really deserve. Salt is the last thing that anyone who needs to lose weight should be worrying about.

Hearts_2015

There's sodium in everything! I recently started limiting mine to ~1500mg/daily. I never realized there was sodium in things like: milk and eggs. Very eye-opening.

Smart Girl!:drinker: I believe 1500 mg daily is easily attainable if ti's tracked and if you do eat a processed meal (frozen something or other) you read the pkg. FIRST before sticking it in our cart and plan accordingly.

Some veggies are delicious, incredibly healthy for us but have natural sodium, they add to the count as well, a person can go over 1500mg daily if eating bread and not comparing labels and types of bread first. Yogurt, healthy YES, but still some sodium in it.

To the person not understanding how another can go over, curious if you have yours set at 2500 or 1500?

Once I dropped down to 1500mg or less (typically I don't reach 1/2 that in a day and that's fine with me) daily, I've found if I go over 1500mg if I ate something I normally wouldn't my body is greatly effected by it. I feel sluggish, water weight, it really surprised me but I believe our bodies adjust and now if I eat something with added salt, it's far too salty for my liking.

Glad so many are becoming aware of how much sodium is in the foods out there.:drinker:

Hearts_2015

Fortunately you don't need to limit your sodium intake unless you have uncontrolled hypertension. Like saturated fat, it got a bad rep that it doesn't really deserve. Salt is the last thing that anyone who needs to lose weight should be worrying about.

I think it may effect women differently than men, perhaps because we tend to retain water a time or two a month.

If you do heavy duty workouts you absolutely want to keep sodium in your system but I believe those above you were taking about excess sodium in processed foods. It seems to effect each of our bodies very differently, some are very sensitive to it and retain water and their weight loss slows down.

This is simply my thoughts on sodium:flowerforyou:

Flafster

Thanks Cambrendle, I don't really eat packaged meats. We tend to buy fresh / frozen and freeze what we don't have in that mean. Also tend to buy higher welfare meats so perhaps they are less bulked out? Perhaps I am naive and MFP just doesn't have the data.

My sodium was at the default level of 2,500 but even still my sodium for today will be 173. My normal days are around 4-600. Only when I eat out does it get above 1000

blonde71

I noticed since tracking my sodium, I'm eating much more fruits and vegetables and hardly any processed food. Sodium is just...everywhere.