Sodium in Condensed Soups

DrBorkBork

Does anyone know if the nutritional value of condensed soup changes at all after adding water to it? I was just wondering if the sodium went down at all, and if so, by how much?

thanks!

omid990

nope. no changes in nutrition.

Mindful_Trent

Easy way to calculate your sodium - take the total sodium in one can, calculate how many servings you've made out of that can (which will vary based on how much water you added) and divide the total sodium in the can by the number of servings. (So if one bowlful is 1/4 of the soup/water mix, then you've just consumed 1/4 of the sodium in the can... if one bowlful is 1/6 of the soup/water mix, then you only consumed 1/6 of the sodium in the can.)

So if you add more water, you make more servings and there is less sodium per serving... but the soup does get watered down. And it only works if you don't eat extra because it's watered down.


Edited to add: if you follow directions on the can and make it the way they direct, then no, the water doesn't change the sodium per serving... (Which I'm guessing is what you were actually asking, rather than what I answered above...)

watch48win

Yeah, watch the sodium...I made the mistake of having Progresso Light French Onion soup for lunch today. Totally yummy and the entire can was only 100 calories, but not reading the sodium content....a whopping 1700 grams . I can feel it now in my fingers, the feel like sausages right now! lol

DrBorkBork

Sodium is one of the things on my watch list. I try to stay under 1500 a day. We are having Hawaiian Haystacks tomorrow, but we use cream of mushroom soup. We only have condensed (and LOTS of it), so it doesn't really make sense to run out and buy a lower sodium one until these ones are gone. Anyway, just using the serving for myself of the COM soup puts me 1,000 over my sodium. I was just wondering if that reduced when water was added as directed.

EDIT: Looking at the can here, it says a serving is 1/2 cup condensed, and there are 2.5 servings in the can. Does that mean it doubles when water is added, and I can do the brilliant equation you suggested, accountat_boi?

I changed the serving to 1/2 cup condensed for now, and I'm only over by 200 sodium.

Mindful_Trent

EDIT: Looking at the can here, it says a serving is 1/2 cup condensed, and there are 2.5 servings in the can. Does that mean it doubles when water is added, and I can do the brilliant equation you suggested, accountat_boi?

I changed the serving to 1/2 cup condensed for now, and I'm only over by 200 sodium.

When the can says that a serving is 1/2 cup condensed, that means that an actual serving is 1 cup of "diluted soup" (when you follow directions and add 1 can of water to 1 can of condensed soup) - that serving is made of 1/2 cup of the condensed soup and 1/2 cup of water. So... you still get the full serving's worth of sodium. One can of soup added to one can of water makes 2 and 1/2 servings, so it should make 3 and 1/2 cups of soup, half of which will be the actual condensed soup and half of which will be water.

If you wanted to dilute the soup further, you could add an extra can of soup, which would make each cup of the combined soup only 1/3 condensed soup and 2/3 water - that would lower the sodium to 2/3 (67%) of whatever the amount of sodium is in an original serving.

DrBorkBork

Thanks for all your help!

SHBoss1673

Just curious, are you on 1500 because of a medical situation? I don't mean to pry, if you don't want to answer I understand. But 1500 is a pretty low ceiling, and I was curious if you had an underlying issue which caused you to cap your sodium intake there. Normally sodium intake is usually from 2000 to 3000 mg for healthy adults (healthy meaning no underlying medical conditions that could be affected by sodium).

DrBorkBork

I read somewhere that the FDA suggests a diet around 1,500 and that 2,500 (as MFP has it set) is too high.
I will be seeing my doctor next month for a checkup and ask her where she wants me at.

This isn't where I read it, but it backs up what I did read about the FDA suggesting 1500:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sodium/NU00284
"Various organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, have published recommendations on daily sodium limits. Most recommend not exceeding the range of 1,500..."

Also found this:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_the_recommended_sodium_intake_per_day
"The Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, issued a report that lowered the recommended daily amount of sodium. Previously, the daily allowance was 2500 milligrams, but it has been lowered to 1500 milligrams per day. The report set the maximum intake per day at 2300 milligrams but recommended not exceeding 1500 milligrams."

SHBoss1673

I go by the American Heart Association's guidelines which recommends 1000 mg per 1000 calories consumed up to a maximum of 3000 a day. The FDA is a little sketchy, and I'd never follow the advice on any wiki without followup research as those are user edited websites (the nature of a wiki)

DrBorkBork

They were using the Institute of Medicine's information, though. Doesn't that count for something?

I'm on a 1200 cal baseline before exercise, so that's only 1000 or so of sodium. So if I'm only eating 1500 after exercise, using your equation (1k to 1k) that means 1500 sodium for me.

I still feel that 3k is much too high. That's like eating a fast food cheeseburger for lunch and dinner, or even an entire pizza. Gross.

sleepl8s

I don't know if anyone cares....but if you've had too much sodium, a good way to counteract some of it's effects is to have foods rich in potassium. Potassium is the opposite of sodium. They balance each other out.

DrBorkBork

Nope, didn't know that! Good thing I eat a banana almost every day

SHBoss1673

They were using the Institute of Medicine's information, though. Doesn't that count for something?

I'm on a 1200 cal baseline before exercise, so that's only 1000 or so of sodium. So if I'm only eating 1500 after exercise, using your equation (1k to 1k) that means 1500 sodium for me.

I still feel that 3k is much too high. That's like eating a fast food cheeseburger for lunch and dinner, or even an entire pizza. Gross.

a lot depends on how much you eat at one time. Like anything, sodium dispurses throughout the body when consumed, if you spread your intake out through the day, I could have 4000 or 5000 and not notice any change in body chemistry (besides a little fluid retension maybe, which affects nothing really in the short term). Besides screwing up your daily weight, a little extra sodium isn't harmful to people who have no medical concerns with it. Sodium doesn't reach dangerous levels until you start getting up around 7000 or 8000 mg or below 1000 mg as at these levels it affects electrical impulses, which can screw with heart rhythms and brain activity.


As to Potassium, that's not necessarilly true, if you have too much sodium the best thing you can do is drink a bunch of water (10 to 20 oz extra per hour for about 2 to 4 hours). Excess sodium is excreeted via the urine automatically, so make sure you relieve yourself if you find yourself way over in sodium. Potassium and sodium work in conjunction to regulate extra cell fluid levels and maintain electrical conductivity throughout the body, brain. Extra potassium does not mean a purging of sodium, excess sodium is automatically purged from the body. The reason why it's bad to have too much sodium is because too much can throw off the conductivity in the body, and it takes the body a little while to purge sodium, for people with high blood pressure, this can affect the heart muscle and it's pumping action. Since the kidneys control sodium extraction, and they can only extract so much per minute, and blood has to circulate through the body to get to the kidneys, it can take a while to extract the extra sodium from the blood. This can raise blood volume levels (sodium pulls liquid from the cells and into the blood plasma). this in turn can raise blood pressure and cause stroke and other serious cardiovascular issues (heart attacks...etc.)

izzypup

I really don't know all the fda stuff but my doc told me that if i don't have a problem with high blood pressure than eat salt. Doc also said it is good to have salt in the morning to get the flluids in your body going. Makes the brain work better.