Holy sodium batman! How do you cut it down? It's everywhere!

beachlover317

For heart health, I keep my sodium at 1500 mg per day. I may go over by 100 or so some days, but I try hard to keep it that low. I have no underlying heart issues, just people on my mother's side that ALL had heart issues. I decided to be proactive and reduce it. In reading about sodium, I learned that just as important as the correct sodium is having the correct amount of potassium to work together with the sodium in your cells. For an adult woman it was recommended that she have 4700mg of potassium. At the very least you should be getting twice the potassium as you get sodium. Below is a pretty simple explanation of how to balance these and why it's important.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/507014-the-relationship-between-potassium-and-sodium/

3foldchord

Arg! I just realized I do eat pachakd turkey almost daily! Why did that not register in my brain?
Does anyone here make this own cold cuts for sandwiches from a home Cooked turkey?

Spatialized

Arg! I just realized I do eat pachakd turkey almost daily! Why did that not register in my brain?
Does anyone here make this own cold cuts for sandwiches from a home Cooked turkey?

Not yet, it's on the plan, especially now that the stores acutally have turkey that's not already processed/ground/not whole.

3foldchord

I think I have a meat grinder attachment to my food processor. I wonder how worth it it would be to grind my own meats.....
Edit for typos

bluelena

Good 4 U for watching your sodium intake. Agreed - processed foods are the culprit. With beans, you can rinse them, but there's not much you can do about soup (except make your own). Knowledge is power! Read every label!!

Rinsing and not using the liquid in the can will eliminate some sodium but the beans have already absorbed a good amount of sodium... You can soak them in cool water after rinsing them and osmosis will work to get some of the sodium out but it is far better to make your beans from scratch if sodium is a real concern.

I started cooking my own beans from scratch about a year ago. It's ridiculously easy. Soak a pound or two of dried beans overnight. The next day, rinse them, throw them in a big pot, cover generously with water, crank the heat, and get them up to a nice simmer. Let them go for about 30-45 minutes (Depends on the bean - cook them until they're JUST done, so they're not mushy). Rinse again, and when they're cool enough to handle, scoop them out two cups at a time into freezer bags and then freeze flat. One bag is roughly one can of beans. No sodium, nothing but beans. I've done this with all kinds of beans, and chickpeas as well (for hummus-making).

Vini9

I really agree with alot of people on here. Sodium is not good for you and yes it's addictive, like sugar. Try to keep it low and use everyones tips. I really like bluelena's tip for beans. I will start doing that to mine, I freeze everything. lol Thanks for the all the tips and this post.

Just a side note I am usually under in my salt to unless we eat out. Really puts a hurtin to your body.

FredDoyle

Yes!! read, read, read!

Real salt is very good for the body... Try Himalyan salt. I will post an article on my group, the Skinny on Obesity.

Yes, the body requires some sodium chloride (about 500mg/day) so in that sense it is good.
Himalayan salt is 98% sodium chloride so it's no different to those watching their salt intake.
Same goes for the myth about sea salt being "better". There are just trace extra minerals than are in the refined...

midnight333

OKAY! While I was growing up I remember salting EVERYTHING. My Grandma (she raised me) used to say "stop with the salt, you're gonna get high blood pressure!". I currently have an average blood pressure of 100 over 60. It's been low as long as I can remember. My Doctor at first had me stand to make sure the reading was going correct. That was when it was ninety-something over sixty-something.

tdbad1

Arg! I just realized I do eat pachakd turkey almost daily! Why did that not register in my brain?
Does anyone here make this own cold cuts for sandwiches from a home Cooked turkey?

We always roast meats here for sandwiches. Beef, pork, chicken, turkey. (not hams) Easily freezable and portable. My hubby takes his and bread in seperate baggies to work, puts them together there. that way the thawing meat doesn't make his bread soggy.

Much healthier for s, and actually not any more expensive than buying deli meats. would be nice if it were cheaper, but at least it doesn't cost more.

rowanstuff

My kidney doctor (nephrologist) told me to cut out salt as much as possible. Apparently it is really bad for your kidneys because it messes with your fluid retention, hence, high-blood pressure. I have my sodium goal set as 1400mg/day. It's a tough thing to do. I lost a lot of puffy weight that came from water retention, my blood pressure is way down.

It's a tough diet to be on. Once you start looking around its amazing how much salt is in everything! It starts to seem hopeless. I think a lot of my weight loss is because there is hardly anything laying around to eat, and I'm too lazy to cook. Diet foods that cut out fats or carbs usually make up for it with extra salt.

Eating out is a killer. Find a place with a salad bar, at least then you can control what your eating. Use just oil-and-vinegar dressing.

There are items that can help, like the salt substitutes in the spice section of the store. If you go to Trader Joe's or Whole Foods you can find some organic/natural products that don't have salt added. No salt spaghetti sauce, no salt added salsa, no salt blue-corn chips, etc. All very tasty. Some Evo frozen dinners have less than 500mg.

Some other things to know: Most cheese is very high in salt, but not Swiss cheese! Its very reasonable. You can also replace your cream cheese with Mascarpone.

Matzo! (Jewish flat bread-cracker) you have to check the boxes, but several brands have 0 salt. Organic/natural ones have a lot of nutrition, too. I use this as a bread substitute, because I don't care much for the salt-free breads out there.

Balsamic Vinegar! Tons of flavor and great on almost everything. I've heard of people using it on ice-cream!

Harissa. A condiment that looks like thick ketchup, but its a paste made with peppers. It adds a great kick and flavor to many foods. Stir it in or spread it on top. Its an expensive "import" food, but really easy to make yourself.

I never used to salt my food, anyway, but I loved salty treats. Now that I know how to spice things up I don't really miss the salt at all.

CJsf1t

Vini9 wrote: »

I really agree with alot of people on here. Sodium is not good for you and yes it's addictive, like sugar. Try to keep it low and use everyones tips. I really like bluelena's tip for beans. I will start doing that to mine, I freeze everything. lol Thanks for the all the tips and this post.

Just a side note I am usually under in my salt to unless we eat out. Really puts a hurtin to your body.

Salt like sugar is not addictive . at all.

tedrickp

bizco wrote: »

No, the MFP default for sodium is not too low. In fact, it's too high according to all other health websites (mayo clinic, AMA, etc.) They say the max should be 2,300mg per day.

No offense but the mayo clinic, AMA, and even MFP are behind the times when it comes to sodium intake.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24651634

This was an interesting meta-analysis of the current research on sodium intake and morbidity/mortality.

http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=5616

Breaks the study into laymen terms (weightology is a paid service though so you probably can't access it)

The conclusion is basically that both low (less than 2,645mg) and high (more than 4,945) intake of sodium are associated with negative health outcomes. For the average person around 5k a day should cause no issue.

libbydoodle11

Eating less processed foods will help decrease your sodium levels.

tedrickp

In fact OP - if you have no pre existing health conditions that require the monitoring of it - Id suggest removing both sodium and sugar from your diary.

Replace them with more important things like Calcium or Iron (as examples). Focus on calories, macro and micro nutrients IMO