Sodium Question ...

LindseySprake
LindseySprake Posts: 333 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I hardly ever go over 500mg of Sodium a day.
I know that too much is bad for your heart, water retenation etc, but is too little equally as bad?

Thanks in advance :happy:

Replies

  • 714rah714
    714rah714 Posts: 759 Member
    Of course it is, but before you get to that point you'll probably be craving someting salty to eat, so not to worry
  • AZKristi
    AZKristi Posts: 1,801 Member
    Yes. Electrolytes (Sodium and potassium) are absolutely essential for life.
  • CurveAppeal86
    CurveAppeal86 Posts: 272 Member
    500 mg of sodium? What do you eat?
  • LindseySprake
    LindseySprake Posts: 333 Member
    500 mg of sodium? What do you eat?

    Well mainly protein based meals, quite low carbs, and I never ever add salt to anything I cook.
    I'll open my diary.
  • byHISstrength
    byHISstrength Posts: 984 Member
    I'm always trying to keep my sodium low. What are you eating that for an entire day you only get 500mg? :smile:
  • Jenky85
    Jenky85 Posts: 190 Member
    500 mg of sodium? What do you eat?

    Well mainly protein based meals, quite low carbs, and I never ever add salt to anything I cook.
    I'll open my diary.

    Just had to say, just looked at your food diary for today. cava for lunch...you're my kind of people! Love it
  • vjrose
    vjrose Posts: 809 Member
    Two notes, around 1500 is considered the "safe" zone, 500 is a minimum. Hopefully you are consuming iodine rich foods or taking a multivitamin with iodine. That is one of the downfalls of our low sodium lifestyle. Since most food these days is lacking in natural iodine unless you eat fish regularly that could be lacking. It is a very small amount needed (150 micrograms) but essential to thyroid health.

    A recent study (which I would link here but it's too damn early to hunt for it) says we need to be more concerned about Sodium/potassium balance than the exact sodium (besides keeping it under 2400 micrograms).

    Do a bit of research, go to Google Scholar and look up dietary sodium, you can likely find plenty of papers to help you understand Sodium ions in the bloodstream and their role. (I actually am on a doctor imposed 1500 due to a sodium sensitivity)
  • tadpole242
    tadpole242 Posts: 507 Member
    I hardly ever go over 500mg of Sodium a day.
    I know that too much is bad for your heart, water retenation etc, but is too little equally as bad?

    Thanks in advance :happy:
    You need at least 500mg of sodium in your diet, for health
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium#cite_note-r31-47
    It's "an essential nutrient that regulates blood volume, blood pressure, osmotic equilibrium and pH; the minimum physiological requirement for sodium is 500 milligrams per day"
    but if you eat any kind of processed food on a semi regular basis then no doubt you're getting enough anyway. 80% of processed food have added sodium as part of the processing.

    For example your Diary Monday shows "Cheese - Asda Feta Cheese, 30 gms" with a zero rating for sodium, where as your Asda Feta Cheese, actually contains 244mg of sodium.
    And the egg whites you use have 105mg per 33gms
  • freddykid
    freddykid Posts: 265 Member
    What I remember from reading about this before was 500-1000 mg is all the body needs for daily basic function. I don't know if that changes with additional exercise.
  • Sujit8383
    Sujit8383 Posts: 726 Member
    Yes. Electrolytes (Sodium and potassium) are absolutely essential for life.
    this...........
  • diadojikohei
    diadojikohei Posts: 732 Member
    I had the same problem a couple of months ago. your diet is a lot like mine but I was getting palputations and feeling generally unwell. I now add salt sometimes, a pinch on a boiled egg for example. Some of the food data on mfp misses off sodium, I can tell you now that the soup you had yesterday contains sodium, and cheese is packed full of it. The other culprit is any bread product.

    Try to get about 1500mg of sodium per day. This is what nutritionists recommend to keep your heart regulated.Don't forget-everything in moderation!!
  • CurveAppeal86
    CurveAppeal86 Posts: 272 Member
    Looking at your diary there are a lot of items there that have "0" salt which they definitely do.
    Feta cheese, minestrone soup they both have sodium.

    Please tell me you didn't just have 700 calories on one day!? That is completely unhealthy, especially if you are actually burning 420 calories. Essentially you hate 300 calories that day.
    I can't believe you have your calorie limit set at 1,000 calories. You're starving yourself.
  • LindseySprake
    LindseySprake Posts: 333 Member
    Yes I do only have 1000 - 1500 cal per day (generally)! ... 1000 as a minimum! At 5'1 and a bit; my nutritionist says is pefectly ok to lose weight healthly at my height provided macros's are proportionate.

    I work out 4 days a week, weight training 3 of those days, when the macros will be higher due to the exercise.

    Obviously I do have the occasional treat (like today), or a weekend 'off' as you will see from last weekend :blushing: was a couple of friends birthdays ... I'm only human ... but in general my food plan pretty much sticks to 40/30/30 (protein/carbs/fat)

    However, I now realise that some food's on MFP may be missing the Sodium content so will make sure to double check that the entries are correct.

    Thanks for the help so far everyone :flowerforyou:
  • LindseySprake
    LindseySprake Posts: 333 Member
    I had the same problem a couple of months ago. your diet is a lot like mine but I was getting palputations and feeling generally unwell. I now add salt sometimes, a pinch on a boiled egg for example. Some of the food data on mfp misses off sodium, I can tell you now that the soup you had yesterday contains sodium, and cheese is packed full of it. The other culprit is any bread product.

    Try to get about 1500mg of sodium per day. This is what nutritionists recommend to keep your heart regulated.Don't forget-everything in moderation!!

    I do try to avoid anything bread based anyway (carbs are not my friend lol) but will keep an eye on the sodium entries on some of the food entires to make sure they are correct.
    Not had any palputations or anything like that. I hope you have managed to get that sorted. But have since done a bit of googling as suggested and will look out for that! Many Thanks
  • LindseySprake
    LindseySprake Posts: 333 Member
    500 mg of sodium? What do you eat?

    Well mainly protein based meals, quite low carbs, and I never ever add salt to anything I cook.
    I'll open my diary.

    Just had to say, just looked at your food diary for today. cava for lunch...you're my kind of people! Love it

    LOL well to be fair I hadn't finished logging for the whole of today ... it was only just lunch time here in the UK and was not sure what i'd be having as I was going out for a lunch meeting *high five* to the Cava though :laugh:
  • rachelbeyer
    rachelbeyer Posts: 3 Member
    I have low blood pressure and need salt to keep my bp up. A lot of the foods on MFP don't correctly calculate sodium or potassium, so you may or may not be getting what you think you are.

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