How Do I Cut Back On My Sodium Intake

Its all those spiced meats and pepperoni that are putting your over.

Honestly?

First I would change your goal from 2500 (MFP's goal) to somewhere between 1500 and 1800

I have my goal set to 1800. If I know i'm going to go over it, I eat foods that are high in potassium to offset the sodium.

You don't need a lot of sodium for your body to function and MFP's goal is much to high. Pre-packaged sandwich meats are really a killer. Look for foods that are high in potassium if you want to eat the sandwich meats, have them with some avocado. Also, look for lower sodium varieties. I am a vegetarian, but I KNOW they make them, you just have to keep an eye out for them.

Also, making your own meat would not be horrible...like buying some chicken or turkey, cooking it and then slicing it up for sandwiches and salads.

Just be diligent. I am huge on label reading. I NEED to know what's going in to my body. I try to keep everything in proportion....for example, if I'm going to have a meal I will look at the calorie content of the meal and then the sodium. I try to make sure the sodium content will not be more than the calorie total of the meal. That helps too.


http://askville.amazon.com/foods-high-Potassium/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=10048011

You should also be mindful of your potassium intake, which almost EVERYONE needs to increase! Concentrate on plant-based whole foods (coincidentally, nonprocessed) and you'll take care of both.

I just recently started experimenting with that and I first looked at my diary and the recipes I had entered in the recipe calculator tool and identified the biggest culprits. No surprise that the highest days for sodium were the days we made Chinese food but there were some surprises too, like my deli meats that I use for low-calorie lunch wraps and cottage cheese. Pasta sauce of any kind was also high. Once I knew what was causing the high sodium counts, I started looking for what could be switched to a low or no sodium version such as getting unsalted butter instead of salted. I asked the deli which of the lunch meats were the lowest sodium and got those instead (not that that makes them low because I read that to be able to be labeled "reduced sodium", the rule is it only has to have 25% or more less sodium than the regular version so if the regular is really high, then 25% less can still be alot!) I also started reading the nutrition labels for things that don't have low sodium versions and choosing, for example, the mozzarella with the least sodium mg listed. I also stopped adding salt to most recipes (except for the banana bread I made tonight....you can't really get away with that in baking) and using more pepper, herbs and salt-free seasonings. Honestly, with most recipes, I don't even notice other than that I can taste the actual food and not just the salt -- and the food is good all by its' little old self! ) I read up on sodium recommendations at the Mayo Clinic site and since I am on high blood pressure meds and I wanted to see if lowering my sodium would knock me off the plateau I was on (it seems to have worked!), I customized my goal settings to 1500 mg per day instead of the default 2500 MFP gave me, which is the maximum recommendation for the general population but lower is always better in this case. Then I changed the nutrient tracking setting so it shows me sodium instead of cholesterol since the cholesterol was pretty well under control most days unless I had an egg for breakfast. That helps me keep an eye on where I am as I pre-plan my daily meals and I can make adjustments to the rest of the day if there is one meal or dish that is high in sodium for the day (such as my husband's favorite casserole for tomorrow --even with no ADDED sodium, it has alot of sodium in it!!) so I don't completely go over. If I'm a little over, I don't sweat it cause I've got the setting low anyway so it's still lower than it was when I wasn't paying attention to it. Anyway, that's what I've tried so far and it seems to help so good luck!

I LOVE salami and packaged smoked salmon, but OMG my sodium levels go through the roof on the days I eat them!

And basically ANY cheese not in the deli section.. Well all cheese basically has tons of sodium per slice example anywhere from 350-500mg in each slice. Buy Applegate Farms yogurt cheese slices: Only about 100mg per slice.

You should also be mindful of your potassium intake, which almost EVERYONE needs to increase!

That comment has actually been quite helpful for me. I had no idea I needed more potassium. I just checked mine on MFP and it says today I got around 486, which is very low. But would be average for me.

That is why I like these forums, you learn something new every day.

Actually, 'twas my seriously deficient potassium intake that started me on a journey to very successful healthier diet, and by "diet" I mean the foods that my body needs, not caloric restriction! Just have a look at my food diary for today! Fruits, fruits, veggies, veggies, veggies! And lean chicken. And a bit of yogurt. Mostly plants. ☺