Sodium...

Casi23
Casi23 Posts: 138 Member
edited September 20 in Food and Nutrition
OK - so I started tracking salt/sodium intake because everyone keeps talking about it on here.

Why is it so damn important? Is it because it just makes us retain water and then look bloated? I've been under by about half today...I'm sure I'll have some with dinner. But I wanna know WHY do we care so much?

Replies

  • Jennwith2ns
    Jennwith2ns Posts: 296 Member
    I'm hoping someone has a good answer for you. All I know from reading is that you retain more water with too much sodium and it can actually halt your weight loss.

    For instance a friend of mine had surgery.. for a month she could only have broth and other liquids.. all the things she was allowed were INSANELY high in sodium. She was having thousands of mg of sodium a day, but her calories were under 1000. She lost NO weight. Then a couple months after that she started adding healthy, solid food again.. had more calories and lost 10 lbs the first month.
  • courtney_love2001
    courtney_love2001 Posts: 1,468 Member
    To put it simply, excessive sodium intake can cause hypertension. It's pretty complicated, so I will just leave it at that :) You can look it up online; I'm sure you could find tons of info. Yet, I mainly care about sodium because it makes me puffy :laugh:
  • allyson2212
    allyson2212 Posts: 42
    I cant give you a great answer except that excess sodium is just plain bad for you! And its amazing, some of the "healthy" foods and how much sodium that they have. And yeah, it definitely will bloat you.
  • pannellkat
    pannellkat Posts: 709 Member
    Just something I found on line - not sure how accurate it is but interesting and makes sense

    Your kidneys regulate the amount of sodium kept in your body. When sodium levels are low, your kidneys conserve sodium. When levels are high, they excrete the excess amount in urine.

    If your kidneys can't eliminate enough sodium, the sodium starts to accumulate in your blood. Because sodium attracts and holds water, your blood volume increases. Increased blood volume, in turn, makes your heart work harder to move more blood through your blood vessels, increasing pressure in your arteries. Certain diseases such as congestive heart failure, cirrhosis and chronic kidney disease can lead to an inability to regulate sodium.

    Some people are more sensitive to the effects of sodium than are others. People who are sodium sensitive retain sodium more easily, leading to excess fluid retention and increased blood pressure. If you're in that group, extra sodium in your diet increases your chance of developing high blood pressure, a condition that can lead to cardiovascular and kidney diseases.
  • sallymurph
    sallymurph Posts: 56 Member
    I go by the rule that any of my snacks that have more than 350mg of sodium I avoid. My meals should never exceed 1000mg of sodium. Remember that sodium is not just in salty foods. Salt is Sodium-Chloride, sodium is also present in baked goods.
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