Sodium!!!

You'll just have to cut down on processed foods (the turkey sausage and bacon). Subsitute with fresh meat or fish. Use real eggs. And get in the habit of reading labels. Salt is inevitable in bread and cheese, but does vary from type to type. For other foodstuffs just look for low- or no-salt versions.

When I cook I do not add any salt to my foods and use herbs instead however I noticed that some of the foods i buy already come prepared with sodium.

Such as:

Turkey Bacon
Turkey Sausage
Almond Milk
Egg Substitutes
My Protein shake
Bread
Nuts
Cheese
Etc.

At the end of the day my sodium intake is at 3,000 or more and I am not sure what to do. I aim for no more than 2,500 of salt per day and am not adding any but it seems like it's in everything. A little worried about possible water retention due to sodium intake. Any suggestions or opinions on this are appreciated.

Sodium can be a real problem when you're not making time go cook your own food. All I can suggest is try to find "low sodium" or "no sodium added" versions of the foods you're buying. Turkey Bacon and Turkey Sausage is the worst because the type of sodium it has is "sodium nitrate" and when nitrate breaks off from sodium in your body it has a good chance of creating cancer cells in your body (luckily vitamin C can stop this connection).

Potassium is believed to help reverse the effects of sodium on water retention, so if you have no choice but to buy and cook processed foods (preparing your own meat is ideal though) then maybe finding great ways to increase your potassium would be ideal. To find foods that are high in potassium go to whfoods.org

A little sodium isn't a bad thing though. Most sodium based products carry "iodine" with it and iodine is important to have in your diet because it improves thyroid function and sight. So I think eliminating ALL sodium would be a terrible idea. Staying under 1500 would be a pretty reasonable goal though.

As far as water retention goes though, water retains in fiber too, so if you are eating a high fiber diet (over 15g per day IMO) then you are probably carrying your water weight in your stools. Try having one of your meals not have any rice, breads, or baked goods and eat your carbs in veggies/fruits and 4 hours after that meal, see how you feel and weigh yourself. I retain water through refined flours because of poor digestion and malnutrition due to inflammation of my intestines, so if you find that removing grains from your diet helps with weight loss, then you may have to try eliminating them for a while.

Hope that was helpful for you :flowerforyou:

I am having the same problems, and in the last 10 days have managed to reduce from 2500mg to 1500mg or under. But it's been difficult, and I am gradually weeding out all of the items that are high in sodium. I have purchased low sodium products as much as possible, and I am now buying as much fresh as possible. But I still like my occasinaly Black Bean Burger and thus I have plan my meals carefully to ensure I can fit in such processed items with their sodium into my daily plan. It's been hard, but I have done pretty well these last two weeks, but my meals are not too varied because of it. BTW I found a low sodium cottage cheese, no too tasty, so looking for ways to spice it up and still manage to eat it. I did put 1oz of no sugar added applesauce with 1/2 cup and that was good, so there is a price to play and finding ways to get the flavour is a chanllenge.

I had to stop buying pretty much all prepackaged foods. I use almost nothing that is boxed, bagged, or canned with very few exceptions. The only canned vegetable I buy is No Salt Added tomato products. Even with the dairy I eat (eggs, skim milk, one serving of cheese/day, cottage cheese, and yogurt), I still rarely go over 2,000 mgs of sodium/day. In fact, most days I stay in the 1500-1800mg range. I finally came to the realization that eating as whole and fresh as possible is best. It takes alot of planning and a little extra work, but it's worth it. I feel soooo much better after cutting that processed junk out of my diet. Don't get me wrong, I'm not 100% compliant. For example, my brother works at a family owned pizza joint and I'll be going there for a slice of tomato/basil pizza tonight. However, that is a very rare treat for me. I would say 98 days out of 100, I don't eat like that. When I do, I try to preplan so that the rest of the food I eat that day is as low in sodium as possible and I drink extra water. So far, following this guideline has been working pretty well for me.

I am having the same problems, and in the last 10 days have managed to reduce from 2500mg to 1500mg or under. But it's been difficult, and I am gradually weeding out all of the items that are high in sodium. I have purchased low sodium products as much as possible, and I am now buying as much fresh as possible. But I still like my occasinaly Black Bean Burger and thus I have plan my meals carefully to ensure I can fit in such processed items with their sodium into my daily plan. It's been hard, but I have done pretty well these last two weeks, but my meals are not too varied because of it. BTW I found a low sodium cottage cheese, no too tasty, so looking for ways to spice it up and still manage to eat it. I did put 1oz of no sugar added applesauce with 1/2 cup and that was good, so there is a price to play and finding ways to get the flavour is a chanllenge.

Morningstar black bean? Yeah, those are evil. I love them, too. :happy:

Unless you have high blood pressure, don't worry about it. While people with high blood pressure may see reductions in their blood pressure by adhering to a low sodium diet, sodium does not CAUSE high blood pressure for the vast majority of people (especially Caucasians). Furthermore, if you exercise, you lose sodium through your sweat.

Check this out:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt

I stopped drinking almond milk because the sodium was to high and the calories were to low. I use "So Delicious" dairy and soy free vanilla + protein. Its 70 cals 5g protein and 95g Na. Also look for lower sodium products. All the items you listed have low sodium choices. Drink plenty of water and up your potassium on days you thin kyou will go over on sodium

This low sodium diet brings back memories! I had to reduce sodium to be less than 2000 mg per day in order to prevent the reoccurrence of hydrops in my inner ears (excessive fluid retention). It was hard but doable to plan the daily menu not to exceed 2000 mg..

One item I used to buy was low sodium canned tuna. Here is one example of low sodium tuna from StarKist in a bag, not a can:
http://www.starkist.com/product/low-sodium-chunk-light-tuna-water-pouch

Another low-sodium item was swiss cheese such as this from Berners -- http://www.bernervalley.com/bnc-nutr-comp.htm.

Another low sodium item was Safeway bread (in sliced loaves) where one slice had only 110 mg sodium, compared to 220, 280, and even higher for other breads for just one slice.

There are also low-sodium canned soups. I used to eat Healthy Choice and low-salt labelled Campbell soups.

I also bought low-sodium crackers from Nabisco.

If I think of any more, I'll post another.

I have noticed the same thing with those items. Try to spread them out so your not having all of those items on the same day. You can't avoid sodium, but you can limit it by eating less processed items. For example I love lowfat cottage cheese, low in calories & fat and was delicious mixed with jarred peaches. I only eat it occasionally now because of the high sodium