Sodium???

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SquidVonBob
SquidVonBob Posts: 290 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm worried I'm eating too much sodium. The problem is that I eat turkey sandwiches most days of the week and that has a bunch of sodium in it. It gets really hard to find different types of healthy food on a college campus, and being an art student during finals season, I have little to know time to cook.

Any suggestions?

Replies

  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,136 Member
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    Eat half the sandwich or use less turkey?
  • aforbes
    aforbes Posts: 9
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    Good luck reducing sodium...it's a challenge! A few suggestions for lunch: Healthy Choice brand lunch meat from the deli counter has WAY less sodium, low-sodium tuna salad made with minimal lite mayo and lemon juice, cook and shred your own chicken or turkey breast for chicken or turkey salad sandwiches (throw a couple of breasts in the crockpot with a tiny bit of butter, water, or broth and cook for a couple of hours). Your bread is honestly as big of a culprit as the lunch meat is (surprised? look at your bread package). I make a tuna salad with mashed white kidney beans and my husband eats it on corn tortillas (blah...but no sodium!). Check your cereals, too, lots of sodium hiding in there! Good luck...
  • ParkerH47
    ParkerH47 Posts: 463 Member
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    I think if you try and avoid processed and packaged foods as much as possible its better. But that turkey sandwich isn't going to be half as bad as a bag of chips. We have to celebrate the little wins, right? ;)
    Also try and eat a banana with a meal that you feel may have too much sodium, because the potassium in it works to counter act the effects of sodium
    Also, my thoughts are, sodium is everywhere and though a truly healthy diet is lower in sodium, in almost all cases I would take sodium over sugar or fat any day.
    hope that helps!
  • darrenmirfield
    darrenmirfield Posts: 5 Member
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    The more you look into reducing your sodium intake you realise that it is quite a hard task. You'll most likely be getting a dose from the salt added to the bread. So the way ahead is usage of little plastic boxes. They are just great. They come in all shapes and sizes and can be squeezed into your college bag. They are easy to clean and if you have left over food like pasta just put it in the container the night before, allow to cool, attach the lid and put it in the fridge overnight to eat cold at college. A favourite of mine it to get a bag of pre-washed salad (I too have little time for prepping) put it in the box with chunks of turkey or chicken on top. Perhaps sprinkle with almonds or sunflower seeds or pumpking seeds and perhaps a lttle dressing. Remember to pack a fork and you can crunch away to your hearts content at any time of day. A smaller container can contain nuts or seeds seperately and you can have a seperate box for fruit. Little plastic lunch boxes put you back in control take anything you like. You can log it and weigh it the night before on your myfitnesspal app.
  • aforbes
    aforbes Posts: 9
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    Good luck reducing sodium...it's a challenge! A few suggestions for lunch: Healthy Choice brand lunch meat from the deli counter has WAY less sodium, low-sodium tuna salad made with minimal lite mayo and lemon juice, cook and shred your own chicken or turkey breast for chicken or turkey salad sandwiches (throw a couple of breasts in the crockpot with a tiny bit of butter, water, or broth and cook for a couple of hours). Your bread is honestly as big of a culprit as the lunch meat is (surprised? look at your bread package). I make a tuna salad with mashed white kidney beans and my husband eats it on corn tortillas (blah...but no sodium!). Check your cereals, too, lots of sodium hiding in there! Good luck...
  • aforbes
    aforbes Posts: 9
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    Should've said "Healthy Ones" brand, not "Healthy Choice"...
  • geebusuk
    geebusuk Posts: 3,348 Member
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    The more I looked in to reducing sodium, the more I decided I didn't need to :).

    I don't have high blood pressure and absolutely refuse to take an 'RDA' to mean anything when it's used so generically.
  • joehempel
    joehempel Posts: 1,761 Member
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    It's tough for sure. Some days are better than others for me, but about 80% of the time, I'm under, or only a couple hundred over, the other 20% I'm about 1,000-1,500 over.

    Non processed foods help A TON....but sometimes it's just un-avoidable.

    Even if you don't have the problems that are associated with high-sodium diets, it's still good to keep it down because it can cause those problems in the future. But it's no nearly as scary as people make it out to be...in fact you NEED sodium in your diet.
  • firedupfriend
    firedupfriend Posts: 140 Member
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    For what it's worth, I track my sodium very carefully.
    I find the more sodium I consume, the more I retain water.
    MFP sets Sodium at 2500. I have reduced mine to 1500 as I am over 50 which is a general recommendation.
    I avoid processed foods as best I can.

    Good luck, it must be so difficult on campus!!
  • gcadays99
    gcadays99 Posts: 23
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    I've been working on dropping my sodium as well. It's tough when I'm on a train all day long so no way to cook so pretty much sandwhiches is what I eat during those days. I just try to find low sodium turkey.

    But I also like to eat cottage cheese which has a good amount.

    I switched from adding salsa to my eggs to just chopping up some mini bell peppers since salsa has a on as well.

    I still go over the 2500 on most days but it's getting closer.
  • Brunner26_2
    Brunner26_2 Posts: 1,152
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    I cook 3 or 4 chicken breasts over the weekend, cut them up, and eat them for lunch throughout the week. You have to pay attention to which kind you get though. Cheap brands, like the walmart brand, can also have a ton of sodium.

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