Sodium... SUCKS!!!

HeatherBurke
HeatherBurke Posts: 147
edited September 20 in Food and Nutrition
I can NOT seem to find a way to get anywhere near what I'm supposed to as far as the sodium is concerned. It sucks! It's in EVERYTHING! Even when my calories are pretty on point my sodium is insane! Granted some of the things I'm eating are convenience and things like that but holy crap... I had fallen off the wagon for a couple weeks and am back on so I guess tackle one thing at a time... First will be calories I suppose then move on to trying to tweek the rest as best as possible... But Jeeze... It's not fun.

Replies

  • xecila
    xecila Posts: 99
    It sucks.. But I've found the best thing you can do is avoid convenience foods. The thing that makes them so convenient is they're premade, and preserved. Most of what preserves them is sodium. Try to replace just one or two of those convenience foods with something fresh.
  • JJRunning
    JJRunning Posts: 146
    Try to avoid the frozen dinners, etc... I used to bring Lean Cuisine to work for lunch... BIG mistake!! They have SO much sodium! Which equals bloating..... nooo thank you:laugh:
  • xecila
    xecila Posts: 99
    Another thing you can do, is just spend one day a weekend cooking. Make your OWN frozen dinners. That can cut it back a lot too.
  • DrBorkBork
    DrBorkBork Posts: 4,099 Member
    I eat a convenience diet, too, and sodium is not a problem. I limit myself to 1600 a day, and stay under most days. What I've found that things which are low in sodium, are very often low in everything else... NOT the other way around. I eat a lot of healthy choice meals during the week, eat cereal, stir fry, fast food... it all fits in 1600/day.
    My diary is public. Today is not a good example, b/c my belly is not too happy so I'm not eating much (I think I had too much at dinner last night, also bad example, tomorrow is not so great either, LOL), but other days are good. Feel free to look at all of next week, starting Sunday :)
  • pkgirrl
    pkgirrl Posts: 587
    xecilia, that's what I do!

    Saves me some change too! =D
  • HeatherBurke
    HeatherBurke Posts: 147
    Recently I've become hooked on those Jimmy Dean D-lite breakfast sandwiches and the bowls which are awesome and totally tide me over til lunch.... maybe it's a catch 22
  • sassydot
    sassydot Posts: 141
    I find that the low/no-fat stuff has extra sodium in it too. Fat carries flavour, so when they take that way they have to use something else to make it seem tasty - and sodium does that without bumping the calorie count up, so its the obvious choice over the other option of sugar.
  • jlewis2896
    jlewis2896 Posts: 763 Member
    I'm so with you on this one!! Oatmeal has been my temporary lifesaver while I try to figure out better alternatives..... no sodium, lots of fiber and protein.

    There are days when I'm nowhere near my calorie goal, but my sodium is so high that I am afraid to eat anything else!!

    I do live on Lean Cuisines during the week, I will try the freeze-you-own-meals deal.
  • mworld
    mworld Posts: 270
    I'll tell you, ever since I started even looking at sodium I've had a LOT less Asian food! lol

    some of the sauces have over 1,000mg for 1TBSP.
  • DrBorkBork
    DrBorkBork Posts: 4,099 Member
    Blame soy sauce. That stuff is evil in the sodium department.

    Comparatively, I've found that the Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers have less sodium than any other frozen "health" meal. If it has more than 600 sodium in a meal, put it back.
  • danerider
    danerider Posts: 11 Member
    I found that I was getting almost all of my sodium in my lunch, I looked at the individual things and it was lunch meat that was killing me. To battle this I have started grilling a couple chicken breasts and slicing them thin and storing them in a plastic container in the fridge. I use 3 oz. of chicken to make my sandwich now instead of processed lunch meat. Pretty soon I am going to include pork and possibly a beef roast to mix it up. I also started making my own balsamic vinegrette salad dressing that cut a ton of sodium out of my diet. I suppose I stay away from the convenience stuff though so I amnot sure what can help.
  • TalonaCat
    TalonaCat Posts: 241
    I have a question, and I hope I don't sound like an idiot. I looked at your food diary and noticed your sodium is set to 2,500 daily? Is that a different measurement than what my diary goes by, or is it set that high for a reason?

    >.<
  • danerider
    danerider Posts: 11 Member
    Mine is 2500 as well, I did not change anything to have it set that way. I assume MFP calculated that as what I needed.
  • TalonaCat
    TalonaCat Posts: 241
    Why in the world do I only get like 60 per day then? :(
  • HeatherBurke
    HeatherBurke Posts: 147
    I have a question, and I hope I don't sound like an idiot. I looked at your food diary and noticed your sodium is set to 2,500 daily? Is that a different measurement than what my diary goes by, or is it set that high for a reason?

    >.<


    That's what MFP set it at.... Idk why
  • TalonaCat
    TalonaCat Posts: 241
    Ooooooh... nevermind! I was looking at the WRONG thing.. haha. Ignore me now. I'm just going to sneak quietly off into the background.
  • rbc_racing
    rbc_racing Posts: 31 Member
    I have a question, and I hope I don't sound like an idiot. I looked at your food diary and noticed your sodium is set to 2,500 daily? Is that a different measurement than what my diary goes by, or is it set that high for a reason?

    >.<


    That's what MFP set it at.... Idk why



    2500 mg per day is the recommended daily allowance of sodium, as set by the FDA. 500mg is the minimum you want to have for healthy body function. Also,if you go over in sodium, extra water will help flush the excess sodium from your system.
  • megamom
    megamom Posts: 920 Member
    When my son had kidney failure I had our meat department make me some brats and hot dogs without sodium so he could eat them. Being 12 he thought life was over if he couldn't have hot dogs. But finding prepared low sodium foods that tasted good was hard. They mostly tasted terrible. That is the time when my husband became such a great cook. We rarely cook with salt but he learned different ways to get the flavor in it.
  • mworld
    mworld Posts: 270
    Oh and don't forget the real kicker - if you get more calories for the day from exercise, it still doesn't increase your 2,500mg allowance! :(
  • cmw72
    cmw72 Posts: 390 Member
    You can potentially offset some of the negative effects of sodium by eating more potassium.

    http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/23/health/he-sodium23
  • arfletcher
    arfletcher Posts: 143
    I cut down on my sodium a couple of years ago - I was putting salt on EVERYTHING and have an aunt with Kidney disease and since I am like her (physically) in too many ways - I decided that it just isnt worth it! We basically dont eat/buy premade foods - Even canned beans - we make our own. Leftover's from dinner for lunch the next day takes pre-made/frozen meals right out of the mix - and oatmeal for breakfast helps with that. I very rarely add salt to anything at all anymore and I make almost everything in our home from scratch... One thing that I recently found out that KILLED me was that an 8oz steak at the Keg has over 3800mg of sodium in it! They use meat tenderizers on everything - So there are hidden sodiums in all sorts of places!
  • mommyhof3
    mommyhof3 Posts: 551 Member
    Sodium is crazy. I was eating 1% cottage cheese and 4 baby dill pickles for lunch and then noticed that that was almost my entire day of sodium. I struggle with sodium. I am good for fat and calories but yikes! Sodium gets me :mad:
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