What is sodium? Is it salt?

cbramp74
cbramp74 Posts: 3
in Food and Nutrition
I just joined yesterday, it was telling me that my daily allowance of sodium is 2,500! What is that? milligrams? grams?? I can't see what it means! But it seems wrong to me, is there a way of changing it? I only had 8 yesterday!
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Replies

  • NobodyInParticular
    NobodyInParticular Posts: 352 Member
    Milligrams and you had more than 8, I promise
  • RhineDHP
    RhineDHP Posts: 1,025 Member
    Yeah, sodium is basically your salt intake. It counts naturally occurring sodium in food, as well as whatever you add when, say, you salt your steak.

    A daily allowance of sodium is in Milligrams. Here's a kind of basic synopsis of sodium, hope this helps!

    http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002415.htm
  • Changing_Charity
    Changing_Charity Posts: 197 Member
    sodium is basically salt. frozen, processed, and fast food are always packed with sodium which is bad for your blood pressure and makes you retain water making it harder to lose weight. and there is no way you only had 8 mg of sodium. there is more than that in a serving of most fruits and veggies. salad dressings, sauces, breads, pasta, drinks, they all have lots of sodium. its adds up quick
  • linsey0689
    linsey0689 Posts: 753 Member
    Yes it is salt and mg. Hard to believe you only had 8, i would double check that
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,273 Member
    Sodium is an element (symbol "Na"). It is found in table salt (sodium chloride) and other compounds like baking soda, baking powder, sodium nitrate, and MSG.
    You can check labels for sodium content. It is usually stated in milligrams (mg) or daily percentages.
    Sodium is in more than just table salt so be aware. That said, unless you are restricting it for some reason like high blood pressure or water retention, don't worry about it.
  • cbramp74
    cbramp74 Posts: 3
    I put all my foods in for that day and it said 8 for sodium
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    Do not worry about sodium. Unless you have a specific condition outlined by your doctor tracking sodium should not really be a concern if you are eating in a generally balanced manner.
  • pennydreadful270
    pennydreadful270 Posts: 266 Member
    Depending on where the entries for the food are from often people don't add all the individual values for salt/fibre/vitamins etc.. some only care about calories/ fat/ carbs. Don't worry about it unless you start to crave salty foods, your body really does need a certain level of sodium to function and you should listen to it in that case. I like to have a couple anchovies when I get like that, haha, but maybe I'm weird. x
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,956 Member
    I put all my foods in for that day and it said 8 for sodium

    you may have used a bunch of user added foods, where people don't put in all the values, just the big ones like cals, fat, protien and carbs. Guaranteed you had more than 8. There's 7mg of sodium in a cup of lettuce.
  • brit_ks_89
    brit_ks_89 Posts: 433 Member
    i usually stay between 700mg - 1500mg of sodium a day!!!

    AND YES YOU HAD MORE THEN 8G!!!!!

    IN 6egg whites alone - it has about 300mg of sodium .
  • jbauer83
    jbauer83 Posts: 12 Member
    Salt and Sodium are not the same number. This is why the sodium figure in nearly all UK food listings on the MfP app are all wrong. There needs to be an option whether you track salt or sodium. The app should then convert the numbers to whichever ur tracking
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,752 Member
    jbauer83 wrote: »
    Salt and Sodium are not the same number. This is why the sodium figure in nearly all UK food listings on the MfP app are all wrong. There needs to be an option whether you track salt or sodium. The app should then convert the numbers to whichever ur tracking

    How is the app supposed to know whether the number in an entry is for salt or sodium?
  • jbauer83
    jbauer83 Posts: 12 Member
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    jbauer83 wrote: »
    Salt and Sodium are not the same number. This is why the sodium figure in nearly all UK food listings on the MfP app are all wrong. There needs to be an option whether you track salt or sodium. The app should then convert the numbers to whichever ur tracking

    How is the app supposed to know whether the number in an entry is for salt or sodium?

    It’s not hard. Just like a weather app displays only Fahrenheit or centigrade depending on the users choice. As I’m from the U.K. I want to track salt levels. Therfore anyone that’s inputted sodium values the app will convert that to salt values and only show me that.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,752 Member
    edited October 2017
    jbauer83 wrote: »
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    jbauer83 wrote: »
    Salt and Sodium are not the same number. This is why the sodium figure in nearly all UK food listings on the MfP app are all wrong. There needs to be an option whether you track salt or sodium. The app should then convert the numbers to whichever ur tracking

    How is the app supposed to know whether the number in an entry is for salt or sodium?

    It’s not hard. Just like a weather app displays only Fahrenheit or centigrade depending on the users choice. As I’m from the U.K. I want to track salt levels. Therfore anyone that’s inputted sodium values the app will convert that to salt values and only show me that.

    How does the app know whether it's a sodium or salt value though?

    I could write 120 degrees. Is that Celsius or Fahrenheit? Unless you're me, you can't be sure which one I'm talking about.
  • jbauer83
    jbauer83 Posts: 12 Member
    Yes but if i select the value to be shown in salt and Joe Bloggs wants the values to be shown in sodium. Then everything I enter as salt must be converted by the app for Joe Bloggs and displayed as sodium. And vice versa.
  • tarun_yadavA
    tarun_yadavA Posts: 1,082 Member
    ^ Agree.
    Sodium = / = Salt.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
    I hope the 2800 isn't grams.
  • cronus70
    cronus70 Posts: 191 Member
    I'm from the UK and I have to convert all my manually entered values for food to get my sodium intake. I don't particularly track salt/sodium but to my mind, if it's a displayed value then it should be accurate. Anyway....salt grams devided by 2.5 then times by 1000 = sodium in mg.

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