Cutting back on Sodium--Need help!

depends on your calories for sodium. For example, 3000 calorie diet it is recommended that you consume 3000 mg sodium, 2000 calorie diet, 2000 mg sodium and so on. Do you drink diet sodas? Cutting them out can make a big difference on sodium also.

depends on your calories for sodium. For example, 3000 calorie diet it is recommended that you consume 3000 mg sodium, 2000 calorie diet, 2000 mg sodium and so on. Do you drink diet sodas? Cutting them out can make a big difference on sodium also.

A 12 ounce can of diet Pepsi has 35 mg of sodium in it. Unless you're drinking a two liter bottle a day I don't see cutting out diet Pepsi having a huge impact on your sodium intake.

Obviously cutting out or reducing prepackaged foods is the best way to go. A "clean" diet is the best way to really reduce your sodium as you are consuming mostly unprocessed foods.

Sauces and dressings are killer. The only sauce I still use is a buffalo sauce. I make my own mayo and salad dressings as they are super easy to make yourself! There tons of recipes and such online to show you how to make your own.

As someone else said, spice up dishes with spices. Don't use spice blends (like taco seasoning) as they are loaded with sodium. Taco seasoning is super easy to make yourself as is seasonings like chili, etc. Use different spices to give flavour to dishes instead of salt. If you do want to add salt to something try to go for things like sea salt, etc which can give you more minerals/vitamins than regular table salt.

Try to avoid canned veggies and soups. Super easy to make your own soups! Pasta sauce is another really easy one to make. I make one by quicly boiling fresh tomatoes. Take them out of the boiling water than put into ice water. Peel the skins (or leave on if you prefer). I than add them to a pot with a bit of water, spices, and than blend (add stuff into a blender if you don't have an immersion blender). Than I add some very finely chopped (or sometimes I use a food processor) green peppers, onions, garlic, very very finely chopped carrots and sometimes some other veggies (great way to use up extra veggies that might go bad). I make a huge batch and than put the sauce into little bags and freeze for future use.

Things like breads and buns are super easy to make as well even if you don't have a breadmaker. I also make my own crackers as well sometimes.

If you have a free day now and again spend it cooking so you have a lot of stuff prepared and ready that is homemade and low in sodium so you don't have to buy the canned, processed, bottled, sodium filled stuff.

Otherwise, read your labels. Look at different brands and pay attention to portion sizes. I found one brand of ketchup that said low sodium on it... however comparing the portion sizes showed that it has the same amount of sodium as regular ketchup that is much cheaper.

sauce is easy to make

Tomatoes, garlic, basil, peppers and onions and preferred salt free spices in a pot.. Viola spaghetti sauce.. Basic recipe of course.. I put squash, cheese and mushrooms and zucchini and a varity of other things into mine.

I buy bread.. but I get organic whole grain bread.. seems to be lower in sodium then the counter parts. Make your own chips by slicing potatoes or veggies thin, spraying with a touch of oil and baking until crispy. Then spice them up with whatever you want.

You can buy low salt versions of almost every cracker out there. Just be diligent in checking labels and reading ingredients.

stop buying process, problem solved. Yup, not as handy, and you do have to figure out how to cook things you like without the sodium you are used to. It takes time. Once you cut out the processed items you will find your levels may drop too low. That is not particularly helpful for a few reasons.

For lowering sodium:

When you're cooking use sea salt or kosher salt. They both have less sodium per volume than regular table salt.

Less deli meats.

lose the canned veggies - the steam in bag ones (unseasoned) are easier to prepare anyway.

Avoid chain restaurants like the plague (e.g. 99 restaurant chicken parm has 4500mg per serving)

Read Labels. For example, I make a chicken and salsa in the crock pot. I use Newman's salsa because it has less sodium than most other commercial brands.

I agree that spices are a great help! A website I've recently found and like is http://lowsodiumcooking.com. You may find some nice recipes, etc, there. They also have a newsletter if you wish to sign up (I haven't yet so can't tell you if it's good, bad or indifferent).

Best of luck in taking this positive step!

Great information and ideas Thanks a lot !

Make sure you buy fresh chicken breasts and tenders. The ones sold flash frozen are injected with a salt solution and incredibly full of sodium!

Cheese can have a ton of sodium too - especially cottage cheese of all things! Prairie farms makes one with sea salt and is 50% less sodium and tastes just like the other stuff.

Spaghetti sauce is terribly high in sodium too. Even the heart smart stuff.

Ok so I have never had to watch my sodium levels before. However, I see now how important it is to watch your sodium in regards to living a healthier life style and losing weight. My problem is this. I don't mind cooking, in fact I am not that big into pre packaged stuff except for things like bread, crackers and things like spaghetti sauce, etc. I don't know how to make those things myself. This may sound strange to others but in lieu of giving up these items all together, what do others do that are watching sodium? I still can't believe how much sodium certain things have, it is mind boggling. Thanks!!

I like the ease of jarred pasta sauce as well. The one I found (at both Whole Foods and EarthFare) that had the lowest sodium and still tasted reallyt good was by Eden Foods. Their Organic Spaghetti Sauce, No Salt Added. A half cup serving has only 70 cals, 2.5 g fat (0 sat, 0 trans), 0 cholesterol, 33 mg potassium, 9 g carbs (4 g. sugars, 5 dietary fiber), 2 g of protein and (you'll love this) only 10 mg sodium per serving. Good luck!

P.s. ThyCa also puts out a Low Iodine cookbook you can download for free with a ton of recipes. Since it's low iodine, there are also a lot of low sodium recipes.

I'm fortunate in that I don't really LIKE heavily salted foods, and I've learned from experience that certain brands of certain products are simplly unacceptable to me because they just taste like salt (Lean Cuisine is a major offender--I will NEVER eat another one again!). But because I simply don't LIKE salty food, I have been a long-time label-reader scouting for the lowest-sodium version of whatever it is I'm hunting for.

I'd suggest
(a) read labels! There are low-sodium versions of many common prepackaged foods, and/or brands that have dramatically different sodium levels. Two spaghetti sauces or two brands of crackers side by side may have dramatically different sodium levels-- and there are many that are fairly good even if they're not labeled as "low sodium" or "no salt added" . So just start watching.

And:
(b) get yourself a basic cookbook like the Fannie Farmer Cookbook or the Betty Crocker Cookbook. These "a little bit of everything" cookbooks will give you basic recipes for a variety of common staple foods (meatloaf, spaghetti sauce, chicken casseroles, bread, desserts, you name it!) from which you can start adapting your own recipes. I read recently that the average family relies on 8 - 12 dishes on a regular basis. So if you learn one new recipe a week, you'll have a complete set of 8 - 12 in two to 3 months!

Bump

I don't really watch my sodium because I don't have any blood pressure issues (and I don't eat a lot of processed foods), however, I once heard you should never eat something with more sodium than calories. Also, from watching my friends diaries (who love to eat out and ramen noodles), I have noticed that it isn't so much the crackers that get them, it is eating out for multiple meals a day. Instead of focusing on what not to eat, try just not eating out if possible. Even if you use prepared sauce or crackers from a box, I am betting a homemade meal will still end up with less sodium than a restaurant or fast food meal will.

I agree OP! As an RN, even I had no idea just how much sodium really was in everything! I started monitoring my sodium intake with MFP, and it has constantly been through the roof! I've improved on it a lot, but I still go over a lot. It's high in cheese, frozen "healthy" meals, and horrible in canned foods! Best advice I can give you is just to check those food labels. Also salad dressing is pretty bad if you eat more than 1 serving. If you need to eat a low sodium diet, best advice is to eat fresh foods, nothing prepackaged, or atleast limit them to one meal/day, and use other herbs/spices for seasoning. Mrs. Dash, is convenient, or that nusalt, if you don't have to watch potassium for any medical reasons. Oh, and look out for those marinades! Those are also typically very high! Good luck and be creative!

I have never bothered to watch my salt intake from the foods eaten. When cooking, I don't normally add salt to my foods. Being new to MFP, I left my sodium level @ 2500, & then lowered it to 2300 after reading an article online. Earlier today, I read in Jillian Michael's recipe/food book that sodium should be lowered to 2000. But, after reading these recent postings, maybe I should lower it even more!?

My salt intake has never been an issue until just recently, only because I have an incredible thirst, drinking 20 8 oz glasses a day. I understand that my workouts can cause dehydration, but this is ridiculous! I feel so thirsty all.the.time! My weight seems to have come to a standstill from retained water. For the last 3 days, my sodium intake has been about 3600 grams! For example, I thought I was eating kinda healthy with some fish sticks...won't be buying those again @ Costco! I am definitely working on getting this under control!