Decreasing sodium intake advice

The only way to really decrease your sodium is to make all your meals yourself, this way you can control what goes into each meal, because all processed foods contain sodium in varying quanity.

only if you're chugging margaritas, bloody marys, or salty dogs, etc!!! I think there might be a tiny amount in beer but not sure, can probably check the info online.

Minimize processed and/or restaurant foods.

There is no other answer.

Cooking your own food is the only realistic way to do it.

If you don't have a medical issue where you need to watch sodium, I wouldn't worry about it.

Read labels and do a lot of searching/comparing. This site helped me get a better idea of what foods to look for: http://www.lowsaltfoods.com/default.htm

The best way to monitor and control your sodium intake is to cook pretty much everything you eat from fresh.

Processed foods are usually packed with sodium, as is most food when you eat out, like restaurants, fast food, etc.

Don't be too quick to slate sodium though, it's essential for our diet.

I am only supposed to have 1500mg or less, so I gradually phased out a lot of stuff. I guess I'll just make a list of different things I did.

First, I quit eating canned soup, frozen dinners and most anything else that was processed or in a box, such as mac n cheese, instant potatoes, etc.

I buy fresh or frozen vegetables, though my first choice is home grown. Canned vegetables have a lot of sodium, but you can rinse them to remove some of it.

I put the salt shaker away and started cooking with herbs. I grow my own but I also have a lot of store bought dried stuff on hand.

I use fresh lemon, lime and orange zest along with garlic, olive oil and pepper as a marinade for meat and veggies. I also use a rub made from paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper and parsley. It's awesome on chicken and veggies.

If I go out for dinner, I ask them to not ADD any sodium, but usually the stuff is already marinated before they get it to the restaurant, or they don't have any plain. It doesn't hurt to ask though! Some of the 550 or less meals at Applebees have 3,000mg of sodium in them! If I do eat one of those, I will ask for my veggies plain and any sauces on the side. Now on the rare occasion when I eat dinner out, I can hardly stand the salty taste. Then, I drink a lot of water to help flush it out of my body.

I did find a mustard without sodium, it's Great Value spicy mustard from Walmart. It has a lot of flavor too.

Basically you have to cook almost everything yourself. It sucks but if you can prepare stuff and freeze it, it goes together faster.

I make a big crockpot full of spaghetti/pizza sauce and freeze it in small Ziploc bags. That makes several meals. Store bought sauces are loaded with salt. I add none to mine.

Okay, I've been eating at 1500mgs of sodium per day for three months (I have high blood pressure I am trying to bring down.) You've already heard the basics. Get used to the idea of cooking your own meals from scratch, cook with spice not salt.

I will emphasize reading nutrition labels. You'd be completely shocked how much sodium is in foods like whole wheat bread. A piece of bread will have twice the sodium of a serving of potato chips. Wheat, white, doesn't matter. Because it's the leavening agents that have all the sodium.

This goes for almost all baked goods. Get ready to make your own and look for things like low or no sodium baking powder and soda. Grocery store meat is another one to watch out for. A lot of stores will 'plump up' meat by adding a saline solution. Which can add 300 mgs of sodium per serving.

It adds up fast.