How do you keep sodium down??

Reality is that getting your weight/body composition under control and staying active will get you 90+% of all possible health benefits. Eating a decent quantity and mix of veggies and fruits will get you most of that last 10%.

Of what little bit is remaining, sodium intake is basically insignificant unless you have a medical condition that requires you to keep it low.

Bottom line is maintain a healthy weight, maintain or build lean mass, get regular exercise, eat veggies, and don't really worry about anything else unless you have a specific reason.

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I buy fresh organic, free range meats to avoid the injected solutions. Also, I noticed I was getting awfully high in sodium and went back through my diary looking for anything with triple digits in that category. Turned out it was the lean ham slices, deli cheese and pre-packaged tortillas that were the worst culprits.

I bake my own bread, we grind sausage from boneless/skinless chicken thighs, pork or beef and otherwise have avoided much packaging but it's surprising how hard it is to avoid.

We have a great organic/scratch cooking group on facebook (Au Naturel) and am thinking of starting one here. Anyone interested?

Canned foods and most boxed items are notoriously high in sodium. You want your fruits and veggies to be fresh if possible, frozen if not. Canned should be a very last resort. Canned soup, please don't go there. Another crazy high source of sodium. Soups are ridiculously easy to make from scratch so you control the amount of salt that goes into it. If you are a fan of soy sauce, switch to tamari. Less sodium. Read labels. That is the biggest help. If you like cooking, you may want to look on Pinterest for mixes like taco seasoning, cream of mushroom soup, onion soup mix, that type of thing. The packages that you buy in the store is loaded with MSG and sodium And if you have high blood pressure like I do, add bananas to your diet, drink plenty of water, and monitor your potassium level. Those will help, along with exercise. Good luck!

I noticed two things in your diary from the last few weeks. 1- Your normal breakfast is 40% of your sodium for the day. Consider switching up your protein choice. 2- There are more processed foods in your day than you probably think (not that my food diary is perfect). Sliced deli meat is generally PACKED with sodium. Next time you buy groceries, check the nutrutional values before you put it in the cart.

Okay the FB cooking group is much larger (over 500) and more active, but I've started one here as well. Anyone welcome to join either!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/16412-au-naturel

http://facebook.com/groups/aunaturel

i don't use salt on my foods and i don't eat processed foods

I don't add salt to any of my food. When I shop for prepackaged foods I try to watch for sodium under 250 I also changed my goals to include no more than 2000 sodium some good days I am under 600. I have Hugh blood pressure so this is very important to me.

i don't use salt on my foods and i don't eat processed foods

I haven't had a banana in a month, but you don't see me bragging about it, do you?

like everyone else said, process, boxed, frozen, canned food are all high in sodium. As are some meats, one of my problems is frozen meals, lots of sodium, and deli/lunchmeats are high in sodium too. Instead of say boxed rice, cook your own rice, and add to it, even something like a baked potato instead would be lower in sodium. I am finding it very hard to keep sodium within the limits, but days that I follow these I am able to.

...(I think sodium is one cause of the stall) but sodium just seems to be so high in everything. Aside from cooking everything I eat, has anyone had success at maintaining low levels of sodium?

Personally I don't think this is possible unless you are eating things pulled right from the ground, fresh off the hoof, etc. In another post you noted that you were going to have to learn to cook. It isn't that hard, find a good cookbook. Two years ago I was getting my breakfast from fast food chains, my lunch from a deli or take out and dinner sitting down at a restaurant. If I ate at home it was a PB&J sandwich a potpie, frozen pizza or something along those lines. I've now reached a point I hate to eat out and one of those reasons is actually because I taste nothing but salt in many of the things others fix.

My sodium levels now run between 1300 and 1800 with a day here and there that will be over that. Sometimes, rarely it'll be over 3000, but those are days I eat out. People have made a lot of suggestions, most involve cooking. Fruit and veggies from the produce section will have little to "no" sodium. That is pretty much going to be it unless you can obtain freshly killed meat.

Salt is a preservative which is why you find it in so many foods. Someone questioned pork chops having 400mg (?), but in reality it is up there at that level from everything I've seen. Buying food in a health food market doesn't always help. It may be healthier than buying from a regular grocery store as food may be nitrate free, but because of that preservative effect of sodium it is likely still going to be high and maybe higher at a health food market.

Now this requires cooking to some extent, but I will reiterate what others have said. Low/lower sodium products are a huge help. I occasionally buy canned chicken, but it is a lower sodium product than its neighbors on the shelf. If I buy canned veggies I look for the same. Lower sodium bacon is excellent. If you don't like to cook, cook a batch of bacon in the oven (roughly 30 minutes without any involvement once it is in the oven) and then warm it in the microwave each morning. If you like peanut butter, PB2 is a great product if you are watching sodium and also need/want to cut fats. I don't do chips much any more, but have had a craving lately. Thinly sliced a potato the other day, sprayed a plate with a cooking spray, laid out the slices on the plate and lightly sprayed the tops of the potatoes before putting them in the microwave to cook them. Much better than a bagged chip in my opinion and you can add your own seasoning. This is to say that I don't think you can get the sodium down without doing some label reading and including some cooking with it.

I pretty much refuse to walk through the center of the store because it is all of the highly processed foods.

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First I'd like to say that my weight is starting to fall again after 3 weeks of no loss or gains (I think sodium is one cause of the stall) but sodium just seems to be so high in everything. Aside from cooking everything I eat, has anyone had success at maintaining low levels of sodium?

Cooking your own food is pretty much it. Sorry.

Restaurant foods, canned soups, anything you didn't make in your own kitchen is more than likely going to have a lot of sodium.

I think I am logging some foods incorrectly. There is no way my fresh kale has 10 grams of sodium. I think when I use the generic food option I am sometimes logging things incorrectly. Or am I? Not really sure.

If you want to remove sodium from preprocessed foods there are a few tricks...
1. Beans and other veggies that are canned can be rinsed to remove the surface salt.
2. Canned food like soups. Add a plain potato and then dispose of it. It will absorb a large percentage of the sodium out of the food.
Best way though is to avoid it by preparing food yourself with little or no salt and/or finding stuff that is low, reduced or no sodium.
If you want salt taste you can use Potassium Chloride its listed as salt substitute... Technically it is a salt, but non sodium.