I'm always Lower than Sodium Target

Unless you prepare all of your food from scratch or are eating too few calories, I doubt you are really under sodium. Unless you sweat a lot, you're probably getting enough. If you find yourself with an urge to lick the streets when they've salted for snow, you probably need to eat more.

I hate to jump in here all clueless, but shouldn't most of us be way under on sodium every day?

I am floored now. I have been on MFP for almost a year and have been way under on sodium always and thought that was a good thing. On the odd occasion I grab Chinese takeout or eat tortilla chips at a Mexican restaurant, I go over and find myself "gaining" a little water weight for a day or so...I would not wanna go over or even hit my sodium "goal" every day.

Anyone?

I hate to jump in here all clueless, but shouldn't most of us be way under on sodium every day?

I am floored now. I have been on MFP for almost a year and have been way under on sodium always and thought that was a good thing. On the odd occasion I grab Chinese takeout or eat tortilla chips at a Mexican restaurant, I go over and find myself "gaining" a little water weight for a day or so...I would not wanna go over or even hit my sodium "goal" every day.

Anyone?

There is a minimum amount of sodium your body needs to function, but most of us have no trouble hitting it. I want to say it's around 500 mg per day, but I'm not 100% sure and I can't find a reliable source at the moment. If your levels drop too low, you can be affected by Hyponatremia.

ahhh my MFP setting has "2500" on sodium and I usually consume between 800-1700

ETA: Thanks!

Thanks guys. My target is also 2500. My daily intake has ranged from 450 - 1500 so I won't worry too much but will try to keep it over 500. How do I make my diary public?

Do you salt your food (in cooking or at the table)? Do you log your salt? If not you're probably not as low in sodium as you think (sodium is a component of table salt, or sodium chloride). But if you're sure you're logging all the salt/sodium you're consuming, then definitely try to stay above 500.

Also, don't think of 2500 as a "target." It's drawn from dietary advice from health organizations that suggest it as a MAXIMUM, out of concern that most people eating western/first world/industrialized society diets get too much sodium in their, which can contribute to high blood pressure.

You can make your diary public by going to My Home, then Settings, then Diary Settings, then scrolling down to Diary Sharing.

Tons of the database entries don't have the sodium entry correctly entered as a lot of nutritional information is listed as salt rather than sodium and people adding the food to the database don't bother to convert properly, so they just put sodium as 0. So a lot of your 0 sodium entries are probably wrong. E.g. those weight watchers cumberland sausages have about 200mg of sodium per sausage.

And the sodium figure isn't so much a target for you to hit, it's a maximum you shouldn't exceed. You are almost certainly getting enough sodium unless you're doing tons of exercise that's making you sweat and being really deficient in your diet (unlikely), or suffering from dysentery or something (again unlikely).

I really wouldn't worry about being under on sodium, its more of a limit than a goal - be more concerned about being over, since it is highly unlikely you'd be consistently TOO low on sodium to negatively affect your health.