I keep surpassing my daily sodium allotment. Help!

allemania
allemania Posts: 2 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I still have 400 calories left for today before I reach my daily calorie goal, but I am already at least 50 mg over in my sodium allotment for the day. I am hungry and I don't know what to eat that isn't full of sodium. It's amazing how so many foods have so much sodium in them!! For example, I had a small box of Green Giant frozen Brussels sprouts with butter sauce for lunch. The whole box (which is small) had only 180 calories in it, but it had a whopping 840 mg of sodium! Then later on, I put some jalapeno peppers on my beef patty along with fat free cheese. Just one ounce of of those peppers have 340 mg of sodium. Fat free cheese has sodium in it too, as do frozen hamburger patties, and the sandwich thins that I had for breakfast. I have no idea what to eat for my remaining calories. MyFitnessPal has been telling me for the past two days that I am eating too far below my daily calorie allotment and that if I am not careful I could go into "starvation mode" (as it put it). But I don't know what to eat. I would really appreciate any low sodium food ideas any of you might have. Thanks!

Replies

  • sue_stef
    sue_stef Posts: 194 Member
    any convenience foods will have a lot of salt added to them
    so if it is pre packaged
    jarred
    canned
    frozen with sauce added
    it will have high salt
    deli meats
    and cheese also
    high in salt

    For things like peppers get fresh ones and dice them yourself
    for your veg same thing or get frozen plain ones and a make a low salt sauce for them yourself

    if you tell me specific thing you like to eat I can help you find low salt alternatives
    I cut way back on my salt intake because of high blood pressure
    I make things myself it helps a lot
  • Bounce4
    Bounce4 Posts: 288 Member
    any fresh fruit or veggie would be a good choice.

    Yogurt has some but not a lot. The one I just had was 60mg.

    Anything pickled (like those peppers) will be sky high. Anything from a bag, can, or box - probably high. Bread and grains have it usually. Processing food takes away a lot of flavor and the salt offsets that and is also a preservative so it doesn't get funky waiting for you to eat it :).
  • mmipanda
    mmipanda Posts: 351 Member
    sounds like you're eating too much stuff out of a box or pre-prepared in some way. if you buy whole, fresh produce, and take the time to prepare it yourself, I believe that would cut down on a lot of excess sodium.
  • toronto_j
    toronto_j Posts: 206 Member
    I struggle with this too...used a black bean sauce in a stirfry that sent my sodium level over every time I ate one serving. I also think it caused me to "gain" weight on one of my weigh-ins via water retention. :( So my suggestion is to read the labels, make your own sauces when possible, use lower-sodium products, fresh ingredients instead of packages/frozen etc.
  • prattiger65
    prattiger65 Posts: 1,657 Member
    Unless you have an underlying medical reason, ie. hypertension, stop tracking sodium. Problem solved.
  • Gingycat40
    Gingycat40 Posts: 18 Member
    A dietician told me today the sodium levels have decreased once again...the daily allowance should be 1500 mg a day.

    As per previous posts, anything processed - frozen, canned, packaged are very high in sodium.

    Prepare vegs, fruits from fresh as well as meats. Spices can add flavour, Mrs. Dash Spice is Sodium Free.

    I am working on getting in my 1600 calories and now get sodium to 1500 mg a day, while fitnesspal had said something
    like 2300 mgs of sodium daily.

    It does take some time and a bit of planning..but you CAN DO IT !!!! :)
  • ohiotubagal
    ohiotubagal Posts: 190 Member
    Yup, I am finding I have the same problem! I do have high blood pressure so I am aiming for 1500 mg/day and it's even tougher. I agree with what everyone has told you so far...anything processed will be high. I've found, too, that anything low-fat, or low-calorie, always has higher sodium than its full fat counterpart.

    I think it helps to concentrate on changing one thing at a time, instead of changing EVERYTHING at once. Example...I've noticed my light salad dressings that I love are loaded with sodium. So today I tried mixing an Asian Sesame light dressing with rice vinegar...and viola!...instantly I cut the sodium in half, and it makes it stretch farther. Same with V8 juice. I get the low sodium version and then dilute it with water. Anytime I can dilute something without wrecking the flavor, I do it.

    Good luck!
  • bharriscar
    bharriscar Posts: 91 Member
    Try unsalted pretzels?
  • allemania
    allemania Posts: 2 Member
    Thanks everyone for all your suggestions! I am still working on lowering my sodium intake. Yesterday I did great, today I went way over. (Sigh!) But you've given me some great suggestions here and I'll definitely be putting them into action.

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