Low sodium food suggestions?

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Luciabella07
Luciabella07 Posts: 205 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Does anyone have any suggestions for low sodium foods (meals or snacks)? My food choices tend to make my sodium creep up throughout the day, which I want to try to cut down on as much as I can.

Thanks :)

Replies

  • norcalskater
    norcalskater Posts: 194 Member
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    To name a few: Oatmeal, yogurt, unsalted nuts, pop corn (if you make it yourself), fruits, veggies, granola.
  • MysteriousMerlin
    MysteriousMerlin Posts: 2,270 Member
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    Frosted mini wheats! Almost no sodium at all.

    Oatmeal (make your own, packets have added salt)

    Natural nut butters on half an English muffin

    Trail mix made with unsalted nuts
  • CA_Underdog
    CA_Underdog Posts: 733 Member
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    Almost any whole food will be low sodium.. with a few exceptions like baby carrots. It tends to be those processed foods that do your day in! There are even some good processed choices out there. :)
  • Luciabella07
    Luciabella07 Posts: 205 Member
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    Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm trying to be more cognizant of it.
    Almost any whole food will be low sodium.. with a few exceptions like baby carrots. It tends to be those processed foods that do your day in! There are even some good processed choices out there. :)

    I know! it's hard to come up with a meal day after day of just whole foods, but i'll try... I work in the city too so when I don't bring my lunch it's doubly hard to find good quality meals that aren't loaded with crap!
  • tracydr
    tracydr Posts: 528 Member
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    Make sure you buy frozen and unsalted or fresh veggies. Sodium free canned tomatoes or any other canned item.
    Frozen dinners and soups ( not homemade) are the worse. Bread and milk are surprisingly bad.
    We eat no processed foods and even though we put salt on our meals, we find restaurant foods incredibly salty. Your taste will adjust when you start to eat whole foods.
    Have plenty of fruits and veggies cut up for snacks in a lunchbox each day.
  • CA_Underdog
    CA_Underdog Posts: 733 Member
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    I eat some prepackaged foods. I eat 2000 calories/day, so anything with 1mg sodium or less is totally fine for meeting my goal of under 2300mg sodium per day. Amy's has a low-sodium line. Marie Callendar has a Sweet & Sour Chicken. Lean Cousine has a pomegranate chicken.

    A meal with 2mg sodium/calorie opens up many more options and is easy to balance. Simply add an apple, some grapes, some nuts, some yogurt, some brown rice, a veggie side, tomatoes, etc. and suddenly your average calories is down near 1mg sodium/calorie again. Mix-ins are convenient!

    If you eat 1600 calories or less, the above applies to 1500mg/day as well.
  • ohiotubagal
    ohiotubagal Posts: 190 Member
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    I'm glad you posted this question! I am trying to watch too - sticking to the American Heart Association's recommendation of 1500 mg/day. Here are a few things I am trying:

    -Make my own salad dressing or just use olive oil and balsamic vinegar
    -Make my own soups using low sodium tomato juice or chicken stock as a base
    -Instead of spaghetti sauce, add some water to no-salt tomato paste and add herbs


    Items I've noticed that are high in sodium that I never thought about before:

    -Bread
    -Cheese
    -Condiments - I have a mustard in my fridge that has 100 mg/1 tsp!!
    -Tomato sauces


    I have a good book put out by the AHA from the 1990's with lots of low-sodium recipes. I don't have it with me at the moment...when I find it, I'll add the title here.
  • asdowe13
    asdowe13 Posts: 1,951 Member
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    I tend to drink enough water so i just ignore sodium!
  • sammama5
    sammama5 Posts: 92 Member
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    Definitely whole foods and learning to cook for yourself. Too few people today know how to truly prepare food.
  • SillaWinchester
    SillaWinchester Posts: 363 Member
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    In... I literally just told myself to cut back on sodium and then I see this post. Thanks for all the info! :)
  • CA_Underdog
    CA_Underdog Posts: 733 Member
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    Have you checked out Sodium Girl? She a foodie who eats 500-1000 mg per day. Totally my heroine. :)

    http://www.sodiumgirl.com/low-sodium-questions-and-answers/
  • angel7472
    angel7472 Posts: 317 Member
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    Ive been doing the AHA 1500 mg a day for a couple years now. Here's my list:

    Friendship cottage cheese 1% no salt added (Whole Market or The Fresh Market has it)
    Swiss cheese any brand usually 60mg per serving compared to 110mg for cheddar
    Tumaros 9 grain w/chia tortilla's 60mg per tortilla compared to almost 200mg normal
    Green Mountain Gringo Salsa (I missed salsa)
    Food should taste good multigrain tortilla chips
    Rickland Farms Blueberry Acai greek yogurt granola bars 45mg

    And ya you have Fage Greek yogurt, whole almonds, air popped popcorn, and obviously the other stuff.

    If you want you can add me and take a look at what I eat. Most days Im under 1500 mg a day.
  • CA_Underdog
    CA_Underdog Posts: 733 Member
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    TrueView Organic Chicken from Costo. 110mg sodium per 80 calories of chicken. It allows me to pack cold cuts for my kids for lunch and feel good about it. And yes, hurray for swiss cheese and fage! :)
  • Mrsfreedom41
    Mrsfreedom41 Posts: 330 Member
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    Most days I'm at the 1500 mg a day or under. It's not that hard to do - watch what you eat and read labels. Prepackaged frozen meals are the worst - I only eat them once in a while. Eat a huge salad with a light raspberry vinegarette dressing or just use balsamic vinegar with a little olive oil. I've had to watch sodium intake for a long time since I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. Dr. told me to lose the salt shaker and I gave it up completely. In a lot of foods there is natural sodium which you can't get away from and that is okay. It is the added salt that is the culprit.........Read Labels, Read Labels, Read Labels is the best advice I can give.
  • Shuuma
    Shuuma Posts: 465 Member
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    I, too, have cut sodium way down and here's a couple of things that helped A LOT:

    Instead of canned veggies, I buy frozen veggies and don't add salt when I prepare them.
    I make all my fish/chicken/turkey with Mrs. Dash instead of salt and pepper.
    Stopped putting cheese on EVERYTHING (I'm really bad about this!)
    Stopped eating canned soups and made my own.
    Switched from salted butter to unsalted sweet cream butter.
    Cut back on lunch meats pretty much altogether. Now I make a Mrs. Dash flavored chicken salad sandwich.
    Cut back on breads or buy heart smart breads.

    Basically, if I was eating it, it had high sodium in it, so I buy for sodium content these days, primarily.
  • fatalis_vox
    fatalis_vox Posts: 106 Member
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    I. Love. Salt.

    BUT I've been doing surprisingly well avoiding eating a ton of sodium lately. Most of it is eating real food, as opposed to a lot of packaged stuff. Generally lunch and dinner are fresh (not frozen) chicken or fish and vegetables(Edit: I forgot to mention that I also eat rice with lunch and dinner.) I use herbs and spices, as well as a touch of lemon or lime juice, to season my food so I don't need to put much salt on it.

    I make up for it with my snack olives, which are about 480mg per package of 10 olives. BUT that's still less than most salty snacks, and way healthier.

    I tend to snack on apples and almonds when I can, which aren't too high in sodium.

    But really, the best thing you can do is eat real food, instead of pre-prepared or packaged food, which will almost always be full of sodium.
  • angel7472
    angel7472 Posts: 317 Member
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    Just thought of more.

    Atrisan Bistro meals are pre-packaged that are very low in sodium. I have 2 different salmon (I'm pescatarian) meals that I eat for lunch that are super low in salt.
    Lean cuisine has honestly good meals that are low in salt. Read the labels not all are.

    I agree with everyone else. READ LABELS! Sometimes it takes my husband and I 2 hours or more to grocery shop because I stand there and read all the labels.
  • CA_Underdog
    CA_Underdog Posts: 733 Member
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    By the way, you CAN dine out on a low-sodium diet! I ate out tonight--appetizers, bread, drinks, an entree and desert--and I maintained about 1mg of sodium per kcal. Be sure to tell your waiter/waitress your aim. The one substitution I had to make, was making my own salad dressing our of their olive oil and balsamic. :)
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
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    My big discovery is Boar's Head deli meats for sandwiches. They have a no salt added turkey breast that is really tasty (55g sodium for 2 oz) and their all natural roast beef is 149g sodium for 2 oz. There are other lower sodium options too, but these are the ones I have purchased. Contrast that with typical deli meats which can be 500 or more grams of sodium per 2 oz.
  • Joannah700
    Joannah700 Posts: 2,665 Member
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    Bumping this one up for a bit because I know of a few brands that I wanted to share - in case anyone was still looking.

    Trader Joes has a good low sodium marinara. I admit it needs a bit of a 'kick' so I also add their bruschetta sauce or balsamic vinegar.

    traderjoessauce.png

    Fresh and Easy has a GREAT maple syrup as well as a vanilla bean maple syrup. Both are either 0 or 5mg of sodium. Much tastier than some of the alternatives you find out there.

    And generically, you can use vinegar or citrus to give you that 'kick' you're looking for. So anything you can do by using balsamic vinegar or fresh lime on your tacos - helps.

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