How in the WORLD do you control sodium intake!?

I hear ya! It seems I go over my sodium at least a few days out of the week. Watch out for soup too!

Eat Fresh "real" whole food, almost no sodium at all. Stay away from processed foods especially sandwich meat.

Balance it out with items high in potassium. So long long as those 2 minerals are in balance, you'll be fine. It has to do with the transfer of fluids into and out of your cells

Sandwich meat is loaded with sodium, so I would stay away from that if possible.

Have you tried low-sodium or no-salt-added options? Sometimes I am under my sodium limit lately and I'm contributing it to the new foods I have purchased. I make sure when I'm grocery shopping to check the sodium of everything I'm eating, and will buy the "low sodium" or "no salt added" option if available.



Also, canned foods have more sodium that frozen. So if you're eating canned foods, try switching to frozen (or fresh would be better LOL).

Eat less processed foods.
The "real" foods as one of the other posters said.

You can get low sodium lunch meat at the grocery store. It's more expensive than other brands, but it's available. Ranch--there's nothing you can do about that if you have to have it except to limit the amount of Ranch you eat.

You can use unsalted butter or olive oil for your cooking if that helps.

I started cooking my own meats and slicing them for lunch--tuna steaks, beef steak, veal, and chicken. That helped my sodium a lot. It's also way cheaper than buying lunch meat. Also, instead of using pasta box mixes, I started baking a casserole dish of pasta, then freezing individual servings in baggies so I don't have to reach for a frozen TV dinner whenever I want lasagna or whatever. Waaaay way less salt and no preservatives--also bigger portions and easy on the budget.

Started popping my own popcorn in a microwave bowl and salting it myself instead of using the pre-packaged paper bags full of junk. I eat popcorn now more than potato chips. But I still eat potato chips and pretzels occasionally.

A lot of sauces like teriyaki and soy sauce come in low salt forms. Avoiding salty fast food also helps.

*Oh yeah, my sodium intake also dropped a ton when I stopped eating so much cheese. I was a cheese monster the way some people are cookie monsters.

Problem is all of this takes extra time to do.

Funny thing about Ranch Dressing is how much sugar is in it, too. I agree with recommendations to start making your own food as much as possible, including dressings. Start by cutting the sodium back by some set amount in recipes - say, use only half what the recipe calls for - and then adjust as needed. It takes some adjustment, and I don't always get a good balance in what I make, but more can always be added. Can't take out what's already there.

This is very difficult! Sodium is in everything! I've learned to cook at home with fresh veggies and raw protien, such as chicken, fish or meat. If you purchase frozen or precooked chicken, fish or meat, the sodium is very high. If you prepare and cook all your food at home from scratch, you'll be surprised at how low your sodium intake will be.

It's true about processed foods, like Corylda said. I've always said....if it has a nutrition lable on it then it's probably high in sodium and/or calories.

I even learned how to make my own oatmeal bars with very low calories and low sodium. Try to find websites that has recipes for highblood pressure. They are usually very low in sodium and you'll learn how to make some great meals at home.

Soy sauce is my biggest problem. I love Asain foods of all types and Soy has a ton of sodium. My brother suggested Bragg's liquid amino's. Sounds weird, but has half the sodium of low sodium soy sauce and tastes almost exactly the same.

You can find it at whole food and health food stores

That's a great tip! Thanks! I LOVE SUSHI