Woah there Sodium

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meg0112
meg0112 Posts: 344
in Food and Nutrition
So I've added sodium as one of the things I am tracking to help ward of blaoting...holy crap it is hard to stay under my limit there. Sodium is hiding in a lot of places and a lot of low calorie foods. How bad is going over on my sodium intake if I am drinking the recomended 8 glasses of water a day? And how do I keep it low? (the sodium i mean, not the water)

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  • meg0112
    meg0112 Posts: 344
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    So I've added sodium as one of the things I am tracking to help ward of blaoting...holy crap it is hard to stay under my limit there. Sodium is hiding in a lot of places and a lot of low calorie foods. How bad is going over on my sodium intake if I am drinking the recomended 8 glasses of water a day? And how do I keep it low? (the sodium i mean, not the water)
  • Skittles6617
    Skittles6617 Posts: 247 Member
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    I am not sure how to lower , but I do know if you eat anything like a frozen meal, (lean cuisine, healthy choice, et.) You need to drink 10 glasses of water instead of 8 because of the sodium content.
  • Losing_It
    Losing_It Posts: 3,271 Member
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    Checklist for Lowering Your Sodium Intake

    * Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and fewer canned or frozen ones.
    * Use fresh fruit and raw vegetables as snacks instead of chips or salted nuts.
    * Look at food labels — many canned and frozen foods say "low salt" or "low sodium."
    * Select unsalted nuts or seeds, dried beans, peas and lentils.
    * Don't use salt during cooking. (Try a salt-free seasoning substitute.) Learn to use spices and herbs to enhance the taste of your food instead of salt.
    * Don't salt food before you taste it.
    * Eat less salted potato and corn chips, lunchmeat and hot dogs, salt pork, ham hocks, dill pickles and many canned foods. All of these have a lot of salt.
    * Avoid adding salt and canned vegetables to homemade dishes.
    * Select unsalted, fat-free broths, bouillons or soups.
    * When dining out, be specific about what you want and how you want it prepared. Request that your dish be prepared without salt.
  • Poison5119
    Poison5119 Posts: 1,460 Member
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    :cry: Can I wipe the salt off the nuts before I eat 'em??
  • fitmonica
    fitmonica Posts: 5
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    Wiping off the salt might work, but I've used water instead: specifically, I've rinsed salted nuts (salted macadamias and also salted almonds) in water, dried them off with paper towels and then baked at around 250 degrees in a convection oven for 5 or so minutes. Lost all the wonderful salty flavour .... but so much safer to eat.
  • alf1163
    alf1163 Posts: 3,143 Member
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    Checklist for Lowering Your Sodium Intake

    * Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and fewer canned or frozen ones.
    * Use fresh fruit and raw vegetables as snacks instead of chips or salted nuts.
    * Look at food labels — many canned and frozen foods say "low salt" or "low sodium."
    * Select unsalted nuts or seeds, dried beans, peas and lentils.
    * Don't use salt during cooking. (Try a salt-free seasoning substitute.) Learn to use spices and herbs to enhance the taste of your food instead of salt.
    * Don't salt food before you taste it.
    * Eat less salted potato and corn chips, lunchmeat and hot dogs, salt pork, ham hocks, dill pickles and many canned foods. All of these have a lot of salt.
    * Avoid adding salt and canned vegetables to homemade dishes.
    * Select unsalted, fat-free broths, bouillons or soups.
    * When dining out, be specific about what you want and how you want it prepared. Request that your dish be prepared without salt.

    Great list!!! Yes, this is sooo important. I am doing all this now. I have not been over my sodium in a few days now that I added to my food diary and I am challenging myself to not eat any processed foods this month. Who knows how high it was before??? But luckily I do drink a lot of water, usually a gallon a day. :flowerforyou:
  • mommared53
    mommared53 Posts: 9,543 Member
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    I'm a fanatic when it comes to label reading. That's how I keep my sodium intake under my recommended level.
  • krystalmoore1986
    krystalmoore1986 Posts: 216 Member
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    I find myself still struggling severely with my sodium levels. It seems like I do everything i can and still go way over....dang.:grumble:
  • laurie49120
    laurie49120 Posts: 21 Member
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    I like the idea of rinsing and baking nuts to get the sodium off. I would never of thought that on my own. I am supposed to keep to 2k of sodium a day...it's hard to do! Take care...
  • BunnyHop
    BunnyHop Posts: 58 Member
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    If canned and processed foods are inevitable, you can rinse them off too.

    I make a habit of rinsing off things like sliced meats and canned vegetables before using them.

    I hate to say it, but I honestly believe that it's impossible to eat a low sodium diet away from home. Restaurants put salt on EVERYTHING. (even on lettuce, it makes it crisp, in the short term, so that 'healthy' salad may not be such a great option. Fast food joints do this, I'm not sure actual restaurants do.)

    There are low sodium substitutes for baking powder, baking soda, etc., so if you do your own baking, you can make a big difference.
  • jlwhelan1
    jlwhelan1 Posts: 664
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    I like the idea of rinsing and baking nuts to get the sodium off. I would never of thought that on my own. I am supposed to keep to 2k of sodium a day...it's hard to do! Take care...

    You could buy unsalted or raw and bake your own - the smell of freshly roasted nuts is yummmy
  • krystalmoore1986
    krystalmoore1986 Posts: 216 Member
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    what hurts me is boxed pastas like pasta roni, some have up to 800 g per serving. Why cant they offer a low sodium option of these? I love pastas!!! I have a feeling any ragu white pasta sauce would have comparable sodium levels so making my own at home would probably only work if I liked marinara sauce.:sick:
  • BunnyHop
    BunnyHop Posts: 58 Member
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    Just thought I'd mention that I found Hain's Featherweight Baking Powder at my local health food store today. I'd checked the Hain website for retailers, and the local place wasn't listed, but apparently their records aren't up to date. The Featherweight has no sodium at all.

    I do a good bit of baking at home so this is a great way to reduce our sodium intake.
  • OomarianneoO
    OomarianneoO Posts: 689 Member
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    oops
  • pinktoque
    pinktoque Posts: 340 Member
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    Checklist for Lowering Your Sodium Intake

    * Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and fewer canned or frozen ones.
    * Use fresh fruit and raw vegetables as snacks instead of chips or salted nuts.
    * Look at food labels — many canned and frozen foods say "low salt" or "low sodium."
    * Select unsalted nuts or seeds, dried beans, peas and lentils.
    * Don't use salt during cooking. (Try a salt-free seasoning substitute.) Learn to use spices and herbs to enhance the taste of your food instead of salt.
    * Don't salt food before you taste it.
    * Eat less salted potato and corn chips, lunchmeat and hot dogs, salt pork, ham hocks, dill pickles and many canned foods. All of these have a lot of salt.
    * Avoid adding salt and canned vegetables to homemade dishes.
    * Select unsalted, fat-free broths, bouillons or soups.
    * When dining out, be specific about what you want and how you want it prepared. Request that your dish be prepared without salt.

    Thank you for this list, Losing_It! It's very helpful. I added sodium to my tracking as well, and WOW am I surprised where I find sodium hiding. I am setting a personal goal of not adding any additional salt to my food when I sit down to eat it -- the suggestion to not salt food before you taste it is a good one! We've recently started really focusing on getting fresh fruits and veggies, so maybe that will help. But wow @ sodium! I'm off to drink some more water. And speaking of which -- does drinking lots of water help lower sodium? That seems to be suggested in this thread so far but I'm not sure the specifics of it or how that works.

    Thanks!

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