Sodium in canned soups

walleyclan1
walleyclan1 Posts: 2,784 Member
in Food and Nutrition
On some days when I am in a hurry I will eat a can of soup I have stored at my office. I usually pour out about half the broth. I reason that this should reduce the sodium level significantly without altering any of the other nutrient. True or false?

Replies

  • walleyclan1
    walleyclan1 Posts: 2,784 Member
    Anyone?
  • worldsbestauntie
    worldsbestauntie Posts: 280 Member
    I think it would depend on the measurement. What is listed on the can would be for one serving. You would need to actually measure it to see how much you are having. If you wanted less sodium, you would need to eat less of what they state as a serving, or find cans of soup that indicate they are lower in sodium (though they don't seem to be that much lower!)
  • tjolenee
    tjolenee Posts: 20 Member
    Yeah I've just recently stopped eating canned soup because of the sodium content.

    You could always look at the grocery store for the reduced sodium canned soups.

    Oh, and here's this article: http://www.livestrong.com/article/318996-how-to-lower-the-sodium-content-of-canned-soup/
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Amy's (brand) has lower sodium soups
  • worldsbestauntie
    worldsbestauntie Posts: 280 Member

    Oh, and here's this article: http://www.livestrong.com/article/318996-how-to-lower-the-sodium-content-of-canned-soup/

    That's interesting. I've always added water to most of soups to get more broth. (Except tomatoe, I add milk to that). I never realized by doing that I am lowering my sodium count.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member

    Oh, and here's this article: http://www.livestrong.com/article/318996-how-to-lower-the-sodium-content-of-canned-soup/

    That's interesting. I've always added water to most of soups to get more broth. (Except tomatoe, I add milk to that). I never realized by doing that I am lowering my sodium count.

    This only works if your serving size remains the same ........
  • worldsbestauntie
    worldsbestauntie Posts: 280 Member

    Oh, and here's this article: http://www.livestrong.com/article/318996-how-to-lower-the-sodium-content-of-canned-soup/

    That's interesting. I've always added water to most of soups to get more broth. (Except tomatoe, I add milk to that). I never realized by doing that I am lowering my sodium count.

    This only works if your serving size remains the same ........


    Probably does. I haven't had soup in a while as it's been to warm so I havent actually ever measured it. I might end up tonight as it;s probably the only thing I have that will still keep me under my calorie count for the day!
  • Jazzorian74
    Jazzorian74 Posts: 1 Member
    I had a question about this as well. If you don't drink the broth of the soup, are you not taking in as much sodium? I often eat just the vegetables in vegetable soup and I'm left with the majority of the broth and don't eat it. Will I be eating less sodium this way?
  • SailorKnightWing
    SailorKnightWing Posts: 875 Member
    The majority of the sodium is in the broth. If you cut the condensed broth with more water than the directions call for, you will ingest less sodium. There will still be quite a lot since the sodium has penetrated any vegetables or meats, but it will be lower. It's nearly impossible to gauge exactly how much.

    A better bet is to just buy reduced sodium soups when possible. They taste better, in my opinion.

    ETA: Another thing to try is dumping the soup into a strainer and putting a bowl under it. Then dump as much water as the recipe calls for over the vegetables to get the condensed broth off but save it for actually making the soup. Then take the strainer and run water over it away from the bowl to rinse the excess sodium off, then recombine it with the broth part. But that's probably more work than it's worth...
  • bobwang123
    bobwang123 Posts: 1
    Use logic:

    If you are going to pour out the soup, taste one last sip of it, does it taste really good? If it does, then you are pouring out some sodium. It's really hard to say how much sodium you poor out, but I am sure there are ways to eat healthier, even eating ramens. You can actually poor out the water on the cup ramen and add hot water to it again, then you would be eating lesser sodium because you would wash up the sodium content, but it wouldn't be that good afterwards.

    I did that when I was in college because I was a health freak, but I eat them because of convenience, cheap, and hot. It's way better than eating a bowl of cereal since you don't want to eat something cold in the morning when its 50 degree right? Don't even talk about cooking as I am too lazy and has no energy to cook

    But I can assure you that by not drinking the soup or pouring out the sodium water and add extra water to the cup of noodle, you are more likely to eat up lesser sodium. It could be as half as low.

    However, always keep in mind that the noodle is fried, so it may be bad already even without the sodium, but there are noodles that aren't fried, and it will stated on the cup outside, but those usually cost 1$+ and are very fancy. I had those for a period of time, but it's too expensive.

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