I keep going over my sodium

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higgins8283801
higgins8283801 Posts: 844 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Everything else I'm within range but that blasted sodium.. Today I went over by 700. Sucks. Why does everything have so much sodium in it these days?

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  • bomftdrum
    bomftdrum Posts: 270 Member
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    I am over my sodium almost daily. I do drink about a gallon of water a day and sweat a lot, so that helps.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,624 Member
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    I only go over or near sodium when I eat a lot of processed foods. Which is fine, but if you want to watch salt then limit your processed foods intake.
  • Camo_xxx
    Camo_xxx Posts: 1,112 Member
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    Several years ago my doctor suggested a cut in my sodium to under 1500mg a day. This led me to changing my diet to eating only whole foods and cutting out almost all package foods. Now days I rarely eat over 1000mg of sodium a day. I have been off blood and cholesterol meds now for a year.
  • Lelah77
    Lelah77 Posts: 177 Member
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    Sodium is a tough one for me, too. I do a lot of cooking and even adding a can of diced tomatoes can send it through the roof. I have begun buying "low sodium" or unsalted canned goods to aid my cooking. I season with other things (Mrs. Dash, for instance) to keep flavor up and sodium down. It don't always win, but when I do, I consider it a serious NSV for the day.
  • Zerodette
    Zerodette Posts: 200 Member
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    I've found that canned vegetables kill it. Took me 30 years to realize not all green beans are created equal.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,742 Member
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    I agree with the others. Switching even from canned to frozen vegetables will make a HUGE difference. Cutting out most canned soups and sauces was a huge factor for my husband in eliminating the (hereditary) blood pressure issues he was having and he has his BP under control with no meds. We make most stuff fresh, use frozen, or if we make a quick pasta/pizza sauce we use Hunt's no salt added tomato sauce...actually super good with spices and a bit of wine added. Yum.

    Limiting processed snacks and restaurant foods helps a lot. I'm NOT saying cut those totally. Just limit. Cheese is often a culprit. If you drink diet soda, a lot of it actually does have sodium...it's not much, but if you drink a LOT of soda it could add up.

    One restaurant meal tends to spike your sodium up for the day which is still manageable -- but two will usually send it over by a lot. Prelog! :-)
  • 115s
    115s Posts: 344 Member
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    Sodium does not affect how much you lose. All it does is simply retain water a bit longer. Water weight isn't really weight, it's just water. I know this may sound counterproductive, but drinking more water will lower the extra sodium. Good luck.
  • bluuu123
    bluuu123 Posts: 83
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    eat less packaged foods, dont add salt when you home-cook

    analyze what you eat in a day - look at your daily MFP food diary (hope u keep one!) and ask: "Which foods have >200 sodium"? usually those are the bad ones (ballpark) and try to analyze what they are - are they pre-packaged? canned? stop eating them, find cleaner alternatives

    hope it helps :)
  • love8383
    love8383 Posts: 169
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    they use so much salt in processed and can foods because it acts as a preserver...i would just try to avoid canned foods all together and if you add your own salt to foods pink himalayan salt has less sodium than regular
  • Catter_05
    Catter_05 Posts: 155 Member
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    Cheese is my downfall all the time! I love cheese. My Dr. has me eating low sugar and low carb, I'm not giving up my cheese :)
  • smarieallen85
    smarieallen85 Posts: 535 Member
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    I'm a salt monster :( Not paying much attention to it either. I never log any extra I use. My next goal is to get that under control.
  • marissanik
    marissanik Posts: 344 Member
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    If your diary was open it would be a lot easier to help you out with this! Avoid buying the store-bought processed foods that are high in sodium. Choose an alternate brand that may be lower sodium. But again be cautious, because when they lower the sodium they often add sugar or something to compensate.
  • MinimalistShoeAddict
    MinimalistShoeAddict Posts: 1,946 Member
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    Everything else I'm within range but that blasted sodium.. Today I went over by 700. Sucks. Why does everything have so much sodium in it these days?

    One solution is to exercise more. For many endurance athletes, getting too little sodium is more of a concern than getting too much:
    http://www.runnersworld.com/nutrition-runners/pass-salt?page=single

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