sodium vs calories

It is HARDER to keep your sodium down than calories, huh? I've been paying more & more attention to sodium the last few weeks. What works for me is having fruit for either breakfast or lunch. When I have calories left but hardly any sodium, I have prunes. Prunes are high calorie (100 for 6) but have 5mg of sodium so I have them daily.

that is what I watch also. The one that I seem to be over all the time is protein.

Connie

I think it's a good idea to watch all of those things. However, it's important to discriminate between sugars that are harmful and sugars that are helpful (and pretty much unavoidable). The sugars in fruit are accompanied by fiber, and fruit is largely made up of water. This means that, although fruit is high in sugar, it's not going to cause a high blood sugar spike (meaning it's low glycemic impact) and doesn't have a high sugar content for the volume of fruit (meaning it's low glycemic load). It's also high in nutrients. You can check out a glycemic index chart to see what fruits cause the smallest spikes in blood sugar. Milk sugars don't cause a sharp spike in blood sugar either, so they won't cause any harm. The sugars in starchy vegetables are just starch, which is a complex carbohydrate that doesn't cause a big spike in blood sugar either.

The stuff you should keep close track of is table sugar and high fructose corn syrup. They're usually in sweets or processed food, and will cause a sharp increase in blood sugar. They're fine in moderation, but will generally cause you to feel really 'up', and then crash.

If you have high blood pressure, your doctor may want you to watch your sodium levels. However, if your BP is normal, sodium isn't going to cause high blood pressure on its own. You have to be sedentary and dehydrated with some atherosclerosis to get that going. Sodium is an important electrolyte, and the RDA is 2000 mg, but you can ingest more than that if you partake in regular physical activity that leaves you really sweaty. If you're worried about water retention, just drink a bit more water.

Of course, you have to watch calories. Watching the macronutrients are important too--being malnourished is just as bad as being undernourished. It's important to eat all of your calories!