Holy Sodium!

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KristenAnn711
KristenAnn711 Posts: 783
in Food and Nutrition
Ive been on the site for a while, but haven't really been tracking. I did today and WOW I am way over on my sodium!! I guess I need to start paying attention to that.

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  • Just1forMe
    Just1forMe Posts: 624 Member
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    I think I'm giving up on watching sodium for now...it's too depressing! 1 cup of my homemade chili (pretty healthy) had about 1300g of sodium in it! I don't add salt to much of anything, but apparently, anything in a can has a ton of sodium in it. Baby steps...
  • alisonnicole84
    alisonnicole84 Posts: 32
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    Sodium is lurking in everything, in mass quantities.
  • DuKristin
    DuKristin Posts: 10
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    When you start paying closer attention you'll find how much sodium is in everything and it's a lot more difficult to lower one's sodium than you think. It's been eye opening for me to say the least. Everyday is a battle! If I don't reach the sodium goal, I figure as long as I decrease I'm winning the battle little by little. Good luck to you in your sodium battle! :)
  • micah2009
    micah2009 Posts: 38 Member
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    They have no salt added tomato sauce, that's a way to keep homemade stuff low sodium.
  • downtome
    downtome Posts: 529 Member
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    I just started reading the book "The Salt Solution"! It looks good so far. Going to try and cut back as much as I can.
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
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    I've learned to make lots of things that normally comes in cans from fresh ingredients and have eliminated a lot of sodium doing it. Today I made sweet and sour chicken (without frying the chicken, of course) and the sauce was homemade. I discovered that store bought sauce can have your total sodium allowance for the day, but there was NONE in my homemade sauce which was also lower in calories too.

    I've also noticed that just about anything that American companies make and pass off as Mexican food is high in sodium. But, if you shop in the Hispanic section of the store where the foods are made by Mexican companies, you can still get whole wheat tortillas and fat free refried beans without all the sodium that we are used to.

    Also beware of frozen veggies and frozen meats. I now buy all my fruits, veggies, and meats fresh instead of frozen because of mainly the sodium content. Crazy!
  • SammieGetsFit
    SammieGetsFit Posts: 432 Member
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    I've learned to make lots of things that normally comes in cans from fresh ingredients and have eliminated a lot of sodium doing it. Today I made sweet and sour chicken (without frying the chicken, of course) and the sauce was homemade. I discovered that store bought sauce can have your total sodium allowance for the day, but there was NONE in my homemade sauce which was also lower in calories too.

    I've also noticed that just about anything that American companies make and pass off as Mexican food is high in sodium. But, if you shop in the Hispanic section of the store where the foods are made by Mexican companies, you can still get whole wheat tortillas and fat free refried beans without all the sodium that we are used to.

    Also beware of frozen veggies and frozen meats. I now buy all my fruits, veggies, and meats fresh instead of frozen because of mainly the sodium content. Crazy!

    Great tips! I struggle with this too. I love being an American, but geez.......today at the grocery store I felt like I was on some sort of game show. "Compare these to products and find the lowest sodium. Ooops, that's our buzzer. Sorry, player, you're out."
  • PrairieRoseNE
    PrairieRoseNE Posts: 265 Member
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    .......today at the grocery store I felt like I was on some sort of game show. "Compare these to products and find the lowest sodium. Ooops, that's our buzzer. Sorry, player, you're out."
    [/quote]

    I've been on that game show too!!! Grocery shopping takes twice as long as it used to because I have to read the labels on everything I put in my cart. Sodium lurks in almost everything! And especially in foods you'd never expect! I've become a member of the Sodium Police!
  • angela828
    angela828 Posts: 498 Member
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    Sodium is seriously the devil!! I try to keep under the 2500 that MFP put for me but I just heard now we are only supposed to get 1500mg! I am finding that impossible!!! I've found that keeping under 2500 and drinking lots and lots of water all day helped me lose a few pounds in the last few weeks. I'm hoping for more loss on my weigh in day this week (friday). How one is supposed to stay under 1500 is a mystery to me because there is so much sodium in EVERYTHING it seems except fresh veggies.

    Whenever I log something on here, I ALWAYS check the sodium content then check my sodium level for the day to make sure I don't go over. Unfortunately, I go over every once in a while but so far I've been doing well.

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