Cutting Back on Sodium

Any tips on how I can do this? It seems like everything has sodium in it and I need to get rid of some of the water I'm retaining!

Thanks,
Vanessa

Most packaged foods (canned, frozen meals, etc.) have tons of sodium. Also, most food purchased at fast food or restaurants is high in sodium. Try to stick to raw ingredients and prepare your own food when possible, or purchase items marked low sodium or salt free.

I started cooking for myself, cut my sodium by more than 1/2 and lost 6.6 pounds.

It's worth the extra effort to cook!

And your sugar/carbs go down too by cooking for yourself and getting away from heat -n- eat if that's what you're doing.

Absolutely agree. It was an eye-opener to me to see how many "low cal" or "low fat" foods I was eating were high in sodium.

Switching to foods that are relatively unprocessed was a big win for me. I still have some processed food - how can I live without yogurt or cheese? - but in general fruits and vegetables are great for eating and usually have low sodium.

Legumes- Lentils, Peas, Beans are all low sodium and high in fiber. Thus making them filling. Also here is a site for a low sodium diet, you might want to look into it: http://www.healthcastle.com/low-sodium-diet.shtml

I'm doing low sodium right now too. I'm trying to stay under 800g if possible! It's tough but do-able. Fruits and veggies (fresh) are your friend!

I've been keeping my sodium under 2000 mg a day for nearly two months now pretty successfully due to my blood pressure. Here are some of the things I do to accomplish this:

(1) A good sodium food for me has better than a 1:1 ratio of calories to mg of sodium. In other words, if there are more mg of sodium than calories it's to generally be avoided. (Cottage cheese is OUT for me, but yogurt is in. All lunch meat is out but low sodium tuna ROCKS. Bread is purchased mostly based on sodium content now with lowest winning. Many cheeses are out but Swiss cheese is a divine blessing!)

(2) There are good low and zero sodium foods out there. Most fruits and vegetables are great, though you have to be careful with some like celery. Also, raw nuts are awesome! I have almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and cashews in the house and all have less that 75 mg of sodium per serving. If I need a high calorie, low sodium snack, I mix some low fat yogurt with some fruit (typically berries, sliced apple, slice apricot, or the like) and raw almonds or walnuts to give me a snack that can be upwards of 500 calories but less than 100 mg of sodium and is REALLY tasty!

(3) If you're going to have a salty food, build your day around it. We were doing BBQ pork in the crock pot last night, but my total sodium for the day was 1735 mg while I consumed 2125 calories (1714 net calories).

(4) Cook at home as much as you can! My biggest deterrent to eating out is the fact that everything has so much sodium in it. I make my own pickles, my own salad dressings, and my own marinades and I eat well! I'm happy to share recipes with anyone who friends me.

Finally, unless you're under doctor's orders to stay below a certain level, give yourself some room to go over now and then. I've been under 2000 mg for 41 of the last 49 days (and only over 2500 mg 3 times), and most high days were unsurprising...dinner out with my visiting parents, day at a baseball game (gotta have a hot dog or two at the ballpark!).

It can be done. BTW, I'm still on BP meds and had an episode last summer that resulted in a trip to the ER...two nights ago my BP was 117/75 and I just rode 15 miles on my bike averaging more than 14 mph on hilly roads. Lowering sodium can be done and the results are worth it!