Do you watch your sodium intake? Am I the only one with VERY horrid sodium levels in my diet?
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My sodium levels are sky high. I don't care. I have very low blood pressure and frequently black out/see stars when standing up, so I can't imagine what it would be like if I ate a low sodium diet. I'm sure I retain a lot of water from it, but oh well.2
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FlyingMolly wrote: »tinkerbellang83 wrote: »Bear in mind that the sodium logged in a lot of the database entries is actually incorrect, people wrongly assume when entering foods that the salt content on the nutrition label is the total for sodium when in fact only 40% of table salt is sodium.
I’m not sure I understand—are you talking about packaged foods, or people’s recipes? I’ve never seen salt content listed on a nutrition label; only sodium.
Aye. Salt is NaCl, or sodium chloride. Thus in the UK the sodium and the chloride get listed together, in many other countries only the sodium, which is a smaller number3 -
I get plenty of water and my BP is within acceptable parameters. So no, not really, not yet. Maybe someday, maybe not.1
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I've just checked mine - it averages out around 1100-1200 on 1700 calories per day (average). I don't really eat any pre-made sauces/food though.1
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Mine is sky high. Hasn't stopped me from losing weight, but I do retain water for a few days after a very high sodium day. Doctor says it's fine and I'm healthy.3
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Thanks guys! I was just curious if I need to worry or if it is OK as long as my body doesn't show symptoms associated with too much sodium. I appreciate all of the input
Guess I will just ignore it for now! 0 -
I'm hypertensive so I watch mine.1
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MFP has me set for 2,300mg of sodium per day, and I always seem to go over it for some reason, and that's without EVER adding salt to ANYTHING I eat. Ever. I don't really like salt or the taste of it. Not sure how I end up there almost every day but its the one category that usually ends up red, even if its just a 100 or 200 mg over.0
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Verity1111 wrote: »Because I seriously probably double the recommended intake and I only eat 1200-1500 calories. I rarely am below 3,000 and I have hit 4,500-5,000 a lot. Lol. My blood tests etc are all good. Should I worry about it or chill since I don't have any bad signs from it when I see my dr? Also, am I the only person with this issue? I assume not but it's always nice to know lol. It is all from sauces or prepackaged stuff, cheese, etc. I don't use actual table salt sprinkled on my food.
I go over like crazy, but I don't worry about it, I drink a lot of water and my health in general is good.1 -
Verity1111 wrote: »Because I seriously probably double the recommended intake and I only eat 1200-1500 calories. I rarely am below 3,000 and I have hit 4,500-5,000 a lot. Lol. My blood tests etc are all good. Should I worry about it or chill since I don't have any bad signs from it when I see my dr? Also, am I the only person with this issue? I assume not but it's always nice to know lol. It is all from sauces or prepackaged stuff, cheese, etc. I don't use actual table salt sprinkled on my food.
If you don't have a medical issue it probably is not a problem. If you are concerned speak to your doctor about it.
I sometimes hit 4,000-5,000 sodium. I like foods that happen to be higher sodium like cheese, bread, canned tomatoes, ham, olives, pickles, mustard, salted butter, etc. When I was younger I would salt my food a lot.
I try to keep it closer to 2000 because I feel better when I do. Prelogging helps me not go quite so high.
https://www.ucsfhealth.org/education/guidelines_for_a_low_sodium_diet/1 -
tinkerbellang83 wrote: »FlyingMolly wrote: »tinkerbellang83 wrote: »Bear in mind that the sodium logged in a lot of the database entries is actually incorrect, people wrongly assume when entering foods that the salt content on the nutrition label is the total for sodium when in fact only 40% of table salt is sodium.
I’m not sure I understand—are you talking about packaged foods, or people’s recipes? I’ve never seen salt content listed on a nutrition label; only sodium.
In the UK and Ireland you'll often see salt rather than sodium, like below, then people enter the 0.33g into the database entry for sodium :
Yep. Only recently spotted that myself and have started correcting any entries in the database that I eat that have the salt content put in the sodium.0 -
I never look at sodium. If you don't have a diagnosed medical issue then no worries. In fact if you are any manner of endurance athlete salt is critical.
Per MFP I average ~2300 daily, but have highs in the 6k range.
Do I win? I can do better.2 -
I never look at sodium. If you don't have a diagnosed medical issue then no worries. In fact if you are any manner of endurance athlete salt is critical.
Per MFP I average ~2300 daily, but have highs in the 6k range.
Do I win? I can do better.
This is what sucks for me...I have to watch sodium for my hypertension, but if I keep it as low as recommended by the AHA I have all kinds of issues with cramping and whatnot. It's a delicate balance. It's a lot easier in the summer when I just sweat my *kitten* off and can drink pickle juice.1 -
I do watch my sodium intake. I just try to keep it under the MFP suggested levels. It is really not a challenge at all to me unless I dine out more than once in a day, and since that's once a week at most I don't care.1
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I never look at sodium. If you don't have a diagnosed medical issue then no worries. In fact if you are any manner of endurance athlete salt is critical.
Per MFP I average ~2300 daily, but have highs in the 6k range.
Do I win? I can do better.
Maybe I should become an endurance athlete then so it gets put to use!!! Lol0 -
I don't watch my sodium because I've never had a problem with high blood pressure. For a while I was actively restricting it because my husband had issues with tinnitus and we were told that a lower salt diet could help. I was shocked at how much salt is in many seemingly healthy foods. DH didn't notice any difference after restricting sodium, so we gradually went back to normal eating. I don't use a lot of salt when I cook. I do notice when eating out how much saltier restaurant food tastes.1
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Verity1111 wrote: »Because I seriously probably double the recommended intake and I only eat 1200-1500 calories. I rarely am below 3,000 and I have hit 4,500-5,000 a lot. Lol. My blood tests etc are all good. Should I worry about it or chill since I don't have any bad signs from it when I see my dr? Also, am I the only person with this issue? I assume not but it's always nice to know lol. It is all from sauces or prepackaged stuff, cheese, etc. I don't use actual table salt sprinkled on my food.
I get about 10k+ a day lol1 -
Before you worry about sodium, watch these videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbKk9tbNrfQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnkUj-kc1qk&index=9&list=PLlNrtl1anSvwollmhpTTTEL94G7-WcoV1 3 -
Sodium is something you should be concerned about only if you are hypertensive. Sort of like how sugar really only matters if you are diabetic. Personally I just turned the sodium tracker off because I didn't care.
Sodium is in balance with water. If you eat more sodium and drink more water that is totally fine. In fact if you drink more water you probably should eat more sodium. So the idea of tracking sodium as some independent thing when its really the ratio of water to sodium that matters is a bit silly in my opinion. Right now the way it is set up you could have someone drinking a lot of water (like a gallon) a day and having MFP telling them to limit their sodium even though they should probably be getting like 4x the normal daily suggested amount.9 -
If you eat out alot or buy a lot of ready made meals/snacks then its a given your sodium levels will be high. If you feel healthy enough then its not likely to be a problem. If you make your own food you'll not have to worry about the sodium as you'll never reach the quota.
High sodium makes us retain water so when you cut back you'll see a nice whoosh of water weight gone on the scales It also can be a problem for those with high blood pressure. 3
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