Salt: sodium or potassium?

meulie
meulie Posts: 3 Member
edited December 19 in Food and Nutrition
Hi all,

When I register a new food in the database, and its ingredients just mention 'salt', should I enter it as sodium, or potassium?

Replies

  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,374 Member
    Sodium
  • rj0150684
    rj0150684 Posts: 227 Member
    Technically a salt is any metal bonded with a non-metal. For food, unless explicitly said otherwise, salt means table salt - sodium chloride. If it’s potassium salt, it would say potassium chloride, not salt.
  • fuzzylop72
    fuzzylop72 Posts: 651 Member
    edited June 2018
    sodium, but enter the right amount by using a salt to sodium calculator.
  • LiftHeavyThings27105
    LiftHeavyThings27105 Posts: 2,086 Member
    fuzzylop72 wrote: »
    sodium, but enter the right amount by using a salt to sodium calculator.

    Correct....keep in mind that it is 40% Sodium and 60% Chloride. That is, assuming that I remember high school chemistry correctly....and that was 35 years ago! Thank the good Lord above that I have a pretty good memory!
  • ianhenderson08
    ianhenderson08 Posts: 1 Member
    edited October 2018
    Hi,
    Brand new to Myfitnesspal (1 day) and already seeing some limitations. Have read all of the above but it doesn't address the issue I have.
    I created a recipe for myself, added 4g salt in the ingredients. No problem. MFP recognises this is salt and in the nutrition facts box, assigns it 1694mg sodium automatically. No problem. Except for the fact that everything in the box is supposed to be 'per serving' but the sodium value is that of the complete recipe. So my sodium/salt for the day is already really high because every portion of that composite foodstuff I add to my diary chucks in the salt/sodium for the whole batch. Anyone else spotted that this happens?
    To clarify, it is not a conversion error but, rather, scaling.

    Cheers.

    EDIT: seems to frequently add in duplicates of ingredients when making recipes. Re-did the recipe, deleted a few duplicates to this version, the nutrition facts box sorted itself out. Top marks for confidence in MFP and time saving.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    meulie wrote: »
    Hi all,

    When I register a new food in the database, and its ingredients just mention 'salt', should I enter it as sodium, or potassium?

    Unless you use lo-salt or no-salt it is sodium chloride. No-salt is all potassium chloride and Lo-salt is a mix of both.
  • meulie
    meulie Posts: 3 Member
    fuzzylop72 wrote: »
    sodium, but enter the right amount by using a salt to sodium calculator.

    Great tip! I found one here: https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/healthy-eating/food-and-nutrition/salt/sodium-and-salt-converter
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