Sodium Content of Food choices always high

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mjc8080
mjc8080 Posts: 30 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I seem to go way over my daily allotted sodium allowance when tracking. I find my meals have more sodium than I prefer, but a lot of the meals are frozen which I assume pack more sodium than fresher choices. Do you fight this battle as well, or what options work better for your situation to lower sodium content of food? Thank you.
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  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    Cooking your own meals is probably the best bet to control the sodium content of your meals. You could also check out frozen meals that are specifically marketed as lower sodium to see if they meet your needs.

    I don't have any health conditions that require me to limit sodium, so I just ignore the limit personally.
  • mjc8080
    mjc8080 Posts: 30 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    Cooking your own meals is probably the best bet to control the sodium content of your meals. You could also check out frozen meals that are specifically marketed as lower sodium to see if they meet your needs.

    I don't have any health conditions that require me to limit sodium, so I just ignore the limit personally.

    I don't really have any need for limitation for sodium, except I get freaked out when I see all the red pop up at the bottom of my daily amounts and I am way over on sodium! I will look into cooking more at home which means more control of sodium. Thank you.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
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    I like it being there so I know when a bounce in weight is nothing to freak out about. I swell up with water for a day or two after a really salt heavy day.
  • mariluny
    mariluny Posts: 428 Member
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    By cooking at home, with whole ingredients, you can easily reach your amount of salt. That being said, I do not track salt and I do not mesure the salt I add when I'm cooking, so I might be wrong. Start by choosing salt free or reduce sodium item at the grocery store and go from there.

    However, salt is not bad for you. Salt does retain water so if you go out to a restaurant, that's usually why you suddenly gained 2 pounds the next morning. It's all water weight. But since afer a day or two it goes away, it's not a problem per say. Unless you have high blood pressure, salt is not an ennemy to your diet. Salt helps regulate blood flow, helps with muscle, etc. If you are usually a few mg above the standard, although I do not have a medical background, I doubt it will have a bad side effect. But like anything else, if you are always way over it, then it would be important to be more careful about it.
  • DoubleUbea
    DoubleUbea Posts: 1,115 Member
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    Prepared food always has a lot of sodium, that is one of the ways they get it to taste good and preserve it.
  • OddDitty
    OddDitty Posts: 248 Member
    edited August 2018
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    mjc8080 wrote: »
    I seem to go way over my daily allotted sodium allowance when tracking. I find my meals have more sodium than I prefer, but a lot of the meals are frozen which I assume pack more sodium than fresher choices. Do you fight this battle as well, or what options work better for your situation to lower sodium content of food? Thank you.

    Hi there. I'm newly diagnosed with liver disease and so, sodium is not my buddy but our bodies need it, so I am on low-sodium diet.

    At first I found this daunting. Still do, kind of. I've had teaching from a certified nutritionist, so I can only pass on what I've learned and continue to learn.

    The first thing is to look at what your daily allowance is. Most Americans eat well in excess of what the body needs which, according to the nutrition world, is 2000 mg of sodium a day.

    But for people like me- and maybe you too- the limit is less. I'm allower 1300-1500 mg of salt per day, less is best.

    This seems quite restrictive because you have to also factor in the foods you cook. I've been looking at this like a mouse-detective adventure. You've heard of WHERE'S WALDO? Mine's WHERE'S SODO (for sodium). Get this- you know the ultimate diet food is celery, right? So they say. But did you know that a medium stalk of celery contains 30mg sodium? May not sound like much to some people but if I want celery and cream cheese as a snack I have to think twice, even though celery is high in water volume.

    So here's what I've been doing and, so far, as long as I check labels, I do well (I've also made some mistakes in the label areas so read carefully!)

    • Prep where possible. Take a day a week to cook all the proteins possible. Don't do fish- it doesn't keep well and turns mushy if cooked and reheated.
    • Shop by the week instead of biweekly or monthly.
    • Make meals for the week out in advance.
    • Omit salt in cooking and/or table or both. Salt is usually added to food as a flavor enhancer. I highly suggest using other spices. If you're not up on spices, just check out Mrs. Dash
    • Do product searches online and order online if you have to.


    I hope this helps. MFP is a really good tool for counting and tracking. Try to use it faithfully but remember that the data base may not always have correct information, so read the package labels (this includes meat). If need be, log in corrected info for your own help and the benefit of others.

    Hope this helps!! YOU CAN DO IT!!!

    wedft4oarfaq.gif
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    mjc8080 wrote: »
    I seem to go way over my daily allotted sodium allowance when tracking. I find my meals have more sodium than I prefer, but a lot of the meals are frozen which I assume pack more sodium than fresher choices. Do you fight this battle as well, or what options work better for your situation to lower sodium content of food? Thank you.

    Pretty much any prepared/processed food, including restaurant food is going to be high in sodium...it is used as a preservative to enhance shelf life. If you're concerned about it, the best thing you could do is cook more using scratch, whole food ingredients.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    edited August 2018
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    I personally don't pay any attention to my salt intake and I don't measure or log salt added to my meals. but if you're concerned about it, the best thing you can do is just cook from scratch more. Anything pre-prepared/frozen/boxed etc. is going to be high in sodium. You can also just search for low sodium items.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    My sodium level is usually below 2300. Sometimes too low, actually. Eating mostly "whole" foods rather than prepared/frozen/boxed foods makes a big difference.
  • mrslynda
    mrslynda Posts: 50 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    romanicholas1997 wrote: »
    https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/salt

    Just eat less salt. If you don’t care about your health then follow the advice of half the people here - or go with you intuition which is clearly leading you into the right track. Don’t overconsume sodium.

    It's ridiculous to assert that people who aren't tracking sodium don't care about their health.

    The cardiologist I saw when I was getting my heart checked a few years ago told me to make sure I get plenty of sodium, even from chips etc. this is because I have lower blood pressure, and a low resting heart rate. This is without being particularly fit, and having nothing physically wrong with my heart. My mother is the opposite and has major problems with her blood pressure. My husband has also started medication in the last few months and a side affect is slightly raised blood pressure. They both have to be careful of salt in their diets. I do watch my intake, but don't limit it. On a higher calorie count I get enough salt, has I can eat things like chips and crackers. If my activity is lower, I have to add salt. This is because I don't naturally think to add salt to my plate.

    OP, it's always a good idea to get your blood pressure checked and see how it is. If you feel salt is having a negative impact on your health, reducing it will help. Perhaps if you make one meal a day lower sodium, it might even out the effect of the prepackaged foods.

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    mrslynda wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    romanicholas1997 wrote: »
    https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/salt

    Just eat less salt. If you don’t care about your health then follow the advice of half the people here - or go with you intuition which is clearly leading you into the right track. Don’t overconsume sodium.

    It's ridiculous to assert that people who aren't tracking sodium don't care about their health.

    The cardiologist I saw when I was getting my heart checked a few years ago told me to make sure I get plenty of sodium, even from chips etc. this is because I have lower blood pressure, and a low resting heart rate. This is without being particularly fit, and having nothing physically wrong with my heart. My mother is the opposite and has major problems with her blood pressure. My husband has also started medication in the last few months and a side affect is slightly raised blood pressure. They both have to be careful of salt in their diets. I do watch my intake, but don't limit it. On a higher calorie count I get enough salt, has I can eat things like chips and crackers. If my activity is lower, I have to add salt. This is because I don't naturally think to add salt to my plate.

    OP, it's always a good idea to get your blood pressure checked and see how it is. If you feel salt is having a negative impact on your health, reducing it will help. Perhaps if you make one meal a day lower sodium, it might even out the effect of the prepackaged foods.

    People with health conditions or who have been advised to do so by their doctor should track their sodium (that's everyone you cited in your post). But this doesn't mean that people who aren't tracking it care less about their health than those who track it do. It's a ridiculous over-generalization.
  • maureenkhilde
    maureenkhilde Posts: 850 Member
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    Too much Sodium in ones diet over a long period of time is not good for the human body. Too little sodium can cause issues as well. One big issue is that at least in the USA is that in many fast food places the super sizing has become the normal. Besides the fat and the carbs, the sodium content is often more than two days wort for one meal. Like so many other items key phrasing for sodium should be in moderation. To ignore seems a bit silly to me. Be aware of it, even if not tracking all the time. And for those who eat lots of prepared/frozen i.e processed foods. Just be aware that yes you will be going over the norms for sodium intake. It may not be an issue for you right now, but over the years to come it could be a big issue. Your choice/your gamble.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    maureenkhilde wrote: »
    Too much Sodium in ones diet over a long period of time is not good for the human body. Too little sodium can cause issues as well. One big issue is that at least in the USA is that in many fast food places the super sizing has become the normal. Besides the fat and the carbs, the sodium content is often more than two days wort for one meal. Like so many other items key phrasing for sodium should be in moderation. To ignore seems a bit silly to me. Be aware of it, even if not tracking all the time. And for those who eat lots of prepared/frozen i.e processed foods. Just be aware that yes you will be going over the norms for sodium intake. It may not be an issue for you right now, but over the years to come it could be a big issue. Your choice/your gamble.

    Studies indicate that your claims may not be true. At best, the link between sodium consumption and disease is complicated and impacted by multiple factors:

    https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(97)09092-2/fulltext
    https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/899663
  • maureenkhilde
    maureenkhilde Posts: 850 Member
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    Odd. my post states it may not be an issue for someone right now but IT COULD BECOME ONE OVER THE YEARS TO COME. I was not overly focusing on just blood pressure by the way. Known fact high sodium intake for some people can and does lead to Protein in the Urine. some people retain sodium water I am sure there are studies on this as well. (I currently have my dominant arm in a cast from fingers to below shoulder, so not doing research on this right now) Which by the way is real and leads to Kidney disease and can happen to people who are not diabetics. Oh my info came from Harvard and Mayo Clinic and the Drs I see. I did review the links, it is interesting by the way.
  • lks802
    lks802 Posts: 65 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    lks802 wrote: »
    I disagree that you should ignore your sodium intake. If you are choosing to eat a healthy lifestyle, then being mindful of it is important. Sodium intake at high levels isn’t healthy at all, especially over long term.

    Eating frozen foods will automatically cause you to consume higher sodium levels. Any processed food will. The closer you eat to Whole Foods and prepare them yourself, you will find sodium levels for daily intake become a non-issue.

    Use the fact that you are exceeding recommended daily sodium intake as a red flag to take inventory on food choices. Eating prepackaged foods may be what helps you start your journey...but is that really a long term lifestyle change? It’s ok to do what steps work to get started and improve along the way. But to disregard and ignore, not a long term healthful choice.

    Nobody told OP to ignore their sodium intake. Some people shared that they personally didn't limit their sodium, but we don't know what health considerations OP may have to drive a decision to limit sodium. Likewise, you don't know the health situation of someone who doesn't limit sodium, so to conclude they're not healthy on that single data point would be silly.

    And where did I say it was a single data point to conclude someone isn’t healthy? Where did I conclude OP is unhealthy? Being mindful of sodium intake is absolutely a part of healthy eating, one part of it.

    There’s no fact dispute that too much sodium intake is unhealthy, especially over long term. OP noticed her intake is high, and was concerned. It’s absolutely an indicator that total food choices should be re-evaluated if she’s consistently noticing high intake.

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