Sodium, Sodium, Sodium!!!

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  • crazycat80
    crazycat80 Posts: 121 Member
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    I hardly ever go over my sodium intake unless I have a weak day and I've even reduced my goal from the MFP default. I've dropped mine by:
    1. Never adding salt to foods
    2. Switching to frozen veggies (canned veggies have over 300mg per 1/2 cup!)
    3. Checking the content on my purchased foods and picking the lowest
    4. If it does have a lot of sodium (like chips) I only eat a few, just enough to kill whatever craving I was having

    It won't be easy to just go cold turkey on the foods. When I first tried NOT adding salt, everything tasted gross. I had to slowly reduce it until I got used to it. I've replaced it with other seasonings like garlic, pepper, etc. Now things tend to taste too salty.

    Good luck!
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
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    The sad truth is that many of us eat 5,000, 6,000, 10,000 mg of sodium a day without even realizing it.

    Really??? Even the most sodium-laden restaurant food is usually around 2,000 to 3,000 mg of sodium. You'd have to eat that three times a day to get to those numbers, and even that is pushing it.

    5,000 is maybe realistic, but 10,000???

    Sad to say, I've done it myself. I was busy, ate out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Had a bag of beef jerky, sunflower seeds (in shells), and a bag of chips for snacks. Plus the sodas. I got up near 10k that day. This was before I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. It wasn't everyday, but if you are as addicted to salt as I was you get your numbers up there pretty quickly.

    I can certainly see it every once in a while. But on a regular basis? Somehow, I doubt very many people do that very often.
  • lorishultis
    lorishultis Posts: 95 Member
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    It sucks... everyone is right stay away from boxed, bagged, etc... If you do have to eat it then watch the rest of the day closer...
    I am more worried about cal's then salt really but I still watch it. allrecipes.com has some good ones... I have also switched to cooking with wine for seasoning. - seems to really lower sodium and adds good flavoring!
  • mrsdizzyd84
    mrsdizzyd84 Posts: 422 Member
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    The sad truth is that many of us eat 5,000, 6,000, 10,000 mg of sodium a day without even realizing it.

    Really??? Even the most sodium-laden restaurant food is usually around 2,000 to 3,000 mg of sodium. You'd have to eat that three times a day to get to those numbers, and even that is pushing it.

    5,000 is maybe realistic, but 10,000???

    Sad to say, I've done it myself. I was busy, ate out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Had a bag of beef jerky, sunflower seeds (in shells), and a bag of chips for snacks. Plus the sodas. I got up near 10k that day. This was before I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. It wasn't everyday, but if you are as addicted to salt as I was you get your numbers up there pretty quickly.

    I can certainly see it every once in a while. But on a regular basis? Somehow, I doubt very many people do that very often.

    You'd be surprised. There are a lot people who never cook for themselves. If you eat out for every meal it is very easy to get your numbers up there. Like I said, most people don't realize it.

    ETA: Anyway, I didn't say everyone does it. I said 5k, 6k even 10k. That's up to. Not always.
  • tharman213
    tharman213 Posts: 1 Member
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    I've got liver issues so my sodium intake sometimes has to be under 100mg. Its super hard but it's doable. Everything fresh if possible. With canned goods if possible get no salt added (tomatoes, beans, corn etc). I don't know what the rules are for posting about other sites but Healthy Heart Market dot com has saved me. Tons of no sodium spices, condiments, foods.

    Lemon, garlic, ginger, vinegar, herbs, peppers are all great things to give the food more bite or tang to somewhat replace the saltiness.

    Plan on increasing your food budget a bit and more frequent shopping trips to the grocery store though. Fresh produce starts to add up and you don't want to be wasting a bunch buying too much at once.

    Hope that helps in someway :)
  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
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    Most people don’t need to worry about sodium unless they have heart failure or another condition that causes severe fluid retention.

    I have monitored it before just to see and it is easy to keep levels down if you don’t eat processed food and cook at home. I do salt my food and it is plenty tasty. Most of our sodium intake comes from packaged and processed foods.
  • rosebarnalice
    rosebarnalice Posts: 3,488 Member
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    I'm very sensitive to salt-- many restaurant and prepackaged foods taste like brine to me!

    So step 1: avoid prepackaged foods.
    Step 2: make meals from scratch, loading up on produce first.
    Step 3: don't add salt when cooking. Ever.

    In our house, salt is a condiment used only sparingly at the table. We laughed when we realized we had a 26 oz Morton Salt containers that lasted us 17 years!

    I do reluctantly bake with it because I understand the chemistry-- but generally use between 1/2 and 1/3 or the recipe amount, and I don't bake that often.
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,343 Member
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    tharman213 wrote: »
    I've got liver issues so my sodium intake sometimes has to be under 100mg. Its super hard but it's doable. Everything fresh if possible. With canned goods if possible get no salt added (tomatoes, beans, corn etc). I don't know what the rules are for posting about other sites but Healthy Heart Market dot com has saved me. Tons of no sodium spices, condiments, foods.

    Lemon, garlic, ginger, vinegar, herbs, peppers are all great things to give the food more bite or tang to somewhat replace the saltiness.

    Plan on increasing your food budget a bit and more frequent shopping trips to the grocery store though. Fresh produce starts to add up and you don't want to be wasting a bunch buying too much at once.

    Hope that helps in someway :)

    Some v good advice there, but the thread appears to date from 2012 so I’m not sure the OP will see it! I can never find anything using the search function on my phone - I’m impressed you found this!

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