Sodium ALERT

hmmm... never really thought much about sodium... what foods are high in sodium? i'm i right in thinking mostly salty foods??

Thanks for the sodium alert , I checked and I was out of control on sodium.
SODIUM , is in almost everything, coffee , diet drinks , breads, cereals , it isn't just salty foods.Read the labels on everything. I too was shocked at all the diet things I consumed and then totaled up that sodium was keeping me from dropping weight.

Also, prepackaged meals like WW meals and Healthy Choice...etc always have an abundant amount of sodium in them (usually between 600 and 1200 mg)

canned soup .. i've stop buying it because of that. i make my own now ( i know not everybody had time)
ho and i loveee feta cheese.. but its just insane salt in there.
but banks is right . essential everything prepackaged is high in salt, hence an other reason to home cook everything.

here's a couple interesting fact i found online

The US sodium RDA of less than 2,400 mg is higher than the UK Recommended Nutritional Intake (RNI) whose upper limit for sodium is 1,600 mg.

The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences recommends an approximate daily range of 1,100 to 3,300 mg of sodium for adults.

The American Heart Association recommends that for every 1,000 Calories of food consumed, the sodium intake should be 1,000 mg and should not exceed the 3,000 mg limit.

The average intake in the United States is between 4,000 and 5,000 mg of sodium per day.

5% added while cooking, 6% added while eating, 12% from natural source, 77% from processed and prepared foods

salt is an important one for me, i watch is closely.
may

I just changed my food options to include sodium intake.

i'm going to keep my food options the same, just to see how much sodium I'm taking in each day.

I have a feeling that it is more than the daily recommentation

one more question? Does MFP calculate sodium in grams? anyone?

Milligrams I believe.

Thanks for the ALERT. Changed my food diary to watch my sodium intake.

I too just changed mine to watch for sodium intake. Thanks for the alert!

This is so true I was on the Michael Thurman 6 week Miracle diet a few years ago. My plan said that if i picked up a food (anything processed) that had more than 10mg of sodium per serving I could not have it. I still got the sodium my body needed I got it naturally, but was not adding the extra with processed foods. I droped 50lbs of water weight in 5 days. Now if I could just get my self back to no processed foods now.

Did you say 50 lbs of water weight? Wow, that is an incredible amount!

Yeah the doctor was all for it though. My clothes were falling off. As soon As I went off the diet and started eating processed foods again I gained it all back.

Yikes!!!!!! I changed up my nutrition info on my food diary and went back a couple of days to look at my sodium intake....:sick:

THANKS for the heads up ALERT!

Waaaaay:noway: too much sodium in my foods. I absolutely have to start cooking from scratch again.:grumble:

I have to say that I love salt!!!
I always tell my self : don't put salt on the table...the food taste delicious with out the salt!! but always use a BIT more...:devil:

But, from tomorrow I'm going to start a new goal: Use half of the salt or less in my cooking!!
WHO IS WITH ME?
I don't use salt for the kids food, so I could do the same for me!! and start appreciate food again in it natural way...

From tomorrow guys....Let me know if you do the same.....

Good luck with that
Sonia

I have hypertension, so i have to watch salt. You can buy a lot of reduced salt or no salt added tomato products in cans. There are also reduced salt or no salt added beans, if you don't have time to cook your own from dry.

Also, watch out for sodium in bread. There is tons. I have switched to a low salt whole wheat bread which only has 70mg per two slices rather than the normal range of 270-330mg for regular bread. (If you are in Australia, this is Moore's specialty breads low salt wholemeal)

Do you find this type of bread at a health food store? I have never seen low sodium bread here (in the USA) in the regular supermarkets, in fact I didn't know there was such a bread! :noway:

There are also salt substitutes that you can buy to reduce your sodium even more.

This is copy and pasted from the Campbell's website:
(Quote) Why the concern about sodium (salt)?
Increased sodium in the diet has been associated with an increase in blood pressure. This association varies by age, gender, race, and family history. The latest Dietary Guidelines recommend keeping sodium intakes to less than 2,300 milligrams per day, which is about one teaspoon. Individuals with high blood pressure, blacks, and middle-aged and older adults are advised to consume no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day. For more information on this guideline, visit the Dietary Guidelines .

Other dietary factors can affect blood pressure. These include nutrients found in vegetables and fruits like potassium, magnesium, and fiber. Lifestyle factors, like smoking cessation, have been shown to moderate blood pressure. The recommendation for potassium intake for Americans has been recently increased from 3,500 to 4,700 milligrams per day to help combat high blood pressure among Americans. (Unquote)

Yet even their low sodium soups contain 480mg per 1 cup serving prepared. (that doesn't include the 25% less sodium, they have 680mg per 1/2 cup condensed). Nutritional values are sad as well.

The amazing thing to me is, the products endorsed byt he American Heart Association for heart health, do NOT address the sodium content of those foods. Many have almost 1,000mg per 1 cup serving (soup, which happens to have 2 servings per can, even the ready to eat soups). You'd think seeing a label with an endorsement for heart healthy food would also be low sodium, not so!

I'm so glad this was brought up, thank you again graypink0130 :flowerforyou: , I suspect this may be why many times after I eat I feel my heart pounding so hard. This was especially noticeable after chinese food, even wonton soup. (I tried ordering just the wontons as take out, and used low sodium chicken broth for the liquid, and I didn't experience the pounding in my chest so I wonder if the broth made the difference) My doctor never said anything about watching salt intake, but I'm on 2 different types of blood pressure medications...can't believe this wasn't mentioned. She only said lose weight and exercise more.

How do you add sodium in to your profile????:noway:
And how do you know how much are you taking???