Reducing Sodium Intake

Why do you wish to reduce your sodium? Are you sensitive to it?

I am trying to reduce my sodium, or stabilize it around the normal mg allowance per day, for a few different reasons. Consuming too much sodium can lead to quite a few different health problems like high blood pressure and heart disease, two of which runs in my family on my mother's side. Also, too much salt makes you retain water which is not something I want either.

A few notes.

If I recall correctly, only a portion of society (around 20-25%) is sensitive to sodium. Simply put, sodium will negatively effective their blood pressure, which means only 1 in 4 people are sensitive to sodium. You can test this out yourself if you have access to a blood pressure monitor. Take me for example. My girlfriend is a nurse and she tested my blood pressure a year and 3 months ago. I started out at 170/90 and now I'm 108/65 despite consuming 10g of sodium a day. This is because I tested to see if I was sodium sensitive and I was not. As a side note, my father has high blood pressure and my mother has low, so it is possible that I have taken from my mom. Either way, no sodium sensitivity here therefore health problems related to sodium is entirely dependent on the individual's sensitivity (which might include you).

Salt only makes you retain water if you go above what you are used to. If you continue to consume a high amount of salt then you will most likely normalize. Back in 1990, a Harvard study (Rogacz, et al) showed that exogenous sodium does not effect serum sodium levels. The only thing that changed was the amount of sodium within one's urine yet serum sodium levels remained the same despite reducing sodium drastically. What sodium depletion does is increase levels of aldosterone, a hormone that causes retention of water and sodium. When you throw a lot of sodium back in then you see an increase in water retention because of the increase in aldosterone. Once you maintain a reasonable sodium level (or a high level such as mine), the hormone is decreased and water retention is no longer an issue.

Let's just say, for the sake of simplicity, that my 1 in 4 statistic is wrong (which is probably is). You can easily test to see if you're sensitive. According to most doctors and such, I should have a plethora of health issues yet I have consumed double or triple the RDA for over 5 years.

To put the dagger in the proverbial dragon's throat, there was a meta-analysis done in the American Journal of Hypertension that found there is no strong evidence that reduced sodium levels reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes or deaths in people with normal to high blood pressure. Unfortunately, sodium, like red meat and saturated fats, have received a bad reputation based on sketchy science, namely epidemiological ones.

In the end, it is your decision whether you wish to reduce your sodium intake or not. I would first test to see if I was sensitive or not before making a drastic change such as that. I know it can become quite confusing hearing a lot of contradictory information (especially since MFP is a haven for fear mongering) but, I assure you, sodium is not the devil and you are safe (assuming you are not sensitive).

I'm sensitive to sodium, and when I stopped most processed foods and cut my intake more than half... the water weight and visible bloatedness dropped almost immediately.
My ankles and toes would swell so bad they'd hurt. My fingers wouldn't fit any ring size, my wrists were non-existant; as well as my jawline.

I've found my bones and veins again.

I am trying to reduce my sodium, or stabilize it around the normal mg allowance per day, for a few different reasons. Consuming too much sodium can lead to quite a few different health problems like high blood pressure and heart disease, two of which runs in my family on my mother's side. Also, too much salt makes you retain water which is not something I want either.

A few notes.

If I recall correctly, only a portion of society (around 20-25%) is sensitive to sodium. Simply put, sodium will negatively effective their blood pressure, which means only 1 in 4 people are sensitive to sodium. You can test this out yourself if you have access to a blood pressure monitor. Take me for example. My girlfriend is a nurse and she tested my blood pressure a year and 3 months ago. I started out at 170/90 and now I'm 108/65 despite consuming 10g of sodium a day. This is because I tested to see if I was sodium sensitive and I was not. As a side note, my father has high blood pressure and my mother has low, so it is possible that I have taken from my mom. Either way, no sodium sensitivity here therefore health problems related to sodium is entirely dependent on the individual's sensitivity (which might include you).

Salt only makes you retain water if you go above what you are used to. If you continue to consume a high amount of salt then you will most likely normalize. Back in 1990, a Harvard study (Rogacz, et al) showed that exogenous sodium does not effect serum sodium levels. The only thing that changed was the amount of sodium within one's urine yet serum sodium levels remained the same despite reducing sodium drastically. What sodium depletion does is increase levels of aldosterone, a hormone that causes retention of water and sodium. When you throw a lot of sodium back in then you see an increase in water retention because of the increase in aldosterone. Once you maintain a reasonable sodium level (or a high level such as mine), the hormone is decreased and water retention is no longer an issue.

Let's just say, for the sake of simplicity, that my 1 in 4 statistic is wrong (which is probably is). You can easily test to see if you're sensitive. According to most doctors and such, I should have a plethora of health issues yet I have consumed double or triple the RDA for over 5 years.

To put the dagger in the proverbial dragon's throat, there was a meta-analysis done in the American Journal of Hypertension that found there is no strong evidence that reduced sodium levels reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes or deaths in people with normal to high blood pressure. Unfortunately, sodium, like red meat and saturated fats, have received a bad reputation based on sketchy science, namely epidemiological ones.

In the end, it is your decision whether you wish to reduce your sodium intake or not. I would first test to see if I was sensitive or not before making a drastic change such as that. I know it can become quite confusing hearing a lot of contradictory information (especially since MFP is a haven for fear mongering) but, I assure you, sodium is not the devil and you are safe (assuming you are not sensitive).

Glad he said it, because I would have been too lazy to actually go look up the studies.

Here are a couple of other things to consider...

Maybe high sodium is linked to high BP and heart disease because highly processed, calorie dense but nutrient poor foods are often very high in sodium. So people who eat crap processed foods are taking in high levels of sodium, but that may not be the culprit in their health problems.

I've heard of a study (could be urban legend, but you'll get the point) that correlated coffee with lung cancer. Turned out that the same people who drank a lot of coffee also tended to smoke more. So... correlation vs cause is a big issue here.

Generally, when you're looking at heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, etc, you are looking a lifestyle diseases. One factor in and of itself does not constitute a lifestyle.

So... if you're eating healthy, natural foods, and exercising, you are probably okay. A can of soup a day won't kill you. But if you're eating processed foods at every meal, you might want to look at that and decide if it's something you really want to do for the long term. I don't think there's a lot of hard evidence out there to say that processed foods will harm you (mainly b/c there's no true definition of "processed" foods), BUT the more processed a food is, the less nutrient rich is tends to be... so, you have to make your own choice there.

I can't see your diary, so I have no idea what you're eating or where your sodium intake is coming from, but I'd say that if you want to lower it, instead of debating salt sensitivity, research studies and cause vs correlation (yadda, yadda, yadda), let someone look at your diary for you and make some direct suggestions.

All the best!
Jen

MFP already allows more sodium than recommended by the FDA. The recommendations are 2300 for a healthy person on a 2000 calorie diet. If you have high blood pressure or are 50 years old or older, you shouldn't consume more than 1500 mg per day. Check out my diary - it is open the public - I am on a reduced sodium diet due to high blood pressure. Too much sodium is harmful to your body. I try to keep my sodium under 1500 mg per day. It can be done. Many days I eat less than that.

Eating out is difficult. Eating processed foods is a challenge. You need to compare labels - you'd be surprised by the variances - especially in breads and cakes. There are low sodium products you can substitute (no salt added diced tomatoes, low sodium or no salt added luncheon meats and cheeses), cereals like Shredded Wheat or Frosted Mini Wheats have no sodium.

As you can see sodium is naturally occuring in plenty of whole foods (celery, spinach, chicken, eggs, seafood). It is added to many processed foods as a preservative.

Mrs. Dash is my good friend. She has many flavors and I use her to my advantage daily.

I have been doing this for a few months since my mom was diagnosed with a irregular heart beat. I decided to go on it with her since I was eating way too much salt myself. I have learned a lot and found a lot of good recipes online. Here is one site with a lot of recipes: http://www.lowsodiumcooking.com/free/index.htm
I made some Italian dressing from the site and added it to pasta salad and it was great, and was only 30mgs of sodium for the large amount I used. If you looked at any stores for low sodium salad dressing you will find it is near impossible to find low sodium. They do have low sodium ketchup, potatoe chips, chicken broth, beef broth, chicken, chicken sausage and more at Publix grocery stores. Anything I can do to help let me know.