Holy Sodium!

liftingheavy
liftingheavy Posts: 551 Member
edited November 12 in Food and Nutrition
So, I've been tracking Calories, Fat, Protein, Carbs and Fiber since I started this site.

Today I decided to stop micromanaging carbs (net carbs blah, blah, blah). I only did it to make myself feel better about carbs and was becoming obsessed.

So I got rid fiber and started tracking sodium. Holy crap!

I have bigger problems than net carbs... It's good to know though, gonna have to swap out a few things here - cucumbers for pickles for sure.

Replies

  • kimbsh01
    kimbsh01 Posts: 38
    yea sodium will def snek up on u
  • fmbomzo
    fmbomzo Posts: 382 Member
    Good point. I think I'll start tracking sodium as well.
  • evolve1587
    evolve1587 Posts: 9 Member
    I looked at my diary today and I went over on sodium by 1300ish mg's SCARY!!!
    I've been trying to cut out frozen ready meals and getting low sodium alternatives, but I want to really be under my goal as much as possible... High blood pressure sucks!
  • donnamc0665
    donnamc0665 Posts: 1
    How do you get it to track sodium? I am unable to figure it out?
  • akshayam29
    akshayam29 Posts: 44
    How do you get it to track sodium? I am unable to figure it out?


    my home......settings........dairy settings....you can choose your trackings...
  • wftiger
    wftiger Posts: 1,283 Member
    Sodium is still my biggest enemy and I have been "working" on it since around January. You can get it down but it takes work and planning.

    The biggest sodium baddies are:
    Processed foods (frozen meals, bacon (ummmmm, bacon), salami, lunch meat, cheeses, etc.)
    Condiments (ketchup, salad dressing, pickles, many salsas, etc.)
    Breads (yup even whole wheat)
    Canned food (unless specified no or low sodium frozen is better or at least rinse the canned foods for 2 minutes in cold water)
    Frozen meats (many are frozen in a salt solution, check the NI before you buy it)

    Note that you won't be able to steer completely clear of it and you do need some to live. But if you are in high risk group then it is better to act on it before you get HBP.

    More info -- http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/publications/dietaryguidelines/2010/meeting2/commentattachments/aha-220e.pdf
  • sheschemes
    sheschemes Posts: 67
    Sodium is still my biggest enemy and I have been "working" on it since around January. You can get it down but it takes work and planning.

    The biggest sodium baddies are:
    Processed foods (frozen meals, bacon (ummmmm, bacon), salami, lunch meat, cheeses, etc.)
    Condiments (ketchup, salad dressing, pickles, many salsas, etc.)
    Breads (yup even whole wheat)
    Canned food (unless specified no or low sodium frozen is better or at least rinse the canned foods for 2 minutes in cold water)
    Frozen meats (many are frozen in a salt solution, check the NI before you buy it)

    Note that you won't be able to steer completely clear of it and you do need some to live. But if you are in high risk group then it is better to act on it before you get HBP.

    More info -- http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/publications/dietaryguidelines/2010/meeting2/commentattachments/aha-220e.pdf

    This, definitely. Cooking at home helps a lot since you have more control. It takes a lot more planning. For instance, right now I'm working on learning to re-hydrate beans instead of getting the canned kind. Every little bit helps with the overall goal.

    High sodium levels in our diets are also part of why it's important to drink enough water. Excess sodium is sent out through urine. Drink lots of water while you're working on getting those sodium levels down!
  • akshayam29
    akshayam29 Posts: 44
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/573956-sodium-stuck-at-2-5-grams


    similar topic
  • Jorra
    Jorra Posts: 3,338 Member
    If you can, track potassium as well. It's not on all labels so you won't get a completely accurate look, but it's important. Sodium and potassium work together in the body and need to be balanced. Having low potassium can increase the effects of too much sodium!

    Also be sure not to eat too little sodium, it is necessary, especially if you work out a lot! I actually stopped tracking sodium because I have naturally low blood pressure and when I don't get enough, I get light-headed.
  • dicklitton
    dicklitton Posts: 3 Member
    Seems like sodium is the nutrient that makes foods taste the best. Very hard to keep levels down. 2 (boring) snacks I eat that are low in sodium are raisins and unsalted almonds. They are filling, but I really love peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets, and trail mix, but both of these are high in sodium. So, I try to eat snacks after I have eaten and tracked all three meals, then I have an idea of what my options are.

    Don't know how old you are, but when you reach your 7th decade, as I have, you will have to keep sodium levels down.
  • dicklitton
    dicklitton Posts: 3 Member
    Click on "Reports", then on "Nutrients", then drop down the list of nutrients, select "Sodium"
  • Mommyof3texans
    Mommyof3texans Posts: 347
    I have had issues with high blood pressure so tracking sodium is critical for me. I have my goal set to 1,500mg a day. It is NOT easy keeping it around there and takes a lot of sacrifices but it can be done. Almost anything that comes in a box is a sodium pitfall lol

    Feel free to look at my diary for ideas.
  • ijustmightbecrazy
    ijustmightbecrazy Posts: 37
    Just make sure you don't eat too little sodium, a 2000 calorie diet needs around 2200mg (2.2 g) of sodium a day. The best thing to do is to eat less processed foods so that you are by turn able to salt foods directly to taste, which uses far less sodium than processing, and furthermore you are usually unable to taste the sodium in processed foods to begin with unless it's something like pickles or pretzels.
  • gpstrucker
    gpstrucker Posts: 930 Member
    I have high blood pressure and have been tracking sodium and cholesterol since I started and yeah, there is a LOT of sodium out there. It's really tough to keep it down to sensible levels.
  • 10KEyes
    10KEyes Posts: 250 Member
    I track sodium. My limit is 2000. If I only eat fresh veggies and whole unprocessed meats, I am usually below 2000. The moment I start adding in any packaged foods, prepared foods, I always go over. So then it is trying to mitigate the damage. Usually the next day is plenty of water and super clean with very little sodium in an attempt to flush it out.
  • akshayam29
    akshayam29 Posts: 44
    I have had issues with high blood pressure so tracking sodium is critical for me. I have my goal set to 1,500mg a day. It is NOT easy keeping it around there and takes a lot of sacrifices but it can be done. Almost anything that comes in a box is a sodium pitfall lol

    Feel free to look at my diary for ideas.

    if the potassium intake is higher than sodium then there should not be any effects of sodium.....but potassium is little hard to track as there is not enough data in the nutrition values.....but i can suggest adding up almonds, avocado, banana,coconut water, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, strawberries to your diet. All of these are rich inPotassium and it has an ability to flush excess sodium content.
  • DesignGuy
    DesignGuy Posts: 457 Member
    This past week I started tracking sodium and potassium. So far so good.

    Glad I started tracking it because some of my usual foods were loaded with sodium and my potassium was a little low.
  • ChasingSweatandTears
    ChasingSweatandTears Posts: 504 Member
    I HAVE to eat a lot of sodium, as advised by a cardiologist due to the fact that I've always had low blood pressure and dizziness. I was passing out on a reduced sodium diet while at work and you could forget about excercising, I had zero energy and got dizzy with little effort. Went through this for a couple of years too and had all kinds of heart tests done only to tell me I needed more salt. Ugh. What? Sodium is bad! Apparently not for some :ohwell: So now I occasionally track my diary to make sue I get ENOUGH, ,and I have 6 different pickled things in my fridge at any given time lol. Currently it's dill pickles, sauerkraut, pickled okra, kimchi, and pickled asparagus. On and green olives too lol.

    So if you ever want to see what foods you need to avoid, add me as a friend lol there's tons of the stuff in my diet (on a good day) and I'm hoping my body doesn't just switch on me someday!!! It would be horrible if I couldn't have salt.

    And yes, increase your potassium. I eat a lot of potassium too, so I consider it insurance against all the sodium I consume lol. But you can't get me to give up my avocados, bananas, apricots, or almonds. :)
  • kurenaikumo
    kurenaikumo Posts: 271 Member
    Same here- My sodium intake was staggering. It still goes over several days a week, admittedly, but better than it was before. I gave up all the salty snacks etc, but canned soups have been my bane... LOVE soup. Sure, I could make my own, but that's money and time I just don't have. Switching to Healthy Request types as I eat through what I had on hand (which was quite a bit LOL)
  • luvmybaby333
    luvmybaby333 Posts: 241
    Yeah... It is really mind blowing how much sodium people consume without even realizing it. I have made a pretty big effort to cut down on my sodium these past four months that I have been logging... And I'm still over every single day. Still, I am ashamed to say that my sodium intake now is WAY better than it ever has been before. I've been addicted to salt since I was a kid. I would dip my meat in piles of salt. I would (heavily) salt anything that wasn't sweet. Scrambled eggs, spaghetti, macaroni & cheese, vegetables, mashed potatoes, etc. It was really bad. So while I was surprised to be diagnosed with hypertension at the age of 26, I really shouldn't have been.
    If you can, track potassium as well. It's not on all labels so you won't get a completely accurate look, but it's important. Sodium and potassium work together in the body and need to be balanced. Having low potassium can increase the effects of too much sodium!

    Also be sure not to eat too little sodium, it is necessary, especially if you work out a lot! I actually stopped tracking sodium because I have naturally low blood pressure and when I don't get enough, I get light-headed.

    This is something I've *just* started doing. I vaguely was aware that potassium and sodium had some connections... But I saw someone mentioned how closely they worked together, and since I'm struggling desperately to get my sodium levels under control, I figured that I would see how I normally do with potassium. I was shocked! I usually go obscenely over on my sodium each day (As in a minimum of 500mgs over, and a maximum of a few THOUSAND mgs over...), but I had no idea just how little potassium I was getting on the flip side of that. My average is a mere 800mgs of potassium per day. And I have no idea how to fix that. I can see from logging that I get some potassium from veggies and fruits... But even if I seriously upped my intake of produce, I would still get way too little potassium-- especially when compared to my sodium intake.

    I do have some health problems. I have high blood pressure, and one of my main goals is to be able to stop taking the beta blockers I was prescribed to treat that. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information about potassium supplements, but I'm considering a visit to my doctor to discuss it. I've been having strange issues with muscle pain, and I'm reading that this can be a sign of a potassium deficiency. Of course, seeing how pitiful my potassium intake is even AFTER I've started eating way more fruits and vegetables than ever before... I wouldn't be surprised if I was deficient.

    And here I thought replacing my salt-shaker with Mrs. Dash was going to fix all this crap for me. :-/
  • kenna44cat
    kenna44cat Posts: 105 Member
    I was really surprised at all the sodium in prepared pasta sauce and salsa. It went right off the chart.

    I usually use canned crushed tomatoes, salt free if I can find them, and then add my own spices, onions, mushrooms, etc. to them or eat it on pasta just the way it is heated up with some basil and oregano. An Italian co-worker once told me that's what she and her friends did.

    If you make your own salsa, too, that would cut out all the sodium. I didn't think that a person needs 2000 mg of sodium a day, though. That's something to think about.

    Thanks for all the comments. I don't know how to track potassium. It's a trace mineral, I think, maybe present in oranges and bananas if a person gets some of those every day.
  • ChasingSweatandTears
    ChasingSweatandTears Posts: 504 Member
    I was really surprised at all the sodium in prepared pasta sauce and salsa. It went right off the chart.

    I usually use canned crushed tomatoes, salt free if I can find them, and then add my own spices, onions, mushrooms, etc. to them or eat it on pasta just the way it is heated up with some basil and oregano. An Italian co-worker once told me that's what she and her friends did.

    If you make your own salsa, too, that would cut out all the sodium. I didn't think that a person needs 2000 mg of sodium a day, though. That's something to think about.

    Thanks for all the comments. I don't know how to track potassium. It's a trace mineral, I think, maybe present in oranges and bananas if a person gets some of those every day.

    Avocados, dried apricots, bananas, prunes, almonds are a few good sources :)
  • sheschemes
    sheschemes Posts: 67
    Yeah... It is really mind blowing how much sodium people consume without even realizing it. I have made a pretty big effort to cut down on my sodium these past four months that I have been logging... And I'm still over every single day. Still, I am ashamed to say that my sodium intake now is WAY better than it ever has been before. I've been addicted to salt since I was a kid. I would dip my meat in piles of salt. I would (heavily) salt anything that wasn't sweet. Scrambled eggs, spaghetti, macaroni & cheese, vegetables, mashed potatoes, etc. It was really bad. So while I was surprised to be diagnosed with hypertension at the age of 26, I really shouldn't have been.
    If you can, track potassium as well. It's not on all labels so you won't get a completely accurate look, but it's important. Sodium and potassium work together in the body and need to be balanced. Having low potassium can increase the effects of too much sodium!

    Also be sure not to eat too little sodium, it is necessary, especially if you work out a lot! I actually stopped tracking sodium because I have naturally low blood pressure and when I don't get enough, I get light-headed.

    This is something I've *just* started doing. I vaguely was aware that potassium and sodium had some connections... But I saw someone mentioned how closely they worked together, and since I'm struggling desperately to get my sodium levels under control, I figured that I would see how I normally do with potassium. I was shocked! I usually go obscenely over on my sodium each day (As in a minimum of 500mgs over, and a maximum of a few THOUSAND mgs over...), but I had no idea just how little potassium I was getting on the flip side of that. My average is a mere 800mgs of potassium per day. And I have no idea how to fix that. I can see from logging that I get some potassium from veggies and fruits... But even if I seriously upped my intake of produce, I would still get way too little potassium-- especially when compared to my sodium intake.

    I do have some health problems. I have high blood pressure, and one of my main goals is to be able to stop taking the beta blockers I was prescribed to treat that. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information about potassium supplements, but I'm considering a visit to my doctor to discuss it. I've been having strange issues with muscle pain, and I'm reading that this can be a sign of a potassium deficiency. Of course, seeing how pitiful my potassium intake is even AFTER I've started eating way more fruits and vegetables than ever before... I wouldn't be surprised if I was deficient.

    And here I thought replacing my salt-shaker with Mrs. Dash was going to fix all this crap for me. :-/

    Potassium is often left off of foods in MFP. Still, it is so helpful to try to track it. I've been working on keeping mine at least double my sodium. If you think you're low in potassium it's best to reach for a banana or coconut water. All the information I read said to never take a potassium supplement without a doctor's attention. Apparently it can really mess you up.
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