Sodium, How Evil Is It?

Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Valve Replacement Forums

Help Support Valve Replacement Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Cooker

Cooker

Chillin, just chillin....
Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2005
Messages
10,549
Location
South Carolina
Holy Crap!!! Just when I am feeling all healthy something else pops up that I seem to be doing wrong!!! I have been enjoying Campbell?s Chunky Classic Chicken Soup for lunch and fruit for snacks during the day. Many nights I have another bowl with a tossed salad for diner. I feel great and am losing weight on this diet and it seems INR friendly.

But noooooooooo, read below::mad:

Most sodium comes from table salt and canned and pre-prepared foods. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, adult Americans average 4?5 grams (4,000?5,000 mg) of sodium per day. However, you only need about one tenth of that (500 mg) to meet the needs of the body. Total daily sodium intake should not exceed 2400 mg. Here are the U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for sodium for adults (both men and women), children, and infants:
? Adults: 500mg
? Children: 400 mg
? Infants: 120-200 mg

On a normal day I figure that I am consuming about 3800mg of sodium.:eek: Low sodium soups taste like you know what and I end up adding salt to them. I hardly ever use a salt shaker so just about all the sodium I get is coming from the food I eat (prepared or otherwise). I guess I could just eat grass clipping but there is probably something wrong there too.:rolleyes:

Sometimes health consciousness sucks.:mad:
 
Cooker- do you have blood pressure problems?- salt for sure is a no-no, if you do!
 
Now your beginning to see my dilemna. High cholesterol, heart failure, kidney, lung and God knows what else problems. No salt for me, trying to maintain on low cholesterol foods, fish and chicken and other things I don't like. I can't excercise enough to lose weight, food tastes bland, I don't like it and I'm still swelling like a pig.
 
Sodium my friend, can be very evil especially for those of us suffering with CHF & high BP. I take 160 mg of Lasix a day now, (use to take 80 mg daily) & I try to keep my sodium intake to less than 2000 grams a day & like Ross, I still swell due to fluid retention!:mad:

Canned soups, TV dinners, etc., are loaded with salt! Even a slice of bread can have between 115-150 grams of salt!:eek: I read my labels more closely & I try to buy low-sodium everything.

It's a battle but one does what one can to survive. Take care & watch the salt!:)

Norma
 
njean said:
Sodium my friend, can be very evil especially for those of us suffering with CHF & high BP. I take 160 mg of Lasix a day now, (use to take 80 mg daily) & I try to keep my sodium intake to less than 2000 grams a day & like Ross, I still swell due to fluid retention!:mad:

Canned soups, TV dinners, etc., are loaded with salt! Even a slice of bread can have between 115-150 grams of salt!:eek: I read my labels more closely & I try to buy low-sodium everything.

It's a battle but one does what one can to survive. Take care & watch the salt!:)

Norma
Click to expand...
Norma for you and I, it really sucks. If it weren't for Mrs.Dash and some other spices, my food would have no taste at all and if I can't taste it, Idon't want it.
 
Ross said:
Norma for you and I, it really sucks. If it weren't for Mrs.Dash and some other spices, my food would have no taste at all and if I can't taste it, Idon't want it.
Click to expand...

Ain't that the truth my friend! :) I think I've bought every spice Mrs. Dash has on the market & I'm actually getting to like the stuff!!:p
 
Yes, sodium is very evil, even for normal people. It is so bad in prepared foods, that the FDA is going to make much lower requirements for included sodium in prepared foods. Just read an article about that. There is WAY too much sodium in everything we eat. Why is it necessary to have so much sodium in canned soups? Why is it necessary to inject many of out meats (and not tell us) with a sodium solution?

We only need about half the sodium we eat each day.

I am convinced I prolonged Joe's life by several years by going to an almost salt/sodium free diet. He had a terrible problem with CHF. He only ate enough sodium to keep him within healthy limits.

I learned to cook everything without added sodium. I bought products online that helped. I watched everything like a hawk, even the hospital food, which is laden with salt and sodium too, not to mention the sodium solution they pour into everyone's veins through the IVs. I had many battles over hospital diets with the dieticians.

At first, he didn't like the diet. Then he got used to it, and I made sure he did not miss out on any of his favorites. My food tasted good, I liked it too and still cook lower sodium.

BTW--You can cook up a small pot of soup with at least half the amount of sodium from scratch in the blink of an eye, not hard at all, and I guarantee you that it will taste better. Also try Healthy Choice soups.

You can also make your own bread w/o salt. It works perfectly. Bread is not hard to make at all.

Here are two of the online resources. They are fast and easy to deal with. Mr. Spice sauces are superb. They taste just great. Joe loved the Tangy Bang sauce which is like a hot sauce, but all of them are terrific.

http://www.mrspice.com/

http://www.healthyheartmarket.com/
 
most foods taste good to us BECAUSE they have added salt or sugar. Then on top of that, we tend to add more. Lots of people add salt before they even taste their food. That's just dumb to me.

I do not add salt at table and often in cooking daughter and I add no salt. Meats already have some sodium in them from the animal. Ever eaten roast pork w/o any added whatever? It's just delicious.

If you stick with no salt, you would eventually find your tastes changed to a new habit and would find salt is just too dang salty!

Thought I'd never get used to the fake sweetener in coffee, but now can't stand sugar in it.

as to salt, even tho I avoid it, I just can't seem to give up puffed corn............:eek: :rolleyes:
 
Post op I noticed a real problem with high BP and palps after eating anything even moderately salty.
Canned soups and tomatoes and all those frozen prepared meals are high.
Low sodium versions are becoming more popular, try Presidents Choice.
Yes, at first things taste kind of flat, but I have newly cleansed taste buds and use alot more lemon, and spice mixes. We do NOT go to restaurants for dinner since the meals are always loaded with salt....and fat.
I find that a light lunch out is a better choice.
 
I personally don't worry about sodium too much. My blood pressure is pretty much what yours is, so I don't see much of a reason to concern myself. Of course, if I saw my BP increase to any real degree, I would start cutting back pretty quickly.

Life wouldn't be the same without the occasional plate of buffalo wings. :)
 
MikeHeim said:
I personally don't worry about sodium too much. My blood pressure is pretty much what yours is, so I don't see much of a reason to concern myself. Of course, if I saw my BP increase to any real degree, I would start cutting back pretty quickly.

Life wouldn't be the same without the occasional plate of buffalo wings. :)
Click to expand...

Ok. I have carefully reviewed all the replies so far, I?m going with Mike on this one.:D :p :D
 
I'm not super religious about it, but I do limit my sodium intake as much as I can. EVERYTHING we buy at the grocery store is fresh or "lower sodium." I look at every label and compare brands like crazy. Sodium is the first thing I look at, and sometimes the only thing. I probably still get more than I "should" (I too have CHF and go up and down with the fluid retention. Unfortunately, it's getting worse :( .), and I do eat out on occasion (and therefore get loaded up on sodium). But I know that my husband and I are getting to where we notice the salt in restaurant foods. Even he finds them far to salty sometimes.
 
It is possible to enjoy a tasty meal without added salt. I gave up salt along time ago (15yrs+). I can taste all that extra salt that is in processed foods eg: sliced cheese. Salt is one of the 3 things I look out for on food labels after calories and fat. I think you may find Chicken soup is the worst culprit here. Actually anything that has chicken flavour is practically guarranteed to be full of salt. Chicken flavour products are the only foods I religiously buy in low-salt varieties. Reduced-salt versions of other foods however often still taste bland even to my palate and can be full of sugar instead....

I try hard to cook the old-fashioned way and prepare most of our meals from scratch that way you control the salt...I dont salt the water before boiling pasta/rice and we microwave our vegies. It took along time for my "European salt-loving hubby" to get used to living without a salt shaker on the table but it did happen (actually I dont even think he has noticed it went AWOL years ago!;) ) Without salt you can actually taste the food the way it is meant to be...good quality produce helps, home-grown vegies are especially tasty.

I do suggest you wean yourself off the salt gradually. Have a look at the salt content in the Chicken soup...it will probably account for over half your daily intake.

PS...you are doing so very well on on your new eating plan and have achieved amazing results so-far. CONGRATS!
 
Talking about salt free seasoning, can you get Chef Paul Prudhomme's Magic salt free Seasoning where you live? It is the best. You really cannot tell that it does not have salt. In my opinion, it is much better tasting than Mrs. Dash. Of course, look where I am from...:D
 
Ann..funny you mentioned the pork roast..I put one in my slow cooker yesterday..Added NO salt/pepper..So good. years ago..I would have salted/peppered it down..took it out of pan and made great gravy...so yummy..with white bread to dip in..:eek: .I had my yearly checkup with my Cardio last week..he felt?.:rolleyes: :p my ankles..Always slim..As a matter of fact...I had to remove my 30th anniversay diamond/sapphire ring .on right finger..Finger has gotten smaller?..maybe due to diet..:D ........Have not bought white bread for 3 months....If I use canned veggies. always pour the water off and add fresh water..About the only thing I put table salt on is for fresh tomatoes....Bonnie
 
Does anyone here eat the Boston Market frozen entrees from the supermarket. I was heating up a 16oz meatloaf with mashed potatoes one night several years ago (before my heart surgery IIRC) and I was reading the nutritional label while it was going round in the microwave. At the time it had more than 100% of the daily allowance of fat and sodium! :eek: So after eating one of those you literally would have to eat grass the rest of the day. I just looked it up and they are "down" to 75% daily allowance of saturated fat and 83% daily allowance of sodium on the 16oz entree. I'm not a big fan of salt. If I buy peanuts or potato chips I buy the lightly salted variety. The only things I add salt to are meats that I grill (lightly salted, fresh ground pepper, fresh garlic or garlic powder), baked potatoes, and eggs. There's nothing worse than eating something where your taste buds are overpowered by salt. I'm not even too crazy about the "multi-spice" seasonings. Give me some fresh ground pepper and/or garlic and I'm good to go on most foods. If it still tastes bland I usually go with something "hotter" instead of salt like red pepper flakes or jalapenos. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top