Sodium, How Evil Is It?

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

Help Support Valve Replacement Forums:

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

just a reminder, especially for anyone with normal BP who has not been recommended to reduce their sodium intake (cooker, this is you) be careful and ask your doctor. I have actually been encouraged to eat salty foods cause I have problems with low blood pressure (my BP runs low, or it drops out when it wants to) Reducing your sodium intake can cause low blood pressure problems, especially when your BP is already good (like cookers 110/60) a drop of 10 points from normal can cause symptoms (light headdedness) and a drop of 20 points is risking passing out (trust me on this one, I found out the hard way:eek: )

now, don't get me wrong, eating low sodium, fresh foods, cooking homemade, and reducing the amount of processed foods you eat is really good for you! I think the best way to reduce your sodium is to cook at home, because as said before, processed food is atrociously high in sodium. I try to be good about not eating processed foods, and eating homemade as much as I can because alot of the things in processed foods aren't good for you--at all.

I just wanted to point out that reducing your sodium intake drastically when you dont have high BP issues can cause your BP to go down, and if you dont need to reduce your BP this can be a problem

hope this helps guys
(oh yea, I'm not a doc, so make sure you check with yours first)

Morgan, 20
 
My own opinion is that salt is our enemy, period. I believe that we get enough sodium in "normal" foods so that we do not need to add any, thus our table hasn't had a salt shaker for many years. Even so, I am often forced to eat restaurant meals in the course of my work, and I can usually guess their impact. Any "ethnic" foods (Mexican, Italian, Asian) tend to be higher in sodium than the simpler American dishes. If I eat an ethnic meal, I usually gain anywhere from 1 to 4 pounds of fluid weight, and it takes me days for it to dissipate. If I am on a week long trip, by the end of the week, I feel a lot "heavier" than normal, and it affects my workouts at the gym. I do have mild hypertension, controlled by meds, but excess sodium affects us all, and it is not a good effect!
 
I love salty foods...better than sweet, for me. But I have always been very sensitive to salt and actually rarely use it. Salad dressings are another notorious place for high salt content. We just have a bottle of olive oil and a bottle of red wine vinegar on the table. I toss our salads and then my husband (who shouldn't) shakes on the salt for his portion. I've never seen either of my 3 children put salt on anything at the table.....I'm glad for that. Sure, they choose salty foods, but at least they don't add it to their everyday fare.

Cooker. I see on your profile that you are on ToprolXL. I would talk to your cardio's office and mention that you are suddenly going to choose to cut down on salt. (I cannot even believe no one has mentioned it to you in a doctor's office..... selective hearing, perhaps??) If you can succumb to a low salt thing every day, you might very well be able to lessen your dose of Toprol!! Wouldn't that be nice? Wouldn't that feel like an accomplishment?

And, Cooker.... it could be that the scales are deceiving you and you are actually several pounds lighter because of water retention!! :eek:

Go slowly off the salt. Eventually, things like those soups will taste just as awful (so salty) as the low salt stuff does to you now. Try getting some low sodium chicken broth in a can. Throw in some frozen vegetables and leftover rice or noodles and try that for awhile. Experiment!

Obviously a good topic. Thanks for bringing it up, Cooker!

Marguerite
 
Balsamic vinegar is also terrific on grilled vegetables. Just brush your chunked up veggies with a good extra virgin olive oil, grill them until they get marks and are softened, then sprinkle with balsamic vinegar.
 
I LOVE balsalmic vinegar! :p Hmmm... Ross, maybe we need a "yummy" smiley. ;)
 
Funny story

Funny story

I went to see my PCP today because I could not get in to see my cardio (on vacation and I don't like the on-call) and I am having problems with water retention.

He told me to make sure I limited my total daily sodium intake to 6,000mg.:rolleyes: :D :confused: ;) :eek:

If I ingested that much sodium I would be able to fly to Ross' house as a blimp.

Gotta love the info out there.
 
geebee said:
He told me to make sure I limited my total daily sodium intake to 6,000mg.:rolleyes: :D :confused: ;) :eek:

If I ingested that much sodium I would be able to fly to Ross' house as a blimp.

Gotta love the info out there.
Click to expand...

Gina....he must hold stock in Morton's:D
 
"He told me to make sure I limited my total daily sodium intake to 6,000mg."

That had me laughing out loud!

I'm sure he was thinking of another number, and that came out.

Good thing you know better! I hope he really does when he's thinking correctly. :p
 
geebee said:
I went to see my PCP today because I could not get in to see my cardio (on vacation and I don't like the on-call) and I am having problems with water retention.

He told me to make sure I limited my total daily sodium intake to 6,000mg.:rolleyes: :D :confused: ;) :eek:

If I ingested that much sodium I would be able to fly to Ross' house as a blimp.

Gotta love the info out there.
Click to expand...
I would explode! No more Ross.
 
Nancy said:
"He told me to make sure I limited my total daily sodium intake to 6,000mg."

That had me laughing out loud!

I'm sure he was thinking of another number, and that came out.

Good thing you know better! I hope he really does when he's thinking correctly. :p
Click to expand...
Actually he did mean 6000 because he started by saying 60grams and then went on to say, "that is 6,000mg". I almost laughed out loud but I did say that I sure hope I don't eat 60grams of sodium/day - not even in a week.:eek: :rolleyes: :D
 
Actually he did mean 6000 because he started by saying 60grams and then went on to say, "that is 6,000mg". I almost laughed out loud but I did say that I sure hope I don't eat 60grams of sodium/day - not even in a week.


WOW! Time for some Continuing Education credits to add to his portfolio.
 
hey

cooker said:
If BP and fluid retention is not a problem is sodium?:confused: :confused:
Click to expand...

Cooker, you are gonna have to ask your doc about this, but this is the point I was trying to make earlier. . . again, I stress, ask your doc first... if you dont have BP or water retention issues and are eating relatively healthy you are probably fine, (I realize sodium is not good for most heart patients, and its not a good idea to OD, I think everyone should stay under the RDV of 2,400 mgs, no matter how sick or healthy they are) and probably dont have to pay too much attention to your sodium intake, this doesnt mean that you can eat all the processed or otherwize high sodium foods you want, and not using a salt shaker on the table is a good idea. basically, just use common sense, cook homemade as much as you can, eat frozen rather than canned veggies, and shop around the outside of the store (excluding the frozen TV dinners section:p )

whoever said that you could probably have a chance at getting off from toprol by reducing your sodium could be right, ask your doc. . .

my concern is that your BP is low enough right now, if you reduce your sodium suddenly you could start having low BP issues (light headdedness, tiredness, weakness, etc)

hope this helps
Morgan, 20
 
I just posted a (fairly) low sodium recipe in the recipes section. The only thing that keeps it from being low sodium, really, is the bread. Which can vary depending on the bread you use. It really isn't hard to make low sodium, delicious food.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top