Sodium...Damn Sodium

The Quest for Less Salt

Published on March 10, 2008 By jdkeepsmiling In Health & Medicine

I hate sodium, which for all us unedumacated folk is salt. I have been trying to eat better over the past few months, and have been generally succeeding, except for one problem: sodium. It seems that contrary to popular belief, our economy does not run on oil, but in fact on sodium. Everything has sodium.

The crazy thing is that even the reduced sodium stuff still has waaaay to much sodium. The standard stuff is just off the charts. A healthy amount of sodium is 2400mg per day. To give you an idea, a double cheeseburger from CrackDonalds contains 1150mg, get it with a large fry and you are over half your sodium for the day. I have been trying to eat more soup, you know vegetables and stuff. Soup, it turns out is like sodium central. A can of Cambell's Chunky Chicken Corn Chowder, while respectable in almost all other health categories has over 1700mg of sodium. This makes it very very hard to keep your sodium under 2400mg's while also eating at work and trying to eat enough to stay alive.

Now I know that all you super annoying healthy people out there are saying...just eat fresh fruit and veggies, they don't have sodium. Or maybe make your lunch and bring it. My lovely Wife does make a lunch for me often, and those are not usually too bad, but even then, if there is a sandwich, the lunch meat is loaded with sodium. Also, I do eat fresh fruit and veggies, but one cannot subsist on bananas alone.

Anyone out there got any ideas...?

Comments

Artysim

on Mar 11, 2008

jd,

Really good response from Asaxy above, not too much I can add. Would like to say though, one of the big keys is to plan what you're going to eat ahead of time. Meaning, when you wake up in the morning you should already have your entire meal plan for the day (this includes snacks, soda pop, etc) planned out. Included in this plan needs to be the calorie count for everything you're going to be eating, as well as a ballpark figure of your sodium. While this may sound like a big nag at first it actually only takes a few minutes to plan out the day before, and so long as you're keeping track of what your intake is, then you will find ways to meet your targets. Be sure to throw in a day or two each week where you cheat and get a greaseball burger though!

Keep in mind that sodium isn't necessarily evil, the ideal amount for your body is not the same as everyone else- it depends on your activity level, metabolism, body chemistry, etc. For example, before I go on a long run I load up on carbs the night before (or morning if I've got a couple hours before the run) lotsa bread and pasta- typically between the sauce and noodles there's plenty of sodium in it. If I weren't going to be running 13 miles this would be a bad thing, but my body will thank me for it when I'm 7 miles into the run with 6 to go. An hour or so before the run I'll also load up on gatorade, which is also full of sodium. Once again, if I weren't going to be exerting myself this would be a bad thing. But because I'm loaded up on sodium and other electrolytes I can do the run in good time with no worries about muscle cramps, exhaustion, dehydration etc.

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