Sodium Restrictions

It is amazing, in a frightening kind of way, how much sodium is in processed foods. This is something I’ve always known but never paid much attention to the amount of sodium in these foods.

The American Heart Association recommends no more than 1,500 mg per day. The USDA recommends no more than 2,300 mg. per day. I’ve been tracking our salt consumption and even with me drinking one Dr. Pepper day, it’s sometimes an effort to have at least 1,500 mg per day UNLESS we add some processed foods.

Most days we have oatmeal (115 mg sodium) and a slice of turkey bacon (113 mg), along with orange juice (0 sodium) or apple juice (10 mg sodium) so we’re getting less than 250 mg. sodium for breakfast.

We usually have late breakfast and our main meal around 2 and most often that’s been a salad and with the dressing, those almost always have less than 150 mg of sodium per serving and there are supposed to be 4 servings per bag but since it’s our main meal, we usually make 2 servings out of a bag so that ups it to 300 mg of sodium per serving. Half a chicken breast, with Mrs. Dash’s seasoning, cooked in olive oil, is another 50 mg. of sodium. Our main meal, therefore, ends up being about 350 mg. sodium.

That comes to about 600 mg. of sodium. Later in the evening, we’ll have a piece of fruit, or maybe low sodium crackers and a piece of cheese. Add in a Dr. Pepper and we’re pushing it to get 1,000 mg. of sodium per day. We really need to have at least 1,500 mg so here are some things I’ve been doing to add sodium:

• Drink a cup or two of beet juice (106 mg. sodium per cup)
• Eat cantaloup (130 mg. per cup)
• 1/4 tsp. salt contains 575 mg. sodium so, by late afternoon, if I’ve not had enough sodium, I’ll eat a piece of celery with a little salt (NOT 1/4 tsp.) or another avocado with a little salt.

I’ve actually had to use salt instead of Mrs. Dash on some of our foods just to be sure we’re getting the minimum amount of sodium needed.

Before Vince’s heart issues, we regularly ate potato chips, brie, crackers, processed foods . . we were going way over on the sodium intake but on the days we’re eating everything from scratch, I have to work to get in all the sodium we need. It’s pretty amazing how easy it is to eat healthy when you pay attention to what you’re eating.