Sodium in water

  • Anyone obsessing on the sodium amount in water bottles? Oh my God! I am becoming one of them! The less sodium the less water retention, right?

    I have been looking into bottles with sodium as little as 1.5mg.

    Anyone else doing the same? or it is just fine to have normal water??
  • Don't worry about the sodium in water - you have to have amounts much higher than that for water retention. Your body needs an absolute minimum of 500mg sodium a day to function. Anything below 1,000 per day is considered very low sodium, and if you do a diet that low, you need to check with your doctor before hand. You'll find your trouble foods in processed foods and restaurants.
  • Quote: Don't worry about the sodium in water - you have to have amounts much higher than that for water retention. Your body needs an absolute minimum of 500mg sodium a day to function. Anything below 1,000 per day is considered very low sodium, and if you do a diet that low, you need to check with your doctor before hand. You'll find your trouble foods in processed foods and restaurants.
    Thank you!
  • If you aren't eating out a lot and/or eating a lot of processed foods, I wouldn't worry about sodium intake. If you are, I'd worry about those before I worried about water.

    Speaking of water, the sodium in it is a very small amount and like others have said, your body does need some sodium to function.
  • Quote: If you aren't eating out a lot and/or eating a lot of processed foods, I wouldn't worry about sodium intake. If you are, I'd worry about those before I worried about water.

    Speaking of water, the sodium in it is a very small amount and like others have said, your body does need some sodium to function.
    Thanks, you are right! I have stopped worrying about the sodium in water. Its just this crazy friend of mine told me that avoiding it is good and better than having sodium in it, so I just stopped it. She might need to research more about it!!
  • I'm confused...I don't think I've ever seen a bottle of water that said the water had sodium. There's always just the usual 0's for all the nutritional info.
  • I saw this thread and thought it was going to be something else. Today I found out that it is common to have sodium in tap drinking water. Mostly it comes from water run off (if you live in a place that salts their roads) and also some water facilities put sodium in the water to soften it.

    I just looked this up on the EPA site and it says that it is not a significant danger because most people would only get about 100 mgs per day from drinking water. However, the site presumes that the only way to get it is from drinking tap water... but um what about absorption from a shower or a bath? Lets say in a typical day you have 2 glasses of tap water and a 20 minute long shower.. could that mean 300 mgs of sodium before you even start eating?

    Also normally I drink poland spring and I presume that has none, but many times I get water like Aquafena which is basically tap.. and it says it has no sodium. If tap can be infected with sodium, how do they know that? I checked my local tap report today and it does have sodium... actually at the very high end of normal.
  • Water is a great solvent for many, many things, which is why along the way your water will pick up trace minerals and salt. I really, really wouldn't worry about the potential sodium content at all. If your water is salty enough that your tastebuds are protesting, then I'd be concerned... haha.

    Things I've learned along the way after losing more than 200 lbs include that you shouldn't sweat the small stuff, like the tiny potential for holding on to a little water weight because your water has a couple of milligrams of sodium... haha. Not retaining fat is the whole aim, right?

    I'm not trying to trivialize your question at all, but I think that sometimes we all obsess way too much about getting a desired number on the scale to the point that we develop new mentally unhealthy habits. Not saying that's your case, but it was mine. I even had to step away from this site for several months because nitpicking about counting calories (and sodium at times to ensure that the scale number would be as low as possible) became an obsession...
  • You really don't have to worry about "absorbing" salt through your skin - it doesn't work like that. If your skin was that absorbent - swimming in the ocean, or a swimming pool would kill you. Losing salt from your skin (sweating) is another issue). In fact, you sweat and tears are high in salt and they don't absorb back into your skin - which is why you can taste salt on your skin if you've been sweating, and sometimes you can even see it (if you were to sweat or cry and not wipe it off, you can sometimes see or feel the salt crystals that form by the water evaporationg).


    For several reasons, my body doesn't hold on to sodium very well. I tend to "run low," so I have to have my sodium levels checked several times a year, and I would also have to be tested before any surgery. The reason - your heart needs sodium (it's an electrolyte). Low levels (especially dangerous during surgery) can cause a fatal heart attack. Even though I have high blood pressure, I am not on a sodium restricted diet, and occasionally run low enough that my doctor will suggest that I add a little extra salt in my diet for a while (this is not common, but it isn't extraordinarily, freakishly rare either).


    Most of us get plenty of sodium from foods (probably too much), but more modern research has found that sodium is not a health risk for most people. You probably do not have to be very concerned with your sodium unless you have or are prone to lectrolyte imbalances, kidney problems, or have high blood pressure (and often not even then, many people with high blood pressure, such as myself, do not have to watch sodium - either because their blood levels are low or becaue sodium doesn't impact on their blood pressure).
  • How can I find out of sodium is a problem for me. I'm just being diagnosed with high blood pressure and already everyone is "salt! salt! salt!" all the time. I don't add salt to anything I cook, nor do I use it at the table. But I do use salty ingredients like soy sauce 2 or 3 times a week. I also put about a tablespoon of vinegar on my salad everyday (along with olive oil). Am I going to have to start eating dry salads?????
  • What? I wasn't even aware of sodium in water!
  • Most foods contain sodium in moderate quantities, i don't think it is a very bad problem if you go a bit over the reccomended value, but for example i like to drink carbonated mineral water. Sodium belong to minerals so most have high amounts of sodium that are not needed. I look to buy carbonated mineral water with low sodium, it is hard to find but it worth.