A few years ago I had lost weight and really liked eating Progresso soup for lunch. It filled me up and it was low calorie, and I loved that it had lots of good veggies in it.
I remember my MIL asking me what I ate and saying that I liked eating this, but not ever day for every meal.
3 years later my MIL made the comment during a weight loss diet commercial on how "Everyone thinks SOUP is so healthy! and it's not! It's full of sodium!" Are these soups unhealthy? It does have a lot of sodium, actually. I do drink a ton of water throughout the day. Does that help? Should I not eat this or just really focus on always buying low sodium?
Last edited by abetterme; 03-06-2014 at 12:54 PM.
Reason: to focus on real issue
WEll i don't know progresso soup but usually processed foods have a lot of salt or if you like, sodium in them.
too much salt is bad for you. It causes high blood pressure and gives rise to lots of health problems.
If you are only eating a salty thing once a day it probably isn't causing you too much strife. But if your diet consisted only of highly salted foods, you'd be heading for trouble in the long term.
But we need some salt in our diets so people who avoid it altogether are not helping themselves either.
You should really look into sodium or salt from a good source. I'd google something like the effects on health of too much salt, or how much salt should we eat in our diets, or how much salt is bad for you.
Salt is made up of sodium chloride. There are other salts but this is the most common one. So if you think in terms of salt rather than sodium, you will easily find the answers you need.
And don't be thinking that just because its rock salt or salt from the himalaya that its any healthier. Its just salt that has a different flavour or with a few extra minerals in it. Eat it if you like the flavour but otherwise its just a trendy expensive ingredient, i personally have no trouble living without.
Home made soup is usually healthy. Packets soups usually do have a a lot of salt. So she's probably right. The low calorie packet soups are made tasty by adding lots of salt. But salt is also a preservative. that's another reason why there's so much of it in processed foods.
OP, you're talking about 2 different issues entirely. Firstly, salt can contribute to high blood pressure which can cause other types of health problems. It also retains water which makes you bloated. For me it also makes me crave starchy foods for whatever reason. You must be aware that processed food contains an incredible amount of sodium, more than I would allow myself to eat. So when shopping for food a good rule of thumb is to shop the perimeter of the store where all the refrigerated sections are. If you find yourself buying meals from the aisles then you're probably consuming more sodium than you realize. You have to check labels.
For example, I asked my husband to quickly run out and buy a can of Eden Organics kidney beans! So he went to the store and came back with a can of Goya kidney beans. He was so proud of himself because they were a whole dollar cheaper than the Eden Organics. I pointed out to him that the Goya beans had 350mm of sodium where as the Eden organics was nearly 0. Big difference and such a simple thing. You don't have to be afraid of sodium or go crazy about it. But if you are eating a lot of processed foods like canned soups then yes, you might want to watch out for sodium.
About your MIL, just ignore her. What she eats is her business and what you eat is her business. Discussing personal nutrition makes about as much sense as discussing politics and religion. to each their own. And remember, what someone else thinks about you is none of your business lol.
OP, you're talking about 2 different issues entirely. Firstly, salt can contribute to high blood pressure which can cause other types of health problems. It also retains water which makes you bloated. For me it also makes me crave starchy foods for whatever reason. You must be aware that processed food contains an incredible amount of sodium, more than I would allow myself to eat. So when shopping for food a good rule of thumb is to shop the perimeter of the store where all the refrigerated sections are. If you find yourself buying meals from the aisles then you're probably consuming more sodium than you realize. You have to check labels.
For example, I asked my husband to quickly run out and buy a can of Eden Organics kidney beans! So he went to the store and came back with a can of Goya kidney beans. He was so proud of himself because they were a whole dollar cheaper than the Eden Organics. I pointed out to him that the Goya beans had 350mm of sodium where as the Eden organics was nearly 0. Big difference and such a simple thing. You don't have to be afraid of sodium or go crazy about it. But if you are eating a lot of processed foods like canned soups then yes, you might want to watch out for sodium.
About your MIL, just ignore her. What she eats is her business and what you eat is her business. Discussing personal nutrition makes about as much sense as discussing politics and religion. to each their own. And remember, what someone else thinks about you is none of your business lol.
I realize there were 2 different issues there. I did say back to the main issue but the MIL was also an issue for me that I felt tied into what I was asking at the time.
I guess I'll just stick to eating whatever in moderation and not excessively. I'll google more info about it too.
Thanks for the responses.
Right, well she did make me insecure about eating soup from time to time. There's a lot of back story with her no one really knows I shouldn't have posted about it since no one knows lol
So I edited it to fit the real question.
Takeaway: it's associated with osteoporosis, ulcers, stomach cancer, kidney damage, cardiovascular disease (above its effect on hypertension) and more.
Is Sodium really bad for you?
