Hi! I'm just curious if there are some general guidelines about how much sodium it is okay to consume in a day and how much might be too much. I'd like to track it for a day or two just so see how much I'm eating. I don't want to retain water!

Thanks!

The amount of sodium that will make one retain water varies by individual. Government nutrition guidelines, though, call for no more than 2400 mg of sodium a day, both in salt added while cooking (2400 mg = about a teaspoon) and in processed foods.

Hi, you're asking great questions, keep it up!

American Heart Association says healthy adults should take in no more than 3000 mgs of sodium per day. A teaspoon of salt is 2325 grams of sodium.

An AHA mildly salt restricted diet consists of no salting at the table (okay to cook with salt), and avoiding high salt foods (like pickles, olives, salty cheese, processed meat like bologna or hot dogs, chips, saltines, corned beef - the things that really taste salty when you eat them).

Thanks! That helps a lot. I'll keep an eye on it to make sure I'm not going overboard. I don't want to do anything to keep the numbers on the scale from moving!

Not only will excess sodium cause water retention (and relative weight gain) but for a lot of people (I'm one of them) an overdose of refined carbs -- white bread, white rice, pasta, etcetera -- can also result in water retention.

If you suspect you've over-indulged, make sure you drink lots of water to help flush the sodium out.

Yes! Refined carbs are the devil's work! I try to stay away from them like the plague.

I'm pretty sure the government and American Heart Association guidelines have changed to less then 2300mg of sodium per day.

Also, if you have HBP, are of certain ethnicities, or are over middle age, then the USDA recommends consuming no more then 1500mg of sodium per day.

I'm so glad I thought to look at this... I was just about to have my typical lunch of Progresso soup (it boasts "100 calories per serving!) when I saw that in just 1 serving it has 900mg of sodium! Yikes! I'm going to be cutting that out of my diet.

A lot of processed foods, canned and frozen, have high levels of sodium in them. Made from scratch foods tend to be a lot lower.

This is one of the reasons I began making my own frozen portion-controlled meals: I find Lean Cuisines palatable enough and very handy for lunches, but high in sodium and white refined starches, and low in veggies. By making my own, I get brown rice, lots of veggies and very little salt.

Man, kicking the salt habit is really hard! All my life I've been a salt fiend and it is turning out that is a hard habit to break!

Tyler,

Do yourself a big favour:

Put down the salt shaker and back away slowly...

I need to print that out and tape it up on my cupboard. Well, I guess the first step is admitting you have a problem, so...

*clears throat*
Hi, I'm Caitlin, and I'm addicted to salt.

I got some of those low-sodium Ritz crackers the other day, and, BLECCH! This is going to take some getting used to.

It's really not something I've ever kept track of before and now that I am I'm shocked at how much I've probably been consuming! Yikes!

I am a recovered salt addict. IT CAN BE DONE! Stick with it, eventually processed/restaurant food will taste WAY too salty to you.