Optimum sodium intake per day

[guinness]

I have noticed that although it seems I'm below the national average over 1000 mgs of salt seems a lot - what is the suggested intake

[Odyssey13]

@guinness  Found a recent article, which says the daily recommended amount is 1,500 mg.

"It is estimated Americans consume more than 3,400 mg of sodium a day, much more than the 2,300 mg per day the Dietary Guidelines of America recommends. For people over the age of 50, African-Americans and those with high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease, the guidelines recommend 1,500 milligrams a day, a level the American Heart Association recommends for everyone."

Below on sodium is better than being too high.

Welcome to the forums.

[leear]

I know that to convert salt to sodium you divide by 2.5 and that to convert sodium to salt you multiply by 2.5.

However not all salt is sodium and not all sodium is salt and sodium may not be listed on packaging as it could be natural (as in celery or spinach) or unreqirerd. For example as in MSG, vitamin C, baking powder, antioxidants, preservatives, etc.

Therefore, we may all be consuming much more sodium than we think or can measure from food labeling.

[trpcldreamer]

My husband was just in the hospital with congestive heart failure.  While in, the dietitician provided us with a low sodium diet (target per day is less than 2,000 mg).  The information also indicated that the RDA by the ADA is 2300 mg per day.   Sticking to less than 2,000 has meant cutting out any pre-processed foods and sodas and watching the other selections because of the naturally occuring sodium.

[gerrymcd]

The FDA guidlines recommend limiting your intake to 2,300 mg of sodium a day (about 1 teaspoonful). If you have high blood pressure, diabetes, are of African decent, have kidney disease or are over age 50 the recommended daily amount drops to 1,500mg

[gerrymcd]

According to the FDA our sodium intake breaks down as follows

• 77% from packaged and restaurant food
• 12% is naturally occurring in foods
• 11% from adding salt to food while cooking or at the table

So, adding salt while cooking or from a salt cellar is not nearly as bad as eating out, or eating a lot of ready made stuff.

[1of2cjs]

For those of you on low sodium diets I found this interesting. We like our beans, lentils in soups and salads.

THE QUESTION:

Can you rinse the salt off canned beans?

Salt is used by food manufacturers to enhance flavor—we've seen more than 500mg in just ½ cup of beans. That's why we call for canned beans to be rinsed and drained before preparing.

THE TEST: We rinsed, drained, and then tested two varieties of beans and compared them with their unwashed counterparts.

THE RESULTS: Black Beans:Sodium in ½ cup: 424mg; Sodium in ½ cup, rinsed and drained:232mg; Red Kidney Beans: Sodium in ½ cup: 260mg; Sodium in ½ cup, rinsed and drained: 148mg

BOTTOM LINE: The beans lose more than 40% of their sodium when rinsed and drained.

[leear]

I buy tins of cheap supermarket own brands of Black Beans and Red Kidney Beans (and others) that are not in brine, but in water.
They have only a trace of salt /sodium.
Suggest we all look for tinned beans in water, read the labels and save massive amount of sodium (and maybe rinsing these even makes them 40% lower too) 🙂

[Mcore]

This is a very interesting topic and I like it, specially since I have high blood pressure and need to watch out how much sodium I'm consuming on a daily basis.

Thank you all for your contributions! 

[leear]

If you put "SACN_Salt_and_Health_report.pdf" into Google you can download a great report on the subject.

I found the list on page 95, very interesting as I was unaware of the everyday foods, that are too high, like processed breakfast cereals.

[Mcore]

Excellent @leear! Thank you for that information.