The Hemp Connection + sodium

When is a food too high in sodium?

One of the things I notice about sodium, in people who are watching it, is that they often overdo what they restrict. I think part of the problem has to do with the fact that sodim content is expressed in hundreds, and that sounds like a lot. Here's my favorite rule for evaluating sodium content, which helps to put it into perspective.

Milligrams of sodium and total calories, over the course of a day, should be roughly about the same. Here are some examples of foods that stand alone as being low sodium.

Calories Mg sodium

Apple 65 1
Carrot 52 88
Rice 205 2
Chicken breast, 3 oz. 231 104
1% milk, 8 oz. 102 107
1 c avocado cubes 240 11
Peanuts, dry roasted, unsalted, 1 oz. 164 2

Note that these are all foods that are pretty much occuring in their natural state, unadulterated. Look what happens when you start to process food

Bread, 1 slice 120 306
Salad dressing, commerical, Italian, 1 tsp 42 240
Apple pie, 1 slice 296 332
Commercial chunky vegetable soup, 1 cup 108 769
Peanuts, dry roasted, unsalted, 1 oz. 164 228
Lean Cuisine,chicken/vegetable, 1 232 633

And if you stop at a fast food restaurant for dinner!

Domino's thin crust 14" cheese pizza, 1 slice 123 194
Papa John's, thin crust 14" pepperone 1 slice 270 600
McDonald's Quarter Pounder 417 730

You can see that the ratio between sodium and calories climbs up, the more processed the food.

You can also see that even a Quarter Pounder would fit into a day's sodium count, provided…and that's a very qualified provided (for those of you looking for someone like me to justify your fast food habit!)…the rest of the food you eat, the rest of the day, is pretty much unprocessed. In my world, people either eat junk and fast food or they eat unprocessed food, and that kind of diligence simply isn't commonplace.

This is one of the reasons you hear so many nutrition experts advising to shop the perimeter of the store. It's the sodium-poor region.

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When is a food too high in sodium? + sodium