The Hemp Connection:
sodium

Lots of responses to part one of this, which confirmed that this topic really hit home and the carbo-loading phenomenon is common amongst people who bounce back and forth between low carb eating and carbohydrate bingeing.

The second thing that happens when most people get to the point where they are so carbohydrate depleted, is that they tend to look for foods that are processed carbohydrates. In all the years I have been doing this work…I have yet to hear someone tell me they binged on asparagus, or on brown rice, or on quinoa! It's always the packaged foods, or it's something from some sort of restaurant.

And the worst binges always seem to happen over the weekend, when people are out of their weekly routine, they're tired, they're with friends…all their defenses are down and it's easy to go for the tortilla chips in the basket or to say,"Yes, I'd like fries with that!"

The important thing to remember about processed food, is that it is higher in sodium compared to the"clean" eating you're trying to pursue the rest of the week. And it can take some time for your kidneys to process and eliminate all of that sodium. While all those molecules are waiting in line to get out of your system, they're hanging around with water molecules. That's just how it works…where there is sodium, there is water.

Think about the head game you set yourself up for if this is what you've done and you're a little obsessive with the scales.

Your weight looks pretty good on Friday morning, and about 3 pm on Friday your co-workers talk you into joining them for Mexican food at the joint down the street from the office. Saturday morning, one margarita, two baskets of chips, and a chimichanga later, you wake up feeling a little bloated. You get on the scale…and it's 4 pounds heavier than it was the morning before!

Talk about demoralizing! It's enough to throw you into a weekend-long"what's the use" binge.

Here's a little tip that can really help get you out of that obsessive cycle.

Remember, we are creatures of habit. Our Mondays are more like Mondays than they are like Wednesdays or Fridays. What we eat on Mondays…doesn't really vary that much. So it makes no sense to compare a Monday weight to a Wednesday weight.

If you tend to go out on Fridays, you are likely going to carry some water weight related to the sodium intake, for a couple of days. Even if you eat the amount of food you intended to.

It's best, if you're someone who is obsessive with the scales, to compare Monday weights to Monday weights, and Friday weights to Friday weights. Comparing Monday morning's weight to the past Friday morning's weight…is sure to set you up for head games and unnecessary bingeing.

Part 3, later this week…will be about hormones and weighing in.

Last Saturday I was doing a demo for a client at a local Whole Foods store. I love doing demos because I get to do something away from the computer and call it work! Another reason I love demos is because of the fun and creative people I get to meet. Most people who do demos are small business people who had an idea for how to make something tastier, healthier, and/or easier to cook. Which is one reason why, if you're reading this post and you're a Whole Foods patron, you might want to spend more time talking to these people next time you go shopping.

But I digress.

What I started to say was that last Saturday I was positioned across the aisle from a chef who has started a salsa company. And I immediately thought of my blog. Salsa! One of my very favorite foods! How could I be from Arizona and have this"Food of the Week" feature as long as I have and not have even thought about salsa?

Why do I love salsa? Because it's versatile. You can put it on barbecued meat. You can put it on a sandwich instead of ketchup. You can stir a little bit into just about any other kind of sauce to spice it up. You can put it on eggs in the morning. It's just one of those foods that once you learn how to use it, you can't live without it. (I actually start to crave it if I'm traveling in a place where food tends to be a little blander…)

Nutritionally, salsa can be a great way to get those veggies in that otherwise just don't seem to get onto your plate. If you're looking for a way to clean out your vegetable bin, you can make your own salsa. Pretty much anything goes together in some way.

If you're feeling adventurous, try mango or pineapple salsas. Mango salsa goes great with salmon!

One thing you do need to watch with commercially prepared salsas is that they can be high in sodium. The particular brand my new friend was selling happens to be low in sodium because he himself has a blood pressure issue. So read the label--there may be something healthy in your area.

Now I'm hungry. I think I'd better see what's in my own kitchen that I can spice up tonight with some salsa!

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.