Sodium, Sodium Everywhere...

So, it sounded so simple, "remove sodium from my diet and strive for 1000 mg of sodium a day." Heck, I don't even like the taste of salt and do not eat salty foods. Simple, so I thought.

Then I started analyzing what was in my typical/favorite meals: Sodium, Sodium Everywhere! It is not just salt, it is everywhere!

As I mentioned in past posts, I have never had a problem with obesity since I have maintained a low fat diet since my mid 20s. I thought my diet was perfect until I took a look at the evil sodium devil. Lets look at what was one of my favorite low fat (and I thought completely healthy) lunches: Barbeque Turkey Sandwich:

1. 2 slices of large sourdough bread: 3 grams of fat, 400 mg of sodium.
2. 2 slices of lean turkey sandwich meat: 2 grams of fat, 820 mg of sodium.
3. 1 TBSP of barbeque sauce: 0 grams fat, 120 mg of sodium.
4. Small serving of low fat cheddar cheese: 2 grams of fat, 120 mg of sodium.

The result: 7 grams of fat (very low fat), 1460 mg of sodium - OUCH!

So that was my typical meal: low fat and high sodium, even though I was using seemingly healthy ingredients. Multiply this by 3 for a typical day and I was consuming 21 grams of fat (excellent) and 4380 mg of sodium (horrendous). Your heart will never survive on 4380 mg of sodium a day.

What was wrong? Take a closer look at the ingredients: nothing was fresh, everything was processed & preserved. That was it: processed foods are chock full of sodium, that's how they are preserved and mass distributed!


Another lesson learned in my quest for a healthy diet: sodium is lurking everywhere in processed foods, check the labels you'll be astonished. Luckily, as I will demonstrate in future posts, removing the evil sodium devil from your diet is not actually that hard, you just have to pay attention.