| LDO Home | General | Kidney | Liver | Marrow | Experiences | Buddies | Hall of Fame | Calendar | Contact Us |

Author Topic: Sodium  (Read 11190 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Snoopy

  • Top 10 Poster!
  • *****
  • Posts: 251
  • Non-directed donation, Oct., 2011
Sodium
« on: May 15, 2011, 04:17:27 AM »
  There are probably lots of people on this board trying to pay attention to their sodium intake.  Although I thought that I was pretty aware of how to avoid excess sodium, let me share with you something I just discovered.
  The ketchup and mustard on my shelf turn out to have higher sodium content, per 100g, than either the pickles or potato chips on my shelf (neither of which I eat, I hasten to point out).  Obviously, actual portion sizes (and different brands and flavors) differ considerably. Still, it's worth mentioning.  At the very least, it may help for playing Trivial Pursuit one day.  I would never have guessed that mustard can have more sodium than ketchup, which can have more than pickles or potato chips.....
  Snoopy

Offline sherri

  • Top 10 Poster!
  • *****
  • Posts: 534
Re: Sodium
« Reply #1 on: May 15, 2011, 07:42:39 AM »
Snoopy,
Take a look at cottage cheese. You'd be surprised, sometimes 400 mg of sodium per serving. If I buy it I get the low sodium (no taste) kind and add stuff to it like scallions, chives etc. The best rule of thumb is to stick with fresh vegetables, fruit, whole grains and low fat proteins like fish, chicken, turkey. I am not a big red meat eater. Stay away from prepared or canned foods. When I use canned beans or corn I try to rinse them to wash out some salt. The hardest thing I have is making soups. I always used to use soup mix powders as a base diluted with lots of water and I am still trying to figure out a better way to get strong flavor without the salt. I just usually warn people and have the salt and pepper on the table for people to add on their own.

I find eating low fat, low salt, low everything very time consuming and needs time to get used to. Keeping at a healthy weight has always been a challenge for me. My blood pressure was starting to go up. Walking everyday or every other day has definitely helped keep my pressure back down. Stress also adds a lot to that for me.
I need to work hard at this stay healthy track. Hope it pays off and keeps me and my one kidney of meds for a long time.

Good luck,
Sherri
Sherri
Living Kidney Donor 11/12/07

Offline Snoopy

  • Top 10 Poster!
  • *****
  • Posts: 251
  • Non-directed donation, Oct., 2011
Re: Sodium
« Reply #2 on: May 15, 2011, 11:00:02 AM »
     Sherri, thanks for your response--and funny you mention soup.  Again, I thought I was already so clever about avoiding high sodium foods (I more or less eat the way you do)--and then my wife forgot to add salt when preparing her chicken soup.  Believe me, I could tell the difference! Which was depressing, as I realized how much salt must normally be there.  For flavor, by the way, try cooking with garlic powder, chili powder, or black pepper, or even cumin or curry powder. True, these give very different flavors, but I'm getting used to them (I've tried to convince the kids that we're trying out "Indonesian" cuisine, but they were not impressed).javascript:void(0);  But, so that others don't have to suffer along with us, putting salt on the table is indeed a good idea.
     I know what you mean about the all-"low" diet.  I've been on a fairly strict low-fat regimen for over five years, and have been managing pretty well.  But adding low-sodium to that is a grim business.  Finding things that are low-sodium and low-fat, and low-calorie is a pain.  As it is, I eat lots of eggplant and tofu, etc., and very little meat of any sort.  A lot of the "low-hanging" salt/fat/calories are already missing from my diet.  That leaves exercise and stress reduction.  I'm trying to walk more, but stress is a little trickier, particularly while jumping over various medical, administrative, and scheduling hurdles on the way to donating.
   To close on a happier note, I am pleased to report that my family doctor seemed happy enough with my blood pressure today.
      Be well, Snoopy

Mmeaimee

  • Guest
Re: Sodium
« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2011, 11:05:57 AM »
my mom who has acites due to liver disease has just had to switch to a very low sodium diet (1500/day).  The first wk of the new diet she wrote down the sodium content of everything she ate to ensure she didn't exceed 1500.  What we found is that even though her diet soda was only 35mg of sodium per can...drinking 3-4 or more of these per day in addition to the sodium in each meal really adds up...so moral of the story, wathc those sodas :) 

Offline Orchidlady

  • Top 10 Poster!
  • *****
  • Posts: 303
Re: Sodium
« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2011, 03:48:47 PM »
My husband and I became used to a low sodium diet when he was first on dialysis. It is definitely HARD - but becomes easier as time goes on.  You learn to become a good label reader and can pretty much figure out in your head what you can or cannot afford to eat. You can easily maintain the 1500 mg per day but it requires eating fresh food and making your own stuff on a reguarl basis. Prepared food is pretty much out of the picture and restaurant meals are just an occasional treat. Snoopy, the funny thing with the low fat is that they actually put moresodium in to mask the lack of flavor from the loss of the fat - talk about being between a rock and a hard place! We have found a few organic type frozen meals that do not add extra salt, so you have 95mg for the meal. It helps when there is at least something you can use as a convenience. We have also found frozen hashbrowns that are - surprise! - nothing but potatoes, pure & simple with no additives. You just really have to take the time to look at different products in different stores and read the labels.

What's interesting is that you notice the lack of salt at first, but become used to it very quickly. You can then tell when something has a salt in it - and very quickly! Before my husband got sick, we had a local Thai restaurant we used to love to go to. A couple years after his transplant, I begged to go there for my birthday, since we had not been there in so long. I got my favorite - asparagus chicken. Bad thing was, I could hardly eat it - it tasted to me like someone had literally dumped a full shaker of salt on it!  We haven't been back since.
Donated Left Kidney to Husband 10/30/07
Barnes Jewish Hospital
St. Louis, MO

Offline Fr Pat

  • Top 10 Poster!
  • *****
  • Posts: 983
Re: Sodium
« Reply #5 on: May 15, 2011, 07:56:47 PM »
Just a tip: The National Kidney Foundation site www.kidney.org has a lot of dietary advice, recipies, newslettters, etc. with practical suggestions for a kidney-friendly diet.
      Fr. Pat

Offline Snoopy

  • Top 10 Poster!
  • *****
  • Posts: 251
  • Non-directed donation, Oct., 2011
Re: Sodium
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2011, 02:11:56 AM »
What's interesting is that you notice the lack of salt at first, but become used to it very quickly. You can then tell when something has a salt in it - and very quickly! Before my husband got sick, we had a local Thai restaurant we used to love to go to. A couple years after his transplant, I begged to go there for my birthday, since we had not been there in so long. I got my favorite - asparagus chicken. Bad thing was, I could hardly eat it - it tasted to me like someone had literally dumped a full shaker of salt on it! 


    BINGO!  I should have posted the follow-on to my story, above, about the chicken soup without the salt.  Soon after, my wife made chicken soup again.  I refused a second bowl because I found it was too salty.  Not for health reasons, but because I didn't like so much salt. I hope this means my system is adjusting to its low-salt diet!  And, by the way, you're right about the balance between salt and fat: it's not easy to find any decent prepared foods that are low in both. But, since I'd already learned, when first cutting out fat, that oven-baked, home-made French "fries" are a lot healthier than the real kind, I've started using real tomatoes in place of ketchup.  And, Fr. Pat, thank you for the very useful link for dietary tips!
   Be well, Snoopy

Offline Eldonna Edwards

  • Top 100 Poster!
  • **
  • Posts: 29
    • Eldonna Edwards, Author/Speaker
Re: Sodium
« Reply #7 on: May 17, 2011, 05:54:39 PM »
Breakfast cereals have a ton of sodium! I don't eat them (except old fashioned oats and grits). Check this out: (from http://www.annecollins.com/sodium-foods.htm)

Breakfast Cereal (1 cup unless stated)    
Sodium (mg)
Cheerios, General Mills    273mg
Cocoa Puffs, General Mills    171mg
Corn Chex, General Mills    288mg
Frosted Wheaties, General Mills (3/4 cup)    204mg
Honey Nut Clusters, General Mills    249mg
Raisin Nut Bran, General Mills    250mg
Total Cornflakes, General Mills (1 & 1/3 cup)    209mg
Wheat Chex, General Mills    267mg
Breakfast Cereals    
Sodium (mg)
Quakers - Quaker Oat Life (3/4 cup)    164mg
Quakers - Cap'n Crunch (3/4 cup)    202mg
Quakers - Corn Grits, instant, plain (1 pkt) (137g)    289mg
Quakers - Oatmeal, instant, maple & brown sugar (1 pkt) (155g)    234mg
Cream of Wheat, instant, (1 pkt) (142g)    241mg
Author of Lost in Transplantation: Memoir of an Unconventional Organ Donor

Offline Snoopy

  • Top 10 Poster!
  • *****
  • Posts: 251
  • Non-directed donation, Oct., 2011
Re: Sodium
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2014, 03:36:27 PM »
[I know this an old thread, but it's a perfectly good one, and I don't want to start a new thread]

   I thought I'd post my favorite trick for those of us living the "low-salt" life.  I bought a see-through Lucite pepper mill, and (like the little boy with the hammer) soon discovered that all sorts of foods needed freshly-cracked black pepper.
   I must still be a child at heart, because I haven't gotten tired of looking at the little black pepper-corns, and grinding the pepper myself.
   I've long since trained myself to reach for the pepper mill instead of the salt shaker, and I've hardly missed the salt.
   Try it--it's fun!
      Be well, Snoopy

Offline Stpfan44

  • Top 100 Poster!
  • **
  • Posts: 30
  • headache drumroll
Re: Sodium
« Reply #9 on: April 17, 2014, 06:05:40 AM »
 ;)
\44/
/44\

Offline poodles

  • Top 50 poster!
  • ***
  • Posts: 48
Re: Sodium
« Reply #10 on: April 17, 2014, 07:27:07 AM »
You can make your own cheese very easily. Dump a carton of natural yogurt into a coffee filter and let it drain overnight. If you like it mild drain in the fridge. If you like tangy cheese leave out. Dump out of the filter, wrap in plastic wrap and store in an airtight container. You can serve it with fresh herbs, chilie flakes, raisins what ever you like or just plain, my favorite.

I use LOTS of herbs and chiles. My husband's family who heavily over salt their food don't even notice meals at our house are no salt.

Offline Stpfan44

  • Top 100 Poster!
  • **
  • Posts: 30
  • headache drumroll
Re: Sodium
« Reply #11 on: April 19, 2014, 02:35:50 AM »
I love salt u betch ;D
\44/
/44\

Offline Snoopy

  • Top 10 Poster!
  • *****
  • Posts: 251
  • Non-directed donation, Oct., 2011
Re: Sodium
« Reply #12 on: April 23, 2014, 11:26:15 AM »
You can make your own cheese very easily. Dump a carton of natural yogurt into a coffee filter and let it drain overnight.

Thanks for the great idea, poodles!
Now, another challenge:  can anybody suggest a good marinade for tofu, aside from soy sauce? It's loaded with salt, as is tamari sauce, but it really works well with tofu.  I've tried vinegar and lemon juice, but neither really soaked into the tofu.
    Be well, Snoopy

Offline poodles

  • Top 50 poster!
  • ***
  • Posts: 48
Re: Sodium
« Reply #13 on: April 23, 2014, 04:15:47 PM »
Try Shiro miso made from rice only 7% sodium.

Japanese restaurants mix miso, mirin(rice wine you can substitute honey) and sake as a marinade for black cod and salmon. It's good with tofu too. Spread on the tofu, stick in a fridge for a few days, scrape off the paste & broil.

There is another Japanese paste marinade made with sake lees( the dregs) but that can be hard to find.


Korean chile paste would work also sesame oil, garlic & chile flakes. No sodium there.

 

 Subscribe in a reader



Copyright © International Association of Living Organ Donors, Inc. All Rights Reserved
traditional