Sodium Limits

[quotidianlight]

Is there a limit or goal to how much sodium is too much? I think I am eating too much but since I used to have a super low intake I'm not sure if it's really too much or just more than I'm used to. I want to track it in fitday for a couple weeks and see.

[not2late]

Dr. Atkins doesn't spell one out, but the American Heart Association says to limit sodium to about 2,300 mg per day.

A simple way to lower your salt intake is to eat whole or minimally processed foods. The more a food is processed, the more added salt typically.

[quotidianlight]

Originally Posted by not2late

Dr. Atkins doesn't spell one out, but the American Heart Association says to limit sodium to about 2,300 mg per day.

A simple way to lower your salt intake is to eat whole or minimally processed foods. The more a food is processed, the more added salt typically.

Thanks, I used to hardly ever eat a lot of salt but I'm having a bit of a bacon fetish and I've never eaten cheese more than a couple times a week before I just feel so... salty!

[blue996]

I track my food on Fitday PC and you would be shocked how quickly the sodium adds up and how much it causes you to retain water. I try to eat under 1,500 mg and I have read that we only need 500 mg a day physiologically. To do this I have elminated all processed meats (with the except of a rare piece of bacon).

[UrbanShaman]

Originally Posted by blue996

I track my food on Fitday PC and you would be shocked how quickly the sodium adds up and how much it causes you to retain water. I try to eat under 1,500 mg and I have read that we only need 500 mg a day physiologically. To do this I have elminated all processed meats (with the except of a rare piece of bacon).

Are pocessed meats legal after Induction? It was my understanding that we didn't eat them period. Hmmm, could I possibly have pepperoni again?

[Hudson]

I agree with limiting processed meats and that we don't need much salt. But I don't see any problem except that it could make you keep some extra water(extra weight).

[Elizellen]

Originally Posted by UrbanShaman

Are processed meats legal after Induction? It was my understanding that we didn't eat them period. Hmmm, could I possibly have pepperoni again?

As with all foods that have been processed in any way you need to read the list of ingredients as well as the nutrition info to work out if the are 'legal' for whatever phase of Atkins you are at.
Many processed meats have sugar/dextrose/high fructose corn syrup(hfcs) etc in them

[quotidianlight]

Originally Posted by Elizellen

As with all foods that have been processed in any way you need to read the list of ingredients as well as the nutrition info to work out if the are 'legal' for whatever phase of Atkins you are at.
Many processed meats have sugar/dextrose/high fructose corn syrup(hfcs) etc in them

If you like bacon or sausage is is easier to find good uncured no sugar added stuff as specialty or gormet type stores. Our Costco has a lot of upper end stuff and the best meat I've bought since I lived in New York but I live in a fairly pretentious area. That said, I haven't been able to find sliced deli meat without sugar anywhere since we don't have meat counters really.

[mystic]

You might be interested in some information I posted about this topic just today. I track everything in FitDay also and I was able to draw some pretty shocking correlations to weight loss and sodium intake. I used a month's worth of data and the charts I posted show that stalls and weight gain were directly tied to high levels of sodium two days prior. Weight drops were also tied to days with very low sodium intake (again approx 2 days after). Generally anything above 1500mg started to cause trouble.

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...ad.php?t=54651 (Interesting Correlation Between Sodium Intake and Weight Loss)

[quotidianlight]

Thanks, that graph was really helpful. I hardly ever use salt but there is a ton in my cheeses (I am a bit of a cheese freak) so I'm dropping down to 2-3 cheese servings instead of 4 and cutting bacon to twice a week.