0 Sodium Affect

How Sodium Can Affect Your Weight

[caption id="attachment_248" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Sodium Diets"][/caption]

First of all, sodium is an essential element in the diet. That said, the minimum recommended sodium intake is about 500 milligrams. Milligrams are the units found on food labels in regard to sodium so it's easy to find how much sodium is contained in any food with a label. Soda averages 25-50 milligrams of sodium--NOT a high source! Bread averages 120 milligrams of sodium. Baked goods will all have at least 100 milligrams of sodium because salt and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) are used to make them. Because the recommendations for sodium intake are to limit this mineral to 2400 milligrams per day. The problem is, the average sodium intake of most Americans is near 4000 milligrams of sodium daily, and some take in amounts near 10,000 milligrams each day. A teaspoon of salt (the main source of sodium) contains 2000 milligrams of sodium. Start checking the labels on your canned food and frozen foods; start looking up the sodium content from fast food restaurants (frightening!); check out sodium content in processed foods such as lunchmeat (bologna, hot dogs), corned beef, pickles, and olives. Here is where you will find single servings that are providing 500 milligrams of sodium, 1000 milligrams of sodium and even more! Stop worrying about the 40 milligrams of sodium in a diet orange soda when you're having it with a corn dog that contains over 900 milligrams of sodium. Stop worrying about the 240 milligrams of sodium in your high fiber breakfast cereal when you're consuming 800 milligrams in a can of soup for lunch! Check it out--one half cup contains over 800 milligrams of sodium!

Finally, sodium does not contribute to or cause weight gain. If you eat a high sodium meal you will retain fluid weight until you have consumed enough extra water to flush out the extra sodium (yes, drinking more water will help flush out the sodium faster). Don't ignore the highest sodium foods with a low nutritional content (like a fast food breakfast sandwich with sausage or bacon and 820 milligrams of sodium) and then turn around and avoid a healthy choice (like low fat cheese) because it has 200 milligrams of sodium! (By Laurie_Beebe)