Sodium, fat and carbs

Hello all,

I am having trouble balancing my sodium, fat and carbohydrate intake and I was hoping someone could give me some suggestions. The problem is that there seems to be a tradeoff between low sodium or low fat and low carbohydrates. With the exception of one product I eat regularly, low-fat or fat-free products have higher levels of sodium and/or carbohydrates in them than their regular counterparts (not low-fat or fat-free). Now that I have changed my eating habits, both in terms of quality and quantity, the percentage of fat, carbohydrates and protein are all within what is considered an appropriate amount of each. However, despite the improvement in the balance between fat, protein and carbohydrates in my diet, the level of sodium I am consuming is higher than what is recommended and this concerns me. How can I lower my sodium intake without having to resort to foods that have higher levels of fats and carbohydrates? Bear in mind that I do not add salt to anything I eat. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Soups are generally always high in sodium, an easy way to combat that is buy low sodium broths, add your own noodles and veggies to it.

Also, if you cut down to one serving of cottage cheese a day, that eliminates 400 mg right there. Another sodium trap is deli meat. Look for low sodium alternatives there.

So say you cut the soup sodium from almost 700 mg to 300 mg (and that's being generous for noodles or whatever) and took out a serving of cottage cheese that would bring you down to 3000 mg.

Another area to be careful for is bread. Days I eat more bread are days where my sodium is higher. Any time you are eating something that is prepared for you instead of by you is going to be higher in sodium.

If you like to eat sandwiches, try buying a turkey breast (or other meat), cook it over the weekend and viola: you have lower sodium lunch meat.

Thanks for the tips, you two. It's worth noting that when I have soup, I remove about half of the broth and replace it with water. This way I can buy the version with lower fat content and remove some of the salt by replacing it with water. However, even though I do this I'm sure my sodium intake is still higher than the recommended amount. I must admit that the cottage cheese is a weakness for me. This is the one fat-free product I can find where the carbohydrates and salt content is lower than its non fat-free or low-fat counterparts. I also like this because it's a more filling food than other snacks and I also like that it provides so much protein.

As far as deli meats go, I only eat lean turkey now, but this does seem to have a lot of sodium in it. Tuna, salmon, shrimp and steak are the other meats I eat. I trim the fat off of the steak before I cook it, but I'm not sure how much sodium is in it. I'm also not sure how much sodium is in the salmon or shrimp. All I know is that I don't add any salt to them when I prepare them. The turkey and tuna already have the sodium in them. Except for the steak and salmon, the other meats are already cooked, but it sounds like if I cook them more this will reduce the sodium in them. Is this correct?

Thanks again for the help here.

The sodium level will remain the same even if you cook it more I believe. I mean, meats lose some water during cooking, but I'd assume it stays fairly similar.

Just alternate days. Eat cottage cheese this day, deli meat the next day. My sodium intake is almost always under 2000mg a day. Except on my cheat days and it's sky high of course.

Thanks for the additional advice and information, suremeansyes. I'll have to give that a try, but I must admit it's going to be difficult since I eat the same thing almost every day. I'm going to have to do some more research at this point because I really want to find ways to lower my sodium intake without having to sacrifice the amount of protein I consume. The amount of protein I get is a big reason why I eat both cottage cheese and meat in the same day. Thanks again. I really appreciate your help.