Sodium Sodium Everywhere, What to Do?

Sodium is in a lot of our fruit, veg, milk, meat, etc. Even if your foods were garden grown by you, and totally unprocessed, they would contain some. It's taken up by the plants and animals and remains in the food.

It cannot and should not be wholly eliminated from our diets.

Check with your ped as to what amounts are appropriate given her age. You can probably make up your own waffle batter, and cook up then freeze a whole bunch of waffles some evening if it gives you a measure of control.

Best,
F. B.

I have 2 unrelated responses to this.

One is this - I can understand, because I am on a low-sodium diet for medical reasons, and it was really really hard when I first learned to do it. I've learned to make my own chicken stock to provide the base for soups. I've learned what brand to look for in the store - Del Monte has lots of canned veggies, canned diced tomates, etc, with no added salt. I use those no-salt diced tomatoes to make pasta sauce because jarred sauces are loaded with salt. You can cut down on salt if you have to, but it is a lot of work.

Which brings me to point #2. I do all this because I have a medical condition and I have to. I understand all things in moderation is good, but if your daughter doesn't have a medical condition that requires low sodium, I would encourage you to not worry about this too much. Sure, do the best you can in terms of not buying too much processed food. But certainly there are worse things in life than a child who loves soup from a can and veggies from a bag in the freezer.

It's worth noting that a lot of the advice we've been given over the past 20 years has been thrown out. That applies to low sodium, low fat (vs. the healthy fats that we really need), sugar (far better to have real sugar or honey than all the chemical sweeteners), carbs/no carbs, eggs/no eggs and much more. Now we are much less healthy as a nation even than we were 20 years ago, and they are telling us to put back in the healthy fats, even the bacon (without the nitrites), the beef (grass fed, not corn fed), the eggs and the salt.

We DO need some salt, and it's the processed foods with added sodium that are far more of a problem than some regular fresh food with a little salt thrown in for flavor. So canned soups and canned vegetables have a lot, but frozen vegetables should not have any added salt unless you are buying something already mixed with a sauce. Those foods that contain sodium naturally should not be avoided.

You don't say why you are focusing on this one nutrient and worried about it. I think if you get back into "all things in moderation" and find some healthy alternatives that are easy to cook and freeze, you'll be happier. Maybe substitute your own pancakes for the processed waffles, for example - I used to make them for my son and just freeze them between sheets of waxed paper. There are tons of recipes using pureed cauliflower and butternut squash and spinach in other recipes - I find making my own spaghetti or taco sauce is pretty easy using regular tomato puree and seasonings. I make oven fries with olive oil and some simple herbs and salt/pepper, and I make oven roasted veggies too. All so easy and low labor. I make my own chicken nuggets very quickly.

I also have a history of thyroid issues and I know how you feel with reduced energy levels. Keeping after a little one is definitely energy-sapping. I think if you look at some recipes you can make in advance, you'll find some that you can do without a lot of effort. If you have a crockpot, that's great too.

Remember that civilization has eaten, and valued, salt for many centuries - it only became a problem in the last generation, which tells us that it's not really the salt that's the problem but all the other foods it's in and all the other shortcomings of those foods. If you can limit the number of ingredients on the label, and get rid of the partially hydrogenated oils and the fake sweeteners and the high fructose corn syrup, you'll do much better. Watch the sales, stock up, and use leftovers creatively to avoid throwing out food, and you will do much better financially.

I agree totally with Fanged Bunny below: Check with your pediatrician on sodium levels.

I also would add: Please take care not to let your own health issues (even if they're not related to your own sodium intake) make you transfer your worries onto your child's diet. I know that when I am worried about how I"m eating, I tend to start worrying over my daughter's and husband's eating too, even though their diets are much better than mine; both are big vegetable and fruit eaters. So I know where you're coming from.

My brother has very serious liver issues (probably a candidate for transplant fairly soon) and was told to limit his sodium very, very strictly, but he still was able to eat some sodium, and doctors never were concerned about the sodium that is in the occasional soup, broth, waffle, frozen vegetable, etc. It sounds like your daughter's diet is just fine, even with the frozen vegetables (canned tend to have more sodium so just stick with frozen).

Can I suggest that you take a break from the calorie and sodium counting for a while where your daughter is concerned? I can see your wanting to do it for yourself since you have hormone issues that cause weight fluctuations and might want to track all that for yourself. But I'd be wary of recording calories and sodium for a young child, especially with her eating the way you describe. Unless she's eating a lot -- a whole lot -- of packaged, prepared foods, canned soups, cheeses, etc. (and I am not including plain, sauce-free frozen veg and fruit as "prepared" here--they are fine), then poring over labels and recording things in detail might be doing more to worry you than to help her.

That's why a talk with the pediatrician really could give you some peace with the sodium issue. You'd get the official numbers on sodium intake for a child her age and size and you'd already know if she's above or below the recommended intake. I think you might find she's at or below it.

The one thing I'd limit is canned meats. I use canned chicken pretty frequently in certain recipes that work better with it, both but not above once a week, and never canned meats like Vienna sausages, or any canned forms of beef and/or pork. Canned soups are extremely high in sodium, but otherwise, homemade soups can be terrifically healthy - you are already using low-sodium broths, or can make your own, so you're great there!

I'm glad that you explained that you have some health issues to deal with, that make you tired so we can answer more appropriately. I hope your health will improve. And I'm glad that you're paying attention to the quality of your child's food ingredients.

So, with your medical issues in mind, there's a couple of things you can do that are fairly simple.

The first is to make a huge quantity of a healthy homemade broth. Over the next couple of weeks or so (or however long it takes) save the bones from several chickens. These can be from those whole roasted chickens from the supermarket, or from chickens you cook at home (that will be better, because you can control what seasonings you use, and you can use very little salt. Just cook a chicken once a week and in 4 weeks, you'll have a lot of bones). Just throw the bones in the freezer. No need to pick every piece of meat off them or break them down.

Then when you have about 3 or 4 chickens' worth of bones, put them on a large sheet pan or in a couple of cake pans. It's ok to do it in batches, and it's best to roast them on parchment paper or non-stick foil so you don't lose any of the great stuff that will drip off. Roast them at about 425 degrees for almost an hour until the bones are a deep mahogany color. Dump everything (the bones, any pieces of stuff that fell off, any drippings or charred bits) into the largest pot you can get. 16 quarts is great. Fill it with cold water and bring the bones and water to a light boil, just over a simmer. Let it go, untouched, for several hours - about 4. Then use a strainer to remove all the pieces and bones from the liquid. You'll usually find that there is lots of nice soft chicken meat that can be used in a recipe.

Now boil that liquid until it's reduced, by about a third. Taste it. It should taste like a nice deep chicken stock, but it won't have any salt or other seasonings. Pour it through a fine colander or sieve to strain out any pieces. Now, you can measure out one-cupfuls to store in freezer bags or small freezer containers and you will have made a LOT of great-tasting healthy stock to use as your base for many things. The same can be done with beef bones. I freeze mine in quart-size zip top bags, and I lay them flat to freeze so that I can stand them on edge later and save room.

And I'd suggest you get a good blender, the kind that can make pureed soups. Some people like the Ninja, some prefer a more expensive, longer-lasting kind like the Vitamix. You can throw raw foods (cut up, peeled sweet potatoes or winter squashes, carrots, a peeled onion, and a small amount of chicken stock) into the mixer and in 10 minutes you have a pure soup from ingredients that you can trust. You can make homemade applesauce in seconds. And fruit drinks, etc. The list is endless.

It's more than the sodium that is so troubling in our foods. It's the quality of the salt - it's refined, bleached, and cooked, and additives are in there, too. Unrefined salts are best, and they're the only ones we use (Redmond RealSalt, Himalayan Pink Salt, Celtic Grey Salt, etc). And the foods are filled with carageenan, guar gums, xanthan gums, and dozens of different kinds of sugars (anything ending with -ose, -itol, etc). And food colors!

If you can't make the stock, try using the Kitchen Basics brand (unsalted variety). It's excellent.

If you just make some stock and use a good blender to make homemade soups in seconds, you'll have taken 2 important steps towards improving your eating plan.

I wouldn't worry about it.
We all need at least a little salt (and potassium) - it's one of the things that helps keep our electrolytes in balance.

Are you sure you're using accurate numbers? You have to use numbers based on serving size. That's hard to do when the food is not prepackaged with amount of salt/baby sized portion. I'm guessing you're using numbers for adult servings. There are charts for babies. Their numbers are for 100 g of food. To know how much salt your baby is getting you would need to weigh out the amount in grams or convert the weight to ounces.

Please do call your pediatrician.

Are you accurate with your own measurements? Serving size is a specific amount of food and not on what you think is a serving. Unless the food is packaged specifically for babies the amount/serving is given for adults.

Unless you're giving her large amounts of processed foods her salt intake is ok. By processed i mean deli meats, chips, and packaged things such as spaghetti. Salt in frozen and fresh veggies and fruit is ok. It's natural And expected for people to eat, even those on a low sodium diet. Many canned products are available as low or no sodium. Frozen waffles are OK for a baby. Not so much for an adult on a strict low sodium diet.

How much sodium are you allowed on your diet? The doctor would give you a specific number. Unless you have a heart condition I suspect you're not on a strict diet.

As others have said, cooking for low sodium is easy. A guide line is to feed foods as close to how they come off the tree or out of the ground. Frozen and low sodium canned goods fit that criteria qualify.

I doubt very much that your baby gets too much sodium. Do you even know what a scientific baby size serving amount is or how much sodium a 1 yo should have? The chart I found on the web is in 100 g. Portions.

i'm actually a little concerned about you. calorie counting for a year old baby and getting this worried about sodium is a tad over the top. you don't want your little one growing up in a household that's hyper-focused on food.
sodium is only a problem in processed foods. if you feed your baby good fresh foods, you eliminate a host of potential problems. and if boredom is an issue for you, then all the more reason to buy fresh food and make your own waffles, and steam and puree and freeze your own veggies and then just add in a touch of salt for flavor.
ETA most frozen veggies do have some preservative added to keep color and freshness, and that adds sodium. some don't. but unless you're picking and freezing your own in season (a terrific idea) then yeah, you're adding sodium.
which isn't a huge deal. except that your question is about too much sodium and how to cut it down.
khairete
S.

some fruits and veggies have sodium in them.. natural. sodium.. so eating a frozen vegetable with nothing but pure broccoli may have sodium in int.. I don't think you can worry about this.. the fruit and vegetables are healthy.. even with the sodium.

however the processed foods all have sodium and you can limit that.. cookies and crackers..

I would discuss this with her pediatrician to see how best to offset the sodium and at what level you should be concerned for a 1 yr old vs when you are concerned for yourself. If the frozen veg are a time saver, what about fresh but precut? More $ but easier? Or making more than you need for a meal and reheating portions for later?