The Low-Down on a Low Sodium Diet

We recently were thrown a curve ball when my husband was advised by his physician to follow a low sodium diet.  Honestly, upon first hearing the news neither of us felt that it would be a big deal.  We have always eaten fairly healthy.  We watch the fat, we don't eat much fast food, we eat whole grains, etc.  So as the household adult in charge of all the grocery shopping and cooking, I was fairly confident that this recommendation represented just another step toward our objective of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.  Moreover, I always felt that eating a raw or no processed food diet sounded appealing.  I thought to myself, "it shouldn't be too hard, we are almost there anyway."  Well, as a researcher by nature and by training, I plunged myself right into this new project...

Of course, like most Americans I went to the web to learn more about this topic.  The Mayo Clinic website is a good place to begin gathering information.  The first three words that come to mind describing what I have learned..."What the hell!" (Actually this is the PG version of the first words that came to mind).  Now, I did understand the relationship between dietary sodium and conditions like high blood pressure and congestive heart failure.  But that knowledge resided somewhere in the periphery as I never gave it much consideration when making our family food choices.  Honestly, given my professional background, I am quite embarrassed about how little I really knew about the role sodium plays in the American diet.  

Starting with just the basics...It is recommended that adults ingest between 1,500 - 2,300 mg of sodium per day.  Sounds reasonable. However, to my astonishment I learned that it is estimated that the average person consumes between 7,000 and 10,000 mg per day! Borrowing a line from a rent-a-car commercial, I thought to myself,  "You can't be serious!" There was no way this outrageous statement applied to our eating habits.  I marched straight for the pantry looking for evidence to prove that we, in fact, do not eat like typical Americans. Given that we don't eat products obviously laden with sodium like canned vegetables or soup, or boxed products like mac 'n' cheese, we couldn't possibly consume this much sodium.  But, my head hung in shame, when I discovered how much sodium was in many of the basic cooking ingredients I used each day.  I was dismayed when I discovered that 1 slice of whole grain bread can have as much as 200 mg of sodium!  Yes, we were 'typical' and the vast majority of our dietary sodium came from processed food.

So let me just say, my original premise that our existing eating habits put us very close to a 'low sodium' diet has been shattered.  And now I see my ideas about eating a 'raw' or 'clean' diet are nothing but romantic delusions.  This is going to be a lot of hard work that will have major implications on my shopping and cooking habits.