sodium_diet
Table of Contents
salt / sodium in food products
Introduction
- excessive sodium in the diet is generally considered a very bad think, especially for people at risk of hypertension or cardiac failure
- of course, too rapid ingestion of salt water exceeding rate sodium can be excreted may be lethal by causing acute hypernatraemia
- sea waters average at 35g/L of salt, ie. 100mL of sea water contains 1.4g sodium
- unfortunately, many of our foods, especially those with higher fat content become pretty much inedible if there is no added salt - perhaps you should avoid these foods anyway!
- furthermore, most processed foods in our supermarkets have very high salt levels and there is hidden salt everywhere - bread, cheeses, processed meats, soups, etc.
- this page is designed to highlight how much salt you may be inadvertently eating each day well above daily maximum recommendations are in the range of 4-6g salt/day (2300mg sodium) for healthy adults (less if you have cardiac failure)
- 1 teaspoon of salt = 5g salt containing 2g sodium
- salt is sodium chloride (NaCl) with molecular weight of 58 and given atomic weights of sodium is 23 and chlorine is 35, sodium content is 23/58 which equates to 40% of salt
Example foods
- unless you make your own dinners with care and rely more on fresh fruit, veges, unsalted nuts, it is really hard to avoid a high salt diet
- now you know why nearly everyone is on tablets for high blood pressure - almost no one is on a recommended salt intake diet
- bear in mind, the average adult should be aiming for around 20g of protein per meal - hence this is listed in the table - if you are ingesting salt without the benefit of adequate protein intake then you really need to review your diet
- as you can see you should AVOID high salt foods such as processed meats (including fish), most canned soups, most supermarket frozen dinners, most supermarket canned dinners, canned baked beans, and most take aways - although these do not carry salt measurements, you can taste the very high salt content in nearly all - including fish and chips, hamburgers, pizzas, pies, pastas, and “Asian-style” foods (esp. soy sauce) and especially IF it tastes salty - there is FAR TOO MUCH SALT!
- make your own pasta and then you can determine how much salt you add
- even a cheese with low salt vegemite toast will give you over 300mg per slice!
- other foods to minimise include blue vein cheese, olives, tortillas, and bagels.
- processed meats (ham, bacon, sausages and salami in particular) contribute approximately 10% of daily sodium intake to the Australian diet, and make up an estimated 20% of the population’s meat intake. The target max. salt in bacon and ham is 2.7g/100g, while the UK target for sausages is 1.4g/100g (most Australian sausages are well over this). Salt content of sliced ham in Australia averages 2.6g/100g but ranges from 0.9-4.4g/100g. 1)
table of example foods
| food | sodium/100g | usual serving | sodium/usual serving size | protein/100g | sugar/100g | comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sea water | 1.4g | none | at 14g per litre, this could be fatal! | |||
| added salt | ||||||
| 1 teaspoon | 40g | 1tsp = 5g | 2000mg | 1 tsp would normally be used in 3-10 serves of a meal | ||
| small sprinkling | 40g | 1/10th tsp = 0.5g | 200mg | |||
| soups | ||||||
| most canned soups | 280mg | 265g | 742mg | 2.5g | 1.2g | eg. Heinz country chicken |
| dried packet soups / noodles made up with water | 265mg | 250mL | 660mg | 0.5g | 0.4g | no nutritious value just flavoured salty water eg. Continental chicken noodle soup |
| packet liquid soups | ~270mg | 320g | 835mg | 3.2g | 2g | eg. Only Organic Comfort chicken sweetcorn |
| lower salt options | ~180mg | 430g | 380-390mg | 1-2.6g | 2-4g | eg. Sth Aust Gourmet Co. Creamy chicken veg or Tuscan tomato/basil |
| stock cubes | 350mg/100mL stock | 250mL/cube | 880mg | <1g | 0.4g | eg. Massel Chicken style |
| home made minestrone with pancetta and chickpeas | ~160mg | 300mL | 480mg | ~2-3g | <1g | high nutritious vegetable content, better if you leave out the pancetta but then you lose flavor |
| meats | ||||||
| raw bacon | 600-2000mg | 50g | 300-1000mg | there is a lot of variation in salt content of bacons but generally far too high!2) | ||
| pancetta | 833mg | 50g | 420mg | 12g | <1g | |
| BBQ sausage in white bread, tomato sauce | 84g sausage | 940mg | ||||
| bacon and egg sandwich, BBQ sauce | 48g bacon | 1360mg | AVOID BBQ sauce!! | |||
| ham sandwich | 46g ham | 800mg | and that's not adding in pickles, cheese, etc! | |||
| pizza with ham, etc | you don't want to know | that is why you are so thirsty after a pizza! | ||||
| eggs | 136mg | 60g (1 egg) | 82mg | 13g | boiled, no added salt | |
| milk | ||||||
| 2% fat milk | 45mg | 250ml (1 cup) | 113mg | 3.4g | 4.5g | |
| lactose free low fat milk | 40mg | 250ml (1 cup) | 100mg | 3.4g | 5.1g | eg. Zymil low fat |
| cheese | ||||||
| light cheddar | 700mg | 16g/slice | 112mg/slice | 30g | <1g | eg. Cheer LightnTasty sliced (thin!) |
| parmesan | 2150mg | 5g | 108mg | 38g | 1.1g | |
| spreads / condiments | ||||||
| BBQ sauce | 1030mg | 15mL | 155mg | g | g | average |
| tomato sauce | 845mg | 15mL | 130mg | 1.3g | 25g | eg. Fountain tomato sauce |
| fat free coleslaw | 850mg | 20mL | 170mg | < 1g | 20g | eg. Praise 99% fat free coleslaw dressing |
| mustard pickles | 690mg | 30g | 207mg | <1g | 14g | eg. Three Threes sweet mustard pickles |
| margarine | 360mg | 10g | 36mg | <1g | <1g | eg. Flora proActiv |
| peanut butter | 255mg | 20g (1tbsp) | 50mg | 25g | 4g | eg. Mayvers smooth peanut butter |
| vegemite | ||||||
| reduced salt vegemite | 1900mg | 5g | 100mg | 22g | 3.5g | eg. 40% less salt Vegemite |
| soy sauce | 6880mg | 15mL | 1030mg | 7.7g | 10.2g | eg. Lee Kum Kee Premium Soy Sauce |
| bread | ||||||
| light rye | 380mg | 38g/slice | 100mg/slice | 8.8g | 2.4g | eg. Abbots Light rye |
| crackers and biscuits | ||||||
| water crackers | 620mg | 11.6g (4 crackers) | 72mg | 13g | <1g | eg. Captains Table water crackers |
| breakfast cereals | ||||||
| Vita Brits | 395mg | 50g (3 biscuits) | 200mg | 12.8g | 1.7g | |
| pancake shakes | ||||||
| choc chip | 360mg | 117g (2 pancakes) | 421mg | 4.9g | 18g | eg. Green's choc chip buttermilk pancake shake |
| nuts | ||||||
| dry roasted unsalted | 7mg | 30g | <5mg | 16.3g | 4.8g | eg. Woolworths Luxury nut mix dry roasted unsalted |
| uncooked pasta | ||||||
| pasta | 5mg | 80g | 4mg | 12.5g | 3.5g | eg. Barilla penne rigate; NB. most would add 1 tbsp salt per litre of water when cooking pasta, but most of this would be drained off |
- dry roasted unsalted nuts in moderation (there are a lot of calories in nuts!) are a great option as well as pasta, fruit and vegetables that YOU have prepared with minimal salt added
sodium_diet.txt · Last modified: 2024/08/14 12:44 by gary1