Desk salt, identified chemically as sodium chloride, is made up of 40% sodium.
It’s estimated that at the least half of individuals with hypertension have blood strain that’s affected by sodium consumption — that means they’re salt delicate. As well as, your threat for salt sensitivity will increase with age (1, 2).
The Reference Day by day Consumption (RDI) for sodium is 2,300 mg — or about 1 teaspoon of salt (3).
Nonetheless, common each day sodium consumption in the USA is 3,400 mg — a lot greater than the advisable higher restrict.
This primarily comes from packaged and restaurant meals, quite than from overusing your salt shaker (4).
Sodium is added to meals for taste and as a part of some meals preservatives and components (5).
Listed below are 30 meals that are usually excessive in sodium — and what to eat as a substitute.
1. Shrimp
Packaged, plain, frozen shrimp generally comprises added salt for taste, in addition to sodium-rich preservatives. For instance, sodium tripolyphosphate is usually added to assist reduce moisture loss throughout thawing (6).
A 3-ounce (85-gram) serving of nonbreaded frozen shrimp might comprise as a lot as 800 mg of sodium, 35% of the RDI. Breaded, fried shrimp is equally salty (7, 8).
In distinction, a 3-ounce (85-gram) serving of fresh-caught shrimp with out salt and components has simply 101 mg of sodium, or 4% of the RDI (7).
Go for fresh-caught ones when you can or verify a well being meals retailer for frozen shrimp with out components.
2. Soup
Canned, packaged, and restaurant-prepared soups usually pack a number of sodium, although yow will discover reduced-sodium choices for some canned varieties.
The sodium primarily comes from salt, although some soups additionally comprise sodium-rich taste components, reminiscent of monosodium glutamate (MSG).
On common, canned soup has 700 mg of sodium, or 30% of the RDI, per 1-cup (245-gram) serving (9).
3. Ham
Ham is excessive in sodium as a result of salt is used to remedy and taste the meat. A 3-ounce (85-gram) serving of roasted ham averages 1,117 mg of sodium, or 48% of the RDI (10).
There’s no signal of meals firms reducing again on how closely they salt this in style meat. In a current nationwide sampling of U.S. meals, researchers discovered that ham was 14% greater in sodium than within the earlier evaluation (10).
Think about using ham solely as an occasional condiment in small quantities quite than consuming a full serving.
4. Instantaneous pudding
Pudding doesn’t style salty, however there’s loads of sodium hiding in prompt pudding combine.
This sodium is from salt and sodium-containing components — disodium phosphate and tetrasodium pyrophosphate — used to assist thicken prompt pudding.
A 25-gram portion of prompt vanilla pudding combine — used to make a 1/2-cup serving — has 350 mg of sodium, or 15% of the RDI.
In distinction, the identical quantity of standard vanilla pudding combine comprises solely 135 mg of sodium, or 6% of the RDI (11, 12).
5. Cottage cheese – “protein foods can contribute to sodium intake”
Cottage cheese is an efficient supply of calcium and a very good supply of protein, however it’s additionally comparatively excessive in salt. A 1/2-cup (113-gram) serving of cottage cheese averages 350 mg of sodium, or 15% of the RDI (13).
The salt in cottage cheese not solely enhances taste but in addition contributes to texture and features as a preservative. Due to this fact, you typically gained’t discover low-sodium variations (14).
Nevertheless, one examine discovered that rinsing cottage cheese beneath working water for 3 minutes, then draining it, reduces sodium content material by 63% (15).
6. Vegetable juice
Ingesting vegetable juice is a straightforward technique to get your veggies, however when you don’t learn diet labels, you could possibly be ingesting a number of sodium, too.
An 8-ounce (240-mL) serving of vegetable juice might have 405 mg of sodium, or 17% of the RDI (10).
Luckily, some manufacturers provide low-sodium variations, which implies they will have not more than 140 mg of sodium per serving based on FDA guidelines (16).
7. Salad dressing
A few of the sodium in salad dressing comes from salt. Moreover, some manufacturers add sodium-containing taste components, reminiscent of MSG and its cousins, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate.
In a assessment of main brand-name meals bought in U.S. shops, salad dressing averaged 304 mg of sodium per 2-tablespoon (28-gram) serving, or 13% of the RDI (9).
Nevertheless, sodium ranged from 10–620 mg per serving throughout the samples of salad dressing, so when you store rigorously, you could possibly discover one low in sodium (9).
A fair higher choice is to make your individual. Attempt utilizing additional virgin olive oil and vinegar.
“protein foods can contribute to sodium intake”