Advice on Decreasing Sugar/Sodium Intake?

Hey everyone, does anyone know of some good low sugar/low sodium foods?  How do you keep your sugar/sodium down?  Right now my daily sodium intake is 3,595 mg and my daily sugar intake is 126 g - eeek!  I don't know where it all comes from, except I do eat a lot of fruit so that might contribute to the sugar.  Is it okay to have high sugar if a lot of it comes from fruit?  Any advice would be appreciated :).

Fruit is sugary but it's natural sugar.  If all your sugar comes from fruit it's not a major problem but do try to get a good variety of other foods besides.  Too much of anything isn't usually a good idea.   Sodium is mostly in prepared, canned, ready-made, preserved and processed foods... extends the shelf-life.   Catered food also tends to be high in salt.  Even foods that you would expect to be sweet often contain a lot of salt.

By far the best way to get sodium down is to prepare and cook your own food as often as possible from fresh ingredients rather than looking for commercial 'low sodium' foods.  Use herbs/spices rather than salt to flavour your cooking and don't add salt at the table.  2400mg sodium is the recommended maximum.

I feel like I always find your posts! I'm not stalking, just interested in the same things =)

I also have a really high sugar intake from fruits. Just after eating a cup of berries and non-fat yogurt for breakfast, I'm already at 80% for my recommended daily intake. And you know what? I'm still losing weight. I wouldn't worry about sugar from fruit, so long as you aren't eating a whole heck of a lot of it. Really, it's natural sugars. I would be more concerned if it came from sweeteners or processed foods.

As for the sodium, it's a little trickier. Most of it comes from pre-packaged or canned goods. Try substituting some of your canned goods for fresh ones. So if you're making a tomato sauce, use fresh tomatoes instead of canned diced ones. Rinsing canned veggies helps to reduce the salt too. And if you have soup, make sure to get the reduced-sodium kind and add extra water to it too. Check labels and see where the bulk of the salt is coming from. Most marinades and salad dressings are heavy in sodium, so try to look for reduced-salt varieties there too.

What other foods are you eating that cause a problem with sodium? Make sure to eat enough potassium to help with the sodium problem.

Haha, I realized one reason why my sodium was so high.  I manually entered something into my log, and I entered it wrong.  So when I fixed that it took my daily sodium intake down to 2,824, which is not quite as bad.  

Yeah, I bet a large part of the stuff in the dining hall comes out of a can.  I'll have more control over that when I go home in a week though.  I also eat a lot of salad, so that's probably a big part of it too (the dressing, I mean).  Thanks for the tips! :)

I finally got my sodium down.  I have low blood pressure so I've never watched my sodium very well.  But I have tried to watch my cooking for others. 

The key is to make your own food at home.  Also, if you have a favorite high sodium food (cottage cheese), then maybe alternating low sodium foods that day. 

I've had a hard time with that too, but I've been planning out my meals lately and finding what works to reduce it.    For me, milk, cheese, and bread make up the bulk of my sodium.  I've tried to cut processed foods out entirely and fix everything myself, and I don't snack on string cheese as much anymore.  Nuts make awesome snacks in my opinion, and they're filling so you don't have to eat a ton.  When I eat chili I don't put saltine crackers on it anymore, I just eat it "as is".  Most of my daily sodium still comes from the small chili I order at Wendy's.  It's got a good chunk of sodium, but the chili+potato combo at Wendy's is pretty good for you, and it's easy and cheap, so I don't fret.

Fruit makes up most of my sugar.  I actually managed to keep my sugar and sodium intake below 100% of my allowance for the past few days.  I would say however, that they aren't super critical.  If you have a bit more sodium than you should, drink more water.  If you have an extra banana or an apple and pile on the "sugar" I don't think it'll hurt.  If I'm hungry and need a snack, I don't get picky about going over my sugar allowance for the day, I just grab a piece of fruit.

I myself am I huge fan of sugar free cherry jello. You can buy them in the prepackaged cups and they're fat free, sugar free and only 10 calories. They're my new favorite snack and they're delicious. Sorry for sounding like a commercial, but I just wanted to share, lol. As far as salt goes, that's a tough one for me too.  Everything packaged has a ton of it. If you cook your own food, I recommend Mrs. Dash salt free blend. I'm sure if you check some spice labels at the grocery store, you'll be able to find and test out some good ones.

 

Good luck. Keep me posted.