What is too much sodium?

I was wondering how much sodium per day is too much sodium? What is the limit? I typically average around 2300 mg per day.

I read somewhere that 2000-3000mg is considered low sodium. Plus if you drink a good amount of water i think 2300mg is fine.

The recommended daily intake for sodium is not to exceed 2400ml per day based on an average 2000 calorie diet as stated by netrition.com:o)

So if you exceed 2400, then you should drink a lot of water to get it out of your system? While I typically average below that, I've been going a little over lately.

Exactly...water helps "wash" the sodium out of your body- so when you don't use it to metabolize or sweat- the water will help carry it out through urine.

I have looked into this question like a million times as there is not really one specific answer out there lol

From what I have pieced together, it depends on how active you are. If you are active (every day) you should be around 2000mg to 2500mg, if you aren't very active you should be around 1500mg to 2000mg.

For me I am basically "agressively" active every other day with sports or working out and on the off days I am not that active so therefore I just try to stay around 2000mg.

And basically the only way to get rid of sodium is to sweat it out .....

Just try not to be too low in your sodium as that is bad for you, and of course do not go to high ....

 

Yikes, I am in bad shape then. I have myself at sedentary, and in the past week I've been taking in around 2600-3000 mg of sodium per day. I should probably work on that.

What are the negative effects of having too much sodium?

high blood pressure is one and then that can lead to other heart problems.

Just out of curiosity, if you work out regularly and sweat A LOT, does that offset some of your sodium intake at all?     

Original Post by bigbones:

high blood pressure is one and then that can lead to other heart problems.

What about short term issues?

Short term issues? I think that would just be like bloating, extra "water" weight etc .... high levels of sodium is bad all around, short and long terms.

I pack on water weight (ex: 2 lbs in a day) if I even think about having more than 2000 mg/day of sodium.  I *try* to keep it around 1500, but it's difficult when eating things like canned tuna.

Average sodium intake in the US is apparently between 4000 and 5000 mg/day, though as they said, the recommended amount is much lower, especially if you have a family history of high blood pressure. It's also not clear how much good drinking lots of water to just flush it out does either. It may help for short-term retention, but I'm not sure if it does anything to counteract the long-term renal/cardiovascular effects. That being said, 2300 mg/day sounds like you're doing pretty good compared to most people.

If you're concerned about your sodium intake, you can offset it by increasing your potassium intake. Go ahead and haves you a banana.

Harvard Health Publications states: "Potassium helps offset high sodium intake by triggering more sodium excretion by the kidneys.

That's interesting - and helpful, because I love bananas! Excellent! :)