sugar and sodium

How are you guys cutting your sugar and sodium?

I realize dont add these things to your food but, How do you take them out.....  I guess a good portion of the food we buy are a little high in sugar and salt and I keep reading by a lot of people that they cut these items to help with weight loss...

I have used splenda in recipes instead of sugar so that is a big change for me..

I guess let me know your thoughts and ideas.......

Best way I know (other than not adding salt and sugar to food) is to decrease the amount of processed food.

More fresh fruit and veggies.  Canned soup and broth are full of salt.  Soy sauce is full of salt, Worchestershire sauce is full of salt.  Eating out is another source of salt.  Food from restaurants if very full of salt.  They add salt to everything. 

There is hidden salt as well.  Hydorolized protein has salt.  MSG has sodium (the main ingredient in salt), those ingredients that preserve food have sodium.  Pickled foods have sodium.

Processed foods are full of sugar as well.  Corn syrup, sugar, fructose, etc.

You have to read those labels.

That's it.  All I know.

One thing that a nutritionist told my sister when her husband had to drastically reduce the amount of sodium in his diet was to rinse any canned vegetables and then add water back to cook them in. You will usually need to add your favorite spices as well for flavor. This will take away about 25% of the sodium in most canned vegetables. If you don't buy light or canned in pear juice fruits you can do the same for sugar in those.

Mrs. Dash became her new best friend while he was on that diet by the way. There are several spice blend varieties as well as a few marinades - all of which are sodium free. She also discovered that although tomato sauce has a bunch of added salt - tomato paste does not - so she would create her own sauce from paste.

Splenda is a wonderful thing because the consistancy is the same as regular sugar. Also you might want to check into a desserts for diabetics cookbook - in many of these recipies applesauce is used to replace the bulk of sugar. They are mighty tasty as well.

There are also low sodium versions of most soups and broths as well as vegetables out these days as well. Sometimes they are harder to find and they are always more expensive (it figures you take something away and charge more for the end results) but it is usually not too much.

I hope this is helpful - my sodium intake is averaging right around the RDA and I really don't do much except NEVER add salt to my food. Good luck!

Sunni

generally, and I say that very looslymy sodium and sugar are under the FDA level but I have days where it is at like 200%.. Then I look through my foods and dont get it... Oh well...

I figure since high blood pressure and heart disease and diabetes run in my family I might as well start now..  And really, if I find things that are good now and healthy and dont have all that extra stuff in it why not eat it!

I figure it cant hurt so, that is why I posted this!

Thanks for the ideas... They are helpful!

Sunnim,

I was looking through my grandmother's handwritten cookbook one day and found one for canned green beans.  It said, to make green beans taste more like fresh beans, pour the green beans out and rinse them and replace the water with tap water.  I use bottled spring water because our tap water tastes nasty, but other than that I do that.

Why even buy canned when frozen taste so much better and have no preservatives in them? Of course fresh is best, but I view canned veggies less than par due to their mushiness and major salt and sugar levels. Even the ones with none added seem to miraculously be saltier. o.O

I do buy most of my vegetables frozen as well and actually perfer them that way if I can't buy fresh ones, but as far as I'm concerned green beans do NOT freeze well. They get kind of rubbery and pick up a funny flavor to me.  I usually cook mine with a little bit of Mrs. Dash and sometimes some onion, but I do rinse them before I cook them. Then again, if we all liked the same things, this would be a mighty boring world we live in.

Sunni

Dovie,

I agree with you on most frozen veggies.  They taste freshier and are generally better in quality, variety and are easy to fix.  Be sure to read the label (to anyone, not just Dovie) for many do have salt and sugar and sauces, etc.

I just have VERY limited frozen food space as I live in an apartment and have no deep freeze.  I buy frozen veggies when space permits.

I am with you Sunnim, frozen grean beans are icky! So I guy canned green beans and pretty much everything else frozen. Watch out for those with sauces and added "butter."

I have been trying my best to avoid processed food. Which is proving to be impossible for me!  So I am doing LESS processed food. I used to pick up canned chicken for quick meals. Now I stock up on chicken breasts when they are on sale, throw them in the slow cooker, chop the meat and freeze it in zip lock bags. (Flatten them out you can fit a lot of meat into a little freezer).

Green beans can get wonky when frozen, yeah. 

In my experience the only frozen veggies that have salt and sugar added are the kind found in sauce or the like. Broccoli in cheese sauce is a good example. Which are obviously not on any sane person's diet.

texmom, I feel your pain about the apartment thing. Our freezer is busting at the seams with frozen veggies. But I can't help myself. They're $.80 a packet and there's so much to choose from! We're currently on a frozen veggie buying ban until we eat some of them up. haha

omg I had such an awesome post typed out earlier and I think I closed the browser before posting it!

K, let me think again....

I watch my fiber, saturated fat, and sodium. I pretty much don't really plan out fiber or sodium anymore, ebcause I got that down.

My basic meals keep me within 2400mg sodium a day (I see this as 2300, 2400, and 2500). The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2500mg per person a day - doesn't mater how many calorie diet. I don;t eat many things high in salt, or add salt to anything. But I know right away when I eat certain foods I have learned they are high in sodium - like beef jerky. I am watchful and stay under the 2400 almost every day now.

AHA Recommendation

Aim to eat less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day. Some people — African Americans, middle-aged and older adults, and people with high blood pressure — need less than 1,500 mg per day.

To illustrate, the following are sources of sodium in the diet.

1/4 teaspoon salt = 575 mg sodium

1/2 teaspoon salt = 1,150 mg sodium

3/4 teaspoon salt = 1,725 mg sodium

1 teaspoon salt = 2,300 mg sodium

1 teaspoon baking soda = 1000 mg sodium

As for sugar - I couldn't find any real source saying "no more than xxg per day sugar" However there is an amount of carbohydrates a day (and it all turns to sugar in the blood anyways), but on a 2,000 calorie diet, carbohydrates should be 300g or less. So, imo, for a 1200 calorie diet that would mean no more than 180g carbs (which is 60%) do 300/2000*calorie goal = carbs a day.

Mine for this month:
Daily Sodium Intake - 2,465 mg
Daily Sugar Intake - 40 grams

Beginning of the month I was hitting 180% sodium and I have brought it down to 2200 average last two weeks.

That sounds really good KDH.  I am not really watching sodium, but if I notice a little slide up on the scale, I drink more water the next day.

PS.  You know why there is no scale saying how much sugar is needed daily?  Because none is needed.  There is enough sugar in the veggies and fruit that no processed sugar is required.

We DO need some carbs, but I think you found that.