Dear Sue:

I was told to stick to a low-sodium diet, below 500mg per serving. That seems like a lot to me. Most items that I eat are way below that number; is that good or bad? How much is too much per serving? Thanks for your help,
Cindy

Dear Cindy:

Despite the bad press sodium often gets, it is essential to life, and you do need some every day. Sodium is necessary:

• to maintain the proper fluid balance in your body
• to regulate blood pressure
• to transmit nerve impulses
• to help muscles, including the heart, relax

About 500mg of sodium a day is considered the least you need. That's 1/4 teaspoon of table salt. There is no official recommended daily intake for sodium. However, healthy individuals are advised to limit sodium intake to 2,400mg, and that figure is used for determining the percent daily value for sodium on food labels.

FACT: Most people's bodies get rid of excess sodium in their diet. However, some people must follow a low-sodium diet because they are sensitive to sodium and too much can lead to high blood pressure.

Consult with your physician for clarification about the advice you got. What is meant by serving? Is it one meal, or one food? If every serving of food you ate contained 400 mg. of sodium, by the end of the day you could be well over the recommended amount of sodium for a healthy individual, yet you would have still followed the advice. If 500mg per meal was meant, you would get 1,500mg a day, which would be far more healthy.

Find out the recommended amount of sodium you can safely eat each day. Then you can ration that allotment over the several different foods you eat so as to have more choices. It may be that a registered dietitian can help you fit the advice into your eating plan.

If it is high blood pressure that you are looking to control, check out the advice given by our own registered dietitian, Lynn Greiger.

Good luck and thanks for the question,
Sue Gilbert, M.S., nutritionist