Sodium

Hello Has anyone been told to watch your sodium. If so how much sodium should we have. My doc eally has not mentioned to me anything abou****ching it, but I think that I should

I am not sure the answer but when you increase your sodium intake you need to increase your fluid in take. Amanda

Neither my surgeon nor the hospital program's nutritionist specifically discussed sodium. However, I have hypertension AND retain water like crazy, and thus watch my sodium intake carefully. FitDay's Foods page doesn't track your sodium, but you can set it as a custom nutrition goal (click on the Goals icon) and see your intake by clicking on the Reports icon. The general guideline is to stay under 2000mg daily, but that's incredibly difficult if you eat any processed foods. Four ounces of Vienna sausages, for example, contains about 1000mg of sodium.

I'm a newer post-op than you; but my doctor said not to worry about the sodium right now. I'm not sure when I should watch it, but I agree that your fluid intake should be maximized with the sodium intake. I'd just ask at the next visit. Hope this helps.

I don't think sodium is a huge issue with "us." Since our food intake is greatly decreased, so is our sodium intake. I don't think we would normally exceed the recommended amount of sodium.

Speak for yourself! I can exceed a week's recommended allowance of sodium with just one little deviled egg! Salt is my great weakness. Give up sugar? No problem. No more soda ever? Hey, I can live with that. But take away my salt and you're living dangerously... I'm trying but it's very difficult, especially at this food stage where few of the legal foods have any actual flavor.

I stand corrected, mea culpa.

P. Kitty - I agree. I love salt. I've been loading these bland week-1 and -2 foods with salt just to give some flavor! My surgeon and nutritionist said nothing about sodium, so I sprinkle away!

I'm trying to cut back on salt and substitute other flavoring, but it's a perpetual battle! The salt-free seasonings from Mrs. Dash are pretty good on meats and veggies (especially the garlic and herb), but they do little for "food" like low-fat cream soup (yet another thing I will never, ever eat again, along with cottage cheese and Jell-O).

I was told that I really didn't need to worry about sodium right now because my body isn't really digesting it. It kinda runs right thru. Later on, however, I will have to be more careful, but right now, my body is more worried about protein and sugar than sodium. JMTC