Shopping for foods

So I was looking on BariatricPal and they have so many different choices for anything before or after your surgery!

I was looking at ordering some stuff just to get myself ahead and was looking at some pasta's and other meal items, I saw a pasta that has great ratings but its has 910mg of sodium per 1 serving! To me that sounds like a lot but I figured I would reach out to this site to get some opinions.

How much sodium is too much?

Thanks!

How do you know what your taste buds will be like by the time your on solids? I certainly wouldn't waste my money buying pasta pre surgery. I'm 3m in and can't stomach it lol. I can't predict what I can eat from week to week .. It changes so much

I agree. My mom took me grocery shopping about 4 days after my surgery. I stocked up on stuff for the full liquid and puréed diets, and I didn't use a lot of it. Also, I'm almost 6 weeks out, and in order to reach my protein goal (80g), my meals are mostly meat/eggs/dairy with a bite or two of a vegetable. I don't know the nutritional profile of the pasta you saw, I don't think I could fit in pasta and still hit that goal. I'd save it for further out from surgery.

Pasta is so high in carbs that it is something that I would only eat very, very rarely. Even after my stomach was ready for it, I'd rather have protein rich foods and a small amount of veggies. If I ever want pasta, I will just eat a small amount of the real stuff and not worry about the stats. I myself would have to be careful because high carb foods are so addictive for me. Try a low carb pizza sauce with parm on your veggies, it's really good.

Ya I'm not saying I'm looking into buy pastas I was more concerned about sodium levels for ALL a foods!

I think I read your question too fast, thought you were asking about pasta. Gwen brought up a good point, once you stop all the processed stuff, there isn't really too much sodium left.

Ah, sorry I zoned out and focused on the pasta part too .... This is what I have to say about salt.

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends that individuals consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day."

That is all.

I am 17 months post op and haven't had pasta of any kind since two weeks prior to surgery. No pasta, not even the gluten free, high protein, whole wheat, ect. I also have not had rice, potatoes or bread. I have had a few slices of sprouted grain bread, but maybe 2 in 17 months. My point is the best thing you can do for yourself from this point on is to think high protein, low carb and healthy fats. Please remember, this is my surgeon's recommendations and my opinion only. I don't know if you have a surgery date yet, even if you don't this is a good time to start exploring the different phases post op. I am by no means perfect, I have a major problem with granola right now and have had for a month or more. I have even fooled myself with the "healthy granola" options, but granola is granola and sugar is sugar:-) As the poster mentioned above, your taste changes after surgery too, it's so hard to know what you are going to like. Keep coming back and post lots of questions, OH has been such a wonderful source of information and support for me!

Only your doctor can advise you about sodium. Some people have legitimate conditions that require monitoring sodium intake, most people don't. I actually need to add salt to my food because once you take out the refined and processed crap from a diet, there isn't a lot of excess sodium.

While our RDAs for sodium is around 23-2400 mg per day max, this usually isn't too hard to maintain while we are losing due to the small amounts that we are eating. This product is fairly high in sodium (depending upon what a "serving" is) relative to other products.

I would look at sodium content on a label as an indication of how processed the product is. Most of the high levels of sodium that are typical of western diets these days comes not from salt that we add in cooking but from processing and preservatives (as in MSG - monosodiumglutamate). As Gwen notes, one might have to add salt to ones diet if you cut out the processed/packaged products (and avoid restaurants) or if one is particularly active and lose a lot in sweating (that's one of the reasons we see the occasional runner dropping dead during a marathon.)

So, "too much" is a relative thing to our sodium needs, but on an absolute scale, it can be a good indicator of something that isn't too good for us overall.