My mom is now home from the hospital after her latest bout with congestive heart failure. So it’s once again time to switch her to a low sodium diet. For the record, mom, eating reduced sodium potato chips and reduced sodium processed ham is not considered a low sodium diet. In fact, it’s rather difficult to stay below the recommended U.S. dietary guidelines of consuming 1,500 to 2,300 milligrams of salt daily. It’s almost impossible if you want to eat out.
According to the Institute of Medicine, the average salt consumption in the U.S. is approximately 3,400 milligrams a day. Some experts put U.S. daily salt consumption as high as 8,500 milligrams a day. That’s way more than the 1,500 milligrams (less than 3/4ths of a table spoon) recommended by my mom’s cardiologist.
Seems my mom though shrimp was a low sodium food. It’s not if it comes into contact with sodium solutions during processing. Bottom line, one doesn’t always know the sodium content of what one is eating. What I do know is a shrimp po’boy was the last meal my mom had before her heart slowed and she filled with water.
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If you need to watch your sodium intake (and we all should), here is a list of valuable resources:
Find out what's happening in Canton-Sixeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Find out nutrition content of your next meal: Fatsecret.com: Nutrition Content
If you’d like to find out how much salt you ingest daily, go to Project Big Life: Sodium and take the quiz.
