Sodium

I need to preface this by saying I am not a doctor, nor am I a nutritionist. I am nothing more than a patient who refuses to be uneducated about what is going on with MY body. 

Yesterday my family was out doing our normal weekly grocery shopping.  We stopped by Natural Grocer, looking for some fresh spices.  There was a nice gentlemen sitting pretty close to the entrance giving samples of bread.  The first thing my sister does is pick up the package and check out the sodium level and she let me know it was to high and for me not to try any.  The gentleman politely pointed out that the sodium was on the low side of the midrange.  We informed him I can’t have much sodium, I can have 1500 mg per day.  He seemed shocked about how “low” the number is.  What most people don’t realize is a “normal” person really shouldn’t have more than about 2,300 mg of sodium per day, not the typical 3,436 mg that is normally consumed.  If you are over 51, are African American, have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease you really should stay closer to 1,500 mg per day.  (http://www.cdc.gov/features/dssodium/)

With that all said, thanks to my dear friend lupus I fall into the category of kidney disease. I have had to keep a close eye on my sodium for at least a year now.  I wear a ring on both hands as a cheater’s way to keep an eye on if I am consuming too much sodium, if I have too much I swell up like a balloon. I found out very quickly that most of premade foods (to include items such as bread) are high in sodium and no one really pays any attention.  I admit, I love Chinese food, but I have to be so careful it isn’t even funny!