Even if you avoid using the salt shaker and foods with obvious sodium content, such as peanuts and potato chips, you still could be consuming sodium from a variety of food sources. Sodium occurs naturally and as an additive in foods. Checking nutrition labels can help keep your daily sodium intake below the daily recommended limit of less than 2,300 mg for adults up to age 50 and 1,500 mg for adults 51 and older.
Canned, Frozen and Prepared Foods
Bread, bagels, pasta, pizza and other prepared foods are high in sodium. Canned vegetables, soups, sauces, broth and other canned goods contain high amounts of sodium, as do ready-to-eat meals and prepared frozen foods. Cold cuts, potato chips, hotdogs, bacon, cheese and fast foods also make the high-sodium list. To illustrate just how much sodium a canned or frozen food contains over its natural counterpart, Encyclopedia.com cites peas as an example. You would need to eat 333 cups of fresh green peas to consume 0.5 mg of sodium, which is the minimum recommended daily intake. That same amount of sodium is found in 1.4 cups of canned peas or 2.9 cups of frozen peas.
Additives
Ketchup, mustard, relish and other condiments and flavoring generally contain high amounts of sodium. Soy sauce, which now comes in a low-salt version, is notorious for sodium content, with 1 tbsp. of the regular version packed with 1,000 mg of sodium. Other sauces, dips and salad dressings are have high levels of sodium.
Natural Foods
Like the peas, most natural foods contain low amounts of sodium, although even low amounts add to your overall daily intake. All vegetables contain sodium, as does all meat, shellfish and dairy products, such as milk and cheese. Drinking water can have high levels of sodium if you use a home water softening system.
Labels
Choosing a food labeled "unsalted" or "no salt added" does not guarantee the product is sodium-free. It only means that no additional salt was added during processing. If the product has ingredients that contain, the product still has that sodium. Descriptions on labels can tell you something the sodium content. "Salt-free" means a single serving of the product has less than 5 mg of sodium; "very low sodium" means 35 mg or less per serving; and "low sodium" means 40 mg or less per serving. Other labels proclaim "reduced sodium," which means the product has 25 percent less sodium than its regular version, and "lite sodium," which means a product has 50 percent less sodium than its regular version.
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