SALT CONTENTS OF FOODS

Recently there has been an e-mail going around that mentions certain drinks and how much sugar they have, graphically representing it by sugar cubes.  It says someone should do this about salt (sodium).  I cannot supply the elegant pictures but I can tell you a lot about the sodium content of foods.

Incidentally, a low sodium diet is considered to be 1,100 mg/day sodium (but above 700 mg), about half the "normal day's allowance."

It is very difficult to get any prepared food that is both low sodium and low fat. The general rule is that any low or no fat food has higher sodium content than the full fat equivalent, perhaps to replace the loss of taste.

Sodium-rich Foods1. Bread is one of the worst things you can eat from a sodium standpoint - 1 normal slice = 300 mg. so two slices = 600 mg so two slices of regular sliced bread takes you more than half the way to a low sodium diet, and you haven't done anything to it yet. The best you can do (aside from making your own) is to buy thin-sliced bread like Arnold's Melba-Thin rye bread that cuts the sodium content in half.  English muffins (only one) is somewhat better also.  Italy used to be different.  They had a tax on salt so you used to be able (and maybe you still can) buy no-sodium added bread.
2. Five Mario Manzanilla pimento stuffed green olives contain 330 mg of sodium
3. Two tablespoons of Ken's light Caesar salad dressing is 320 mg of sodium.
4. Two tablespoons Kraft Thousand Island salad dressing is 270 mg of sodium.
5. Packaged cheese slices are very sodium rich.  For example, 1 sl of Borden's fat-free sharp cheddar cheese (21 gms or less than 1 oz) is 270 mg of sodium whereas 1 sl of their regular sharp cheddar cheese is 290 mg, but 1 oz of  Food Lion block sharp cheddar cheese (28 gm) is 180 mg of sodium.
6. Cold cuts are sodium rich, but if you search around, you may find some cold cuts are markedly less sodium rich than others.  Don't be surprised if the lower salt cold cuts turn out to be ham.

Reduced Sodium Foods
1.  You can find reduced sodium bacon.
2.  I kind of hate to say this but most desserts are low sodium.

Sodium-free foods:
(no food is completely sodium free and sodium free usually means no salt added)
A. Sweet-cream butter has no salt added so it is low in sodium.  Regular butter has 14 mg of sodium per tablespoon.
B. Frozen single vegetables  (e.g., just green beans or just peas) have no salt added, but frozen vegetable medleys (mixed carrots and green beans) or with sauce may have quite a bit of salt.  For example, 1 cup of fresh green beans or peas contains only 4 mg of sodium and will be listed on frozen packages as sodium free.
C. Prepared chicken or beef stock, no salt added, can be found, but chicken or beef broth will be loaded with sodium.
D. Rice is considered to be sodium free.
E. You can find no salt added dried potato flakes, but most powdered potato preparation are loaded with sodium.
F. Oil and vinegar salad dressings can be sodium free.  Balsamic vinegar, for example, is sodium free and I find no need to add the oil but oive oil is also sodium free.

There are sites on the internet that will give you the sodium content of natural foods.  One is by the Cleveland Clinic (that calls a low sodium diet to be less than 2000 mg rather than 1,100 mg as recommended in this post): http://my.clevelandclinic.org/healthy_living/nutrition/hic_low-sodium_diet_guidelines.aspx  Note that there value for American cheese is much larger than the value for block cheese given above.