The Scoop on Sodium

This past week I was talking with a member, and she made a comment about how much sodium there was in diet soda. Frankly, this surprised me. When people pooh-pooh diet soda, it's generally not because of the sodium content. I am by no means an expert on sodium - I've never had to really pay attention to my intake - it's something that's just background noise for me. So I decided to look into it, and I'm sharing some of my findings with you.

Sodium - it's an element that our bodies need to function properly. The body uses it to regulate blood pressure and blood volume. Our muscles and nerves also apparently need it. But too much sodium can have negative effects. It can raise blood pressure, and for those with congestive heart failure or kidney disease it can lead to fluid build-up. Those with high blood pressure are at higher risk for heart disease and stroke, so sodium is definitely an area of concern.

How much is enough? The dietary guidelines published by the US Government recommend no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium each day. Folks with high blood pressure and other at-risk groups should have even less. 2,300 milligrams of sodium is the equivalent of 1 teaspoon of table salt. That's not a whole lot!

Now that I've set the stage, let's get back to the diet soda. It turns out that the USDA has a nutrient database (that you can see for yourself here) and you can view sodium content for all sorts of foods sorted either alphabetically or by sodium content.

I set out to find not only the diet soda, but some other exciting examples. From lowest to highest, here are some selected items:

0mg - 1.5 ounces of 90 proof alcohol (gin, vodka, whiskey, rum)
15mg - 12 ounces of cola containing caffeine
28mg - 12 ounces of low calorie soda containing caffeine
39mg - 1 boiled beet
50mg - 1 raw carrot
104mg - 1 slice reduced-calorie white bread
206mg - 1 plain hamburger bun
316mg - 1 ounce feta cheese
402mg - 2 slices dry salami
513mg - 1 beef frankfurter
718mg - 1 cup canned garbanzo beans
918mg - 1 cup lowfat cottage cheese
1010mg - 1 cup canned vegetable soup
1108mg - 1 fast food cheeseburger (with condiments and vegetables)
1323mg - 1 cup home-prepared potato salad
1560mg - 1 cup canned sauerkraut
2325mg - 1 teaspoon table salt
3132mg - 1 packet dehydrated onion soup mix**

So there you have it. Diet soda? Not sodium-free, but in fact it is low enough in sodium per serving that the FDA allows the manufacturers to claim it is a low sodium beverage - check for it the next time you see a can of Diet Coke. But some of these items above surprise me. I think most people figure canned soup and sauerkraut is going to be salty. But cottage cheese? And even a raw carrot! Most fruits and vegetables show up on the database way at the end, with fewer than 10mg of sodium.

The biggest contributor to sodium content is salt that is added - mostly during food processing, rather than salt that occurs naturally. Frozen foods, canned foods, prepared foods and the like are pretty much uniformly higher in sodium than their fresh counterparts. If you need to reduce your sodium intake, those are the labels you definitely need to be reading.

And that, kids, is what you get when I do about 30 minutes of high quality internet research! Got a health-related question like this that you'd like me to tackle? Let me know, and I'll do the Google legwork for you. :)


** This amuses me - I know the serving size is different, but all I can think of is "Onion soup mix - it's saltier than salt!" I'm sure the ad wizards at Lipton will be stealing that from me shortly.



Sources of information include the American Heart Association, the National Institutes of Health, and the US Department of Agriculture websites. I also discovered you can download the full 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans - an 80+ page PDF - from the Department of Health & Human Services website. I haven't read it all yet, but just you wait!