Sodium in Food

[Sunshine]

Last week we had a major scare with my 14 year old son. His calves were swelling so I took him to the doctor last Monday and after doing his initial exam, sent us to the Methodist ER saying it could possibly be a sign of renal failure. Not only were his calves swollen, but what we thought was puffy eyes from allergies was actually fluid retention. His blood pressure was 149/108 and his pulse was rapid. At the ER they ran blood and urine tests as well as an ultrasound and were set to do a biopsy, but the scan showed that it wasn't renal failure, thank God, so no biopsy.

We took him to a pediatric nephrologist who explained that this appears to be directly related to a strep infection that he probably had in the last 2-3 months that went untreated. All the things my son complained about....face puffy in the mornings, not being able to run, ankles/knees sore, shortness of breath, headaches...were all symptoms, which altogether you would think would alert you, but when they're presented days and weeks apart, I just didn't even think they were related. Looking back I could just kick myself for not taking him to the doctor sooner.

Ok...all this to get to the point! Part of the treatment is sodium and fluid restriction. No easy feat with a teenager used to putting extra salt on his McDonald's fries In reading labels, I was shocked at how much sodium is in everyday foods. Yeah, I know the obvious things to avoid: Ramen, hot dogs, processed lunch meats, etc. but would you think that eggs in the s have sodium? Yep, 65 mgs. One flour tortilla has 250 mgs and 2% milk has 100 mgs. I've done really good cooking low sodium and packing his lunch for school with tasty, low sodium stuff. I found some Lays products called "pinch of salt" that have about an 1/8th of the sodium of their regular chips, but I can't really taste the difference. I bought a couple of different varieties of Mrs. Dash and they taste just fine on hamburers, chicken, steak, potatoes, etc., but it's not easy trying to cook low sodium.

I have a new appreciation for those of you who have to follow restricted diets due to health concerns.

[remingtonbo2001]

It's good to hear he's doing okay.

In the long run, I'm sure your son will benefit greatly from a low sodium diet.

[boutons_]

yep, BigFood, including fastfood and restaurants use the cheap trick of as much salt and sugar in all their food-like substances.

S.A.D., Standard American Diet, causes disease and killing people.


As always, we get whipsawed by conflicting medical babble, left not knowing WTF is good or bad.


Here's a recent reversal on salt:


Cardiovascular Risk: Low Sodium Diets Might Be Worse Than High Salt Diets

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2008) — Contrary to long-held assumptions, high-salt diets may not increase the risk of death,
...
researchers actually observed a significantly increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) associated with lower sodium diets.
...
After adjusting for known CVD risk factors, such as smoking, diabetes and blood pressure, the one-fourth of the sample who reported consuming the lowest amount of sodium were found to be 80% more likely to die from CVD compared to the one-fourth of the sample consuming the highest level of sodium. The risk for death from any cause appeared 24% greater for those consuming lower salt, but this latter difference was not quite large enough to dismiss the role of chance.
...
"Our findings suggest that for the general adult population, higher sodium is very unlikely to be independently associated with higher risk of death from CVD or all other causes of death,"


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0515171020.htm


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How many decades have we been hearing "avoid salt"?

ain't science great!

Good luck with your kid, and hope diagnosis is the correct one.

Be easy on yourself. Loower-leg edema has many causes, sometimes very hard to say which it is.

(My daughter had essentially your son's symptoms. Endocrinologist thought it was thyroid. Couldn't stabilize it in 2 years. So out the thyroid came. A month later, in the hospital with her first-full blown SLE crisis. It had been SLE all along, attacking her thyroid. That was 5 years ago, full remission since. SLE is a to diagnose. Symptoms vary all over the park from victim to victim, and even overtime in one victim.)

To get his undoubtedly recalcitrant ass back in line, I'd suggest a raw foods diet rather than keep feeding him the same old stuff but trying to fake him out with fake salt.

For all the inane, useless diet/nutrition babble out there, you could do a lot worse following nutrition in the Rosedale Diet book, $6.50 used on Amazon. Has recipes. Read the reviews.

But your kid may be too addicted to S.A.D to follow it.

[Sunshine]

One of the first things the nephrologist ruled out was nephrotic lupus,thankfully. I'm so glad your daughter's seen full remission. After deciding it was NOT renal failure, she thought it might be nephrotic syndrome, but when all the blood tests were completed, it was clear that this was caused by a recent strep infection that we didn't know he had. Post-infectious Glomerulonephritis is what she called it. We see her again in a week and if he keeps improving at the rate he has been, then she will stick with her diagnosis.

Yeah about that raw food diet. Try as I might, it's gonna take a miracle. The only veggies he'll eat are corn and potatoes, however he'll eat a wide variety of fruits. BUT, the doc said to watch his fruit intake because so many of them are 'watery' and we have to take that into consideration with his 1 liter per day fluid rule. Not easy.

I will check out the book, most definitely. One of the things we've said since this happened is that we can ALL benefit from a lower sodium diet.

[BigZak]

glad your kid is okay sunshine...

[Sunshine]

glad your kid is okay sunshine...

Me too! Thanks.

[Dex]

Ditto for your son. That's some scary stuff.

I recently started watching my sodium intake a little more. I used to be really bad about it. I was one of those people that would add salt to anything. And you're right, everything you buy seems to be packed with the stuff!

I find some days, if I'm not careful, I can be hitting that 100% DV mark by lunchtime.

Avoiding frozen foods, packaged snacks, and eating out seems to help a lot. It's hard to find a lot of decent alternatives on the greasy fast food, but there are lots of good natural snacks and es out there once you get out and find them.

Here's a decent list of common high sodium foods to avoid that I came across a while back. Some of them are even kinda surprising.

http://www.meniett.com/dietary_treat...gh_sodium.html

Wow, I must be bored at work if you've got me talking sodium.

[samikeyp]

Glad to hear your son is ok.

He's 14 now? Damn!

[mrsmaalox]

Sunshine how is your boy doing? I have a 14 yr old son too and I know it's difficult to determine if anything is wrong because they are so "stoic"! And it's kinda like they stop talking and just grunt. How long does he have to be fluid restricted? I can't imagine how rough that one is in this weather! Hang in there,girl!!

[Sunshine]

Ditto for your son. That's some scary stuff.

I recently started watching my sodium intake a little more. I used to be really bad about it. I was one of those people that would add salt to anything. And you're right, everything you buy seems to be packed with the stuff!

I find some days, if I'm not careful, I can be hitting that 100% DV mark by lunchtime.

Avoiding frozen foods, packaged snacks, and eating out seems to help a lot. It's hard to find a lot of decent alternatives on the greasy fast food, but there are lots of good natural snacks and es out there once you get out and find them.

Here's a decent list of common high sodium foods to avoid that I came across a while back. Some of them are even kinda surprising.

http://www.meniett.com/dietary_treat...gh_sodium.html

Wow, I must be bored at work if you've got me talking sodium.

Thanks. That's a good list, lots of surprises! I think the one that shocked me the most were the eggs. I would think an egg straight from the s without anything added would have zero sodium, but I was wrong!

We haven't done fast food in over a week, but we are going out to dinner tonight at Alamo Cafe, so I'm going to have to really choose carefully. I might ask if they would prepare just a grilled chicken breast with nothing on it and bring my Mrs. Dash in my purse

[Sunshine]

Glad to hear your son is ok.

He's 14 now? Damn!

Thanks mikey.

Yep....well, he will be in June (close enough!). He graduates 8th grade and will be in high school next year. Hard to believe!

[Sunshine]

Sunshine how is your boy doing? I have a 14 yr old son too and I know it's difficult to determine if anything is wrong because they are so "stoic"! And it's kinda like they stop talking and just grunt. How long does he have to be fluid restricted? I can't imagine how rough that one is in this weather! Hang in there,girl!!

He's doing fine now, thanks. He responded immediately to the fluid and sodium restriction and lost about 7 pounds in 2 days.

He actually had been fairly vocal about random ailments the past couple of months, but I passed them off as growing pains, or allergies because they weren't all at once, just here and there. He'd come home from school and say his legs hurt. Or he'd wake up with a puffy face, and I assumed it was allergies. Headache here and there. Slight nausea, diahhrea, all easy to explain away. But they were all signs, they just didn't happen all at once.

His fluid/sodium restriction is until we see the nephrologist on June 4th. If he's doing ok, she'll take him off fluid restriction all together, but of course wants us to continue with the sodium restriction, just not at such a strict level. He's supposed to stick to a liter of fluids a day, but she said to use common sense: if he is outside alot, increase it by 8-10 oz and she suggested him drinking little amounts at a time rather than gulping down 16 oz of water at once. He's been doing ok....I send a 6 oz bottle and he refills it a couple of times at school, then once he gets home, he can have half a soda with dinner if he wants and he usually drinks a little more water later.