Excess Sodium

Food Sources Amoun t of Nutrien t Servin g Size Effect on Health

Meat Lasagna

1250m 350g g

Increased risk of Hypertension

Apple Muffin Hamburg er

397mg 2 items 520mg 1 burge r

Poor electrolyte balance with Potassium (Leading to muscle cramps, poor appetite, confusion, etc.) Increased risk of Stroke

Dietary Change #1 Decrease consumption of store-bought, frozen entrees. I have a tendency to consume a lot of storebought frozen entrees, in the case of my Diet Analysis, we had a lot of Frozen Lasagna. These are typically very high in sodium, and the easiest way to lose it is to just cut down on it. If I were to decrease my consumption of Lasagna over the 3 day period (700g) by half, I would have 350g of Lasagna. This decreases the amount from 2500mg to 1250mg from Sodium, and puts my average sodium intake at (3100mg-1250mg =) 1850mg over 3 days. The new DV would be 123% from 207%.

Dietary Change #2 Seek to include less processed foods as opposed to more. This problem comes up frequently because many times, it's cheaper, and more convenient to just buy food that's been processed. Had I removed the hamburger, or even better, made my own, the sodium content in my diet would've been reduced dramatically. A lean burger patty has about 80mg of sodium in it, as opposed to the 520mg in a store-bought one. (520-80 =) 440mg less, which means over the 3 day period (440mg/3day = 146.7mg/3days) (3100mg-146.7mg = 2953.3mg) which decreases the %DV from 206.7% to (2953mg/1500mg *100% =) 197%. Note that this is from one burger, making these choices regularly would reduce the sodium intake dramatically.