Restaurant Food, Sodium and weight gain

[Over43]

I mentioned this briefly in my daily journal, but thought about expanding it here a bit.

I took my wife to an early Valentine's dinner at Applebee's on Friday evening. We got the spinach dip and chips as an appetizer, and I got 1/2 rack of baby back ribs with the coleslaw and fries.

I recall telling her as we were eating the appetizer that it had a lot of salt in it.

Saturday morning I woke up and my hands were swollen.

The amount of sodium in that dinner must have been eipc? It made me wonder how many of us are "artificially" heavier than we should be due to the amount of salt in our food intake?

[wosnes]

I went to Applebee's web site and looked at the nutritional information. I'm assuming that the chips are included in the nutritional information for the spinach and artichoke dip and also that the fries and cole slaw are included with the half rack of ribs. If not the sodium content of this meal will be even higher.

There was a range for both dishes and the total came to 3950-4780 mg of sodium. That's 2-3 days worth of sodium (depending on whether you're using the old or new guidelines) in one meal.

This is why I rarely eat at fast/casual chain restaurants and limit my use of processed and prepared foods. It's also why I use Kosher or sea salt instead of table salt. Equal volumes of Kosher or sea salt has less sodium than table salt.

One trick I've learned -- if I eat food that I suspect/know is higher in sodium, I drink more water. It flushes it out.

[Nicest of the Damned]

Looking through their nutritional information, it looks like most of what Applebee's serves has more than a day's worth of sodium. Even the low-calorie and Weight Watchers items are high in sodium. Other casual chain restaurants are similar, at least the ones I've looked at nutritional info for.

One solution is to make dishes like the ones the restaurants make at home. I make a version of the spinach and artichoke dip. If you have a food processor and can get frozen artichoke hearts, frozen chopped spinach, and whipped cream cheese, it's not hard at all. It's pretty much just artichoke hearts, spinach, cream cheese, and some Parmesan. Some people also add a little chicken stock or, one of my favorites, some of the kind of hot pepper flakes they have at pizza restaurants. If you make it yourself, you can make it heavy on the veggies and light on the cream cheese, and serve it with unsalted or lightly salted homemade pita chips. That makes it have a lot less sodium and more fiber than the version you'd get in a restaurant.

If you want to cut down on your sodium, one of the most effective ways to go about it for most Americans would be to cut down on eating out and on eating processed foods at home. The American Heart Association says that 75% of the sodium that Americans eat comes from processed foods (I don't know if this includes restaurant food or not). No S would probably help, too, since a lot of snacks are salty, and only one helping of food at a meal is going to have less sodium than two or more helpings of the same food.

[wosnes]

If you want to cut down on your sodium, one of the most effective ways to go about it for most Americans would be to cut down on eating out and on eating processed foods at home. The American Heart Association says that 75% of the sodium that Americans eat comes from processed foods (I don't know if this includes restaurant food or not).

As I've mentioned before, I have congestive heart failure. My cardiologist told me that he didn't care how much salt I used in cooking or at the table, but I needed to stay away from processed and prepared foods and fast/casual chain restaurant foods. The only time I've ever had problems with the CHF is when I've eaten at fast/casual chain restaurants.

[Over43]

My grandpa had that about 20 years ago. He's 91 now. Good luck to you Wosnes.

[Nicest of the Damned]

Someone tried (unsuccessfully) with the help of the Center for Science in the Public Interest to sue Denny's over the sodium content of their food:

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/ ... h-its-salt

If I were getting noticeable symptoms after eating at these places, like my hands swelling up, I would not eat at them any more. Just my $0.02 worth.

[Over43]

I very seldom eat out, money being the first reason, we had a $25 coupon from Christmas. The ribs were good.

[Sienna]

One of the reasons that I weigh daily is to monitor things like this. I can actually see on the scale what happens when I go crazy on the salt. I've been eating out a lot lately (we are moving - so fast food/takeout/processed easy meals have been our default), and I can feel the water retention in my hands and I can see it on my weight chart. But seeing it actually encourages me to drink more water to help flush my system.

Overall, I know that eventually I'll settle back to normal.

[exdieter]

Equal volumes of Kosher or sea salt has less sodium than table salt.

Good factoid, wosnes! I had no idea! And it tastes better than table salt!

[kccc]

My mom is on a low sodium diet. It's not THAT low if you look at the dietary recommendations - 2000 mg/ day.

But most of us don't really stick to that, and she HAS HAS HAS to. It's imperative for her health at this point.

It is astoundingly hard. We cook almost everything for her from scratch. The most difficult thing is that she pretty much cannot eat out at all anymore.

[Over43]

My MD told me sometime ago that sea salt and table salt are both the same: Na

I found this at the Mayo Clinic website:

"Sea salt vs. table salt: Which is healthier?Is sea salt better for your health than table salt?
Answer
from Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D.
Sea salt and table salt have the same basic nutritional value — both mostly consist of two minerals — sodium and chloride. However, sea salt is often marketed as a more natural and healthy alternative. The real differences between sea salt and table salt are in their taste, texture and processing, not their chemical makeup.

Sea salt is produced through evaporation of seawater, usually with little processing, which leaves behind some trace minerals and elements depending on its water source. These insignificant amounts of minerals add flavor and color to sea salt, which also comes in a variety of coarseness levels.

Table salt is mined from underground salt deposits. Table salt is more heavily processed to eliminate trace minerals and usually contains an additive to prevent clumping. Most table salt also has added iodine, an essential nutrient that appears naturally in minute amounts in sea salt.

By weight, sea salt and table salt contain about the same amount of sodium chloride. Your body needs only a couple hundred milligrams (mg) a day to stay healthy, but most people get far too much — mostly from sodium in processed foods. So regardless of which type of salt you prefer, keep sodium consumption between 1,500 and 2,300 mg of sodium a day if you're a healthy adult. People with high blood pressure, African-Americans and anyone middle-aged or older should aim for the low end of that range. "

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sea-salt/AN01142

When my wife had thyroid cancer (I guess once you get it you always have thyroid cancer) her specialist had her use Kosher salt, not because there was a difference in sodium content, butKosher salt has no iodine, and one of the treatments for thyroid cancer is to starve the body of iodine for a period of time, and hen introduce radiocative iodine back into the body so the cancer cells "hog" it.

[wosnes]

Neither Kosher salt or sea salt is healthier than iodized table salt, but in equal volumes there is less sodium because the grains are larger. In cooking it's recommended to use 1½-2 teaspoons of Kosher or sea salt for every teaspoon of iodized salt called for. I don't -- I use the same amount.

They both also have a "cleaner" taste than iodized table salt -- probably due to the iodine and anti-caking agents added to iodized table salt.