Congenital Heart Defects / Heart Failure

As mentioned in my Bio and in my Medical History, I was born with heart issues.

The word Sodium, or Low Sodium, is drilled into my head. This is a hard concept to grasp, as well as abide by everyday while still wanting to eat healthy for your heart.

Sodium is all around us and in just about everything we eat – especially processed and restaurant foods. With my diet the way it is, I am required to stick to 1,500 mg – 2,000 mg sodium a day. Like one of my posts indicated earlier on, this was extremely hard to wrap my head around that I would be able to “eat” food and enjoy it. My first reaction was, “I can’t eat anything! Why try?”

This page is dedicated to the facts of why too much sodium in your diet is bad for ANYONE, not just heart patients and people with high blood pressure.

Below will be links to articles that I come across while researching my own medical condition to try to continue to improve my diet.

Guidelines for a Low Sodium Diet

A main source of sodium is table salt. The average American eats five or more teaspoons of salt each day. This is about 20 times as much as the body needs. In fact, your body needs only 1/4 teaspoon of salt every day. Sodium is found naturally in foods, but a lot of it is added during processing and preparation. Many foods that do not taste salty may still be high in sodium. Large amounts of sodium can be hidden in canned, processed and convenience foods. And sodium can be found in many foods that are served at fast food restaurants… To continue to the site, click here.

Source: University of California – San Francisco Medical Center
http://www.ucsfhealth.org/education/guidelines_for_a_low_sodium_diet/