[12:30pm]
My Salt Intake Is HOW HIGH???
I've had the strange feeling that my salt intake has been too high. This is going to be impossible to explain without sounding nuts, but when I have too much salt, it feels like my blood is thick. Even when I drink lots of water, I still feel thick inside. So, I just checked CK's fantastic mineral consuption chart; and to quote noted nutritionist Chris Farley: "Holy Shnikes".

I hover around 6000mg per day - which is easily 2000 mg higher than the already-too-high average American intake of 4000mg. I eat a very healthy diet with lots of fruits and veggies - so where the heck is all the sodium coming from?

Soup, Tuna and Cottage Cheese
Oh.

For lunch I have 8-12 oz of potatoes (fresh) with soup and tuna.

Tunafish has about 500 mg of sodium per serving. I eat a full can, which is 2.5 servings or 1250mg. Soup is the real killer. Processed foods are just loaded with sodium, and soup is no exception. The Progresso minnestrone that I bought has about 1000mg of sodium per serving and I eat the whole can, which is 2 servings.

All totaled, my healthy lunch has 3250mg of sodium.

The fat free cottage cheese that I have as a snack is 400 mg per serving and I eat 4 servings per day for 1600mg sodium.

These are my staple foods! Aack! I can probably get rid of soup and replace it with different veggies... and I could probably swap tuna for chicken breast, but cottage cheese? NOOooooo!

So... Is this really a problem?
I've heard so many sound bites regarding salt intake over the years, some say 2500mg of sodium or less per day, others say it doesn't matter. Here is some interesting info (from reputable sources).

Salt Institute says intake over 2500 per day is OK... Trustworthy? Probably not...
The "Salt Institute" www.saltinstitute.org is the leader in the charge that salt quantities for non-hypertensive individuals is not a concern. It's really hard to take them at their word since they are funded by food industries which have a financial interest in seeing the continued use of salt.

"If You Sweat A Lot, You Don't Need to Worry About Salt Intake" - FALSE
I remember a trainer years ago telling me that as long as I'm sweating for an hour a day, I don't have to worry about my salt intake. This is dubious advice at best. According to a "myths" page at the UK Food Standards Agency, we only lose a little bit of salt through sweat.
http://www.salt.gov.uk/salt_myths.html

But One Time...
That said, I remember one time where I completely sweatted myself out of salt. I used to ride my bicycle 100+ miles on the weekends when I was in college. One 90 degree summer day, I was trying to complete the last 10 miles of a 126 mile trip when I suddenly ran completely out of energy. I only had water in my bottle, no gatorade... and I was rapidly headed for heat exhaustion.

I was absolutely wringing with sweat, but something was strange. The underside of my forearms had lines of white powdery salt where sweat had dried... but the new sweat I was producing wasn't salty! It was bizarre! I was sweating water!

I had absolutely no energy. In fact, I could barely walk. Fortunately, I had reached the frontier of the urban landscape, and was next to a gas station. I bought a quart of gatorade and drank it down. Minutes later, I was reinvigorated enough to ride the remaining 10 miles home.

So was I rescued by the calories? Partially, but what I believe really happened, was my body received a good healthy dose of salt and potassium. When those nutrients were reintroduced, my cells were able to receive and use energy.

The Sodium-Potassium Pump
To go bio-nerd for a moment, sodium and potassium act like keys that allow molecules (like glucose) to move across cell membranes. (Here is a nifty flash animation that demonstrates this action: http://www.brookscole.com/chemistry_d/templates/student_resources/shared_resources/animations/ion_pump/ionpump.html)

Anywho...

A Diet Rich in Potassium Blunts the Effects of Sodium on Hypertension - TRUE
That subtitle is a quote from the USDA's dietary guidelines http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/html/chapter8.htm.
Americans don't eat nearly enough potassium. Recommended daily intake is 4,700 mg per day, but the typical American consumes half that amount.

Because sodium and potassium work together in the body, a diet high in sodium will benefit from an increase in potassium, magnesium and calcium.

Morton's Salt Substitute is Pure Potassium
If you find "sodium-free salt substitute" at your local grocery store, odds are good that its primary ingredient is potassium. I just bought a shaker of Morton's Salt Substitute which has 640mg of potassium per 1/2 teaspoon. I try to mix it in with everything - including my high sodium soup and tuna concoction.

Bottom Line: I'm going to try increasing my potassium intake until I can find a way to get soup and tuna out of my lunchtime meal.