When is a food too high in sodium?

One of the things I notice about sodium, in people who are watching it, is that they often overdo what they restrict.  I think part of the problem has to do with the fact that sodim content is expressed in hundreds, and that sounds like a lot.  Here's my favorite rule for evaluating sodium content, which helps to put it into perspective.

Milligrams of sodium and total calories, over the course of a day, should be roughly about the same.  Here are some examples of foods that stand alone as being low sodium.

                                                           Calories                                                Mg sodium

Apple                                                                               65                                                               1
Carrot                                                                              52                                                             88
Rice                                                                               205                                                               2
Chicken breast, 3 oz.                                              231                                                           104
1% milk, 8 oz.                                                             102                                                           107
1 c avocado cubes                                                    240                                                             11
Peanuts, dry roasted, unsalted, 1 oz.               164                                                               2

Note that these are all foods that are pretty much occuring in their natural state, unadulterated.  Look what happens when you start to process food

Bread, 1 slice                                                                 120                                                            306
Salad dressing, commerical, Italian, 1 tsp          42                                                            240
Apple pie, 1 slice                                                          296                                                            332
Commercial chunky vegetable soup, 1 cup     108                                                            769
Peanuts, dry roasted, unsalted, 1 oz.                  164                                                            228
Lean Cuisine,chicken/vegetable, 1                      232                                                          633

And if you stop at a fast food restaurant for dinner!

Domino's thin crust 14" cheese pizza, 1 slice   123                                                            194
Papa John's, thin crust 14" pepperone 1 slice  270                                                          600
McDonald's Quarter Pounder                                  417                                                            730

You can see that the ratio between sodium and calories climbs up, the more processed the food.

You can also see that even a Quarter Pounder would fit into a day's sodium count, provided...and that's a very qualified provided (for those of you looking for someone like me to justify your fast food habit!)...the rest of the food you eat, the rest of the day, is pretty much unprocessed.  In my world, people either eat junk and fast food or they eat unprocessed food, and that kind of diligence simply isn't commonplace.

This is one of the reasons you hear so many nutrition experts advising to shop the perimeter of the store.  It's the sodium-poor region.