Top 5 Surprisingly High Sodium Foods

Lunchmeat and salty snacks are obvious. You might even know about canned and frozed foods. But what about these seemingly innocent grocery items? I have been shopping all over the grocery stores in Arizona to get the scoop on the grocery items you’d least expect to be high in sodium.

1. Chicken breasts. This was the biggest surprise of all. All the flash frozen chicken breasts I checked have over 300mg sodium per half-breast. Even most non-frozen chicken breasts are full of it. Sanderson Farms here in Arizona limits the levels to about 70-100mg per. Seeing the American Heart Association seal on some packages of chicken breasts seems misleading

2. Salsa. Here in Arizona, salsa is a very important condiment. Because it’s a condiment, the serving size is typically 2 tablespoons. So when there is about 240-270 mg sodium per serving, you’re getting a lot of sodium with your snacks and recipes. You can make your own (yummy but hard to keep), or just look in the organic aisle, which probably displays a few brands that are much lower in sodium

3. Spaghetti sauce. Back when I first started paying attention to my carbohydrates, I was surprised to learn that spaghetti sauce in a jar is often higher in carb than cooks would expect. But the real alarming statistic is the sodium–from 300-600 mg per 1/2 cup serving. I haven’t been able to find any brand that isn’t high in sodium. So I stocked up on sodium-free canned tomatoes and tomato sauce, and purchased some Italian seasoning with no sodium

4. Breads. You are probably aware that bread uses salt as part of its leavening process. So nearly all bread contains some sodium. But purchased breads really exploit the sodium. I did find good sodium-free bread with a reasonable amount of fiber at Trader Joe’s. Watch out for the sodium in English muffins, bagels, tortillas, and all the other breads, especially wraps. It’s ridiculous

5. Eggs. I’ve been buying the Egg Beaters product again so that I can have a quick and easy protein for breakfast–despite the weird taste. The sodium is about 115mg per serving, so I thought I could do better by separating the whites and yolks of real eggs instead. Besides, the taste is better. But hold on. One large egg contains about 90mg of sodium. That’s over 180mg sodium for two eggs. So if you can stand it, the Egg Beaters are a better deal, sodium-wise