The front of a package tells you what the marketing team wants you to notice. The Nutrition Facts panel on the back tells you what is actually inside. When I work with clients who have been told to cut back on sodium, label reading is the first skill we practice, because it takes about thirty seconds once you know where to look.
Step 1: Check the serving size first
Every number on the panel is for one serving, not for the whole package. A can of soup that lists 480 mg of sodium per serving often holds two and a half servings. If you eat the whole can, you have taken in roughly 1,200 mg before the rest of your meal.
Step 2: Find the sodium line and the % Daily Value
Sodium is listed in milligrams, with a % Daily Value next to it. The Daily Value for sodium is 2,300 mg a day. A quick rule: 5% DV or less per serving is low, and 20% DV or more is high. The American Heart Association suggests an ideal limit of 1,500 mg for most adults, so a high sodium food uses up even more of your day than the percentage suggests. If you are not sure what your own number should be, the sodium budget in 5 Easy Tips for Starting a Low Sodium Diet walks through it.
Step 3: Learn what the front-of-package claims mean
These terms have set definitions, per serving:
- Sodium free: less than 5 mg
- Very low sodium: 35 mg or less
- Low sodium: 140 mg or less
- Reduced sodium: at least 25% less than the regular version of that food
- No salt added: no salt was added during processing, but the food can still contain sodium on its own
Reduced sodium is the one that trips people up. A reduced sodium soy sauce can still have more than 500 mg in a single tablespoon.
Step 4: Scan the ingredient list for sodium by other names
Salt is not the only source. Look for monosodium glutamate, sodium nitrite, sodium benzoate, sodium bicarbonate and disodium phosphate. Ingredients are listed by weight, so a sodium ingredient near the top of the list means the food leans heavily on it. Canned beans and vegetables are worth a mention here too. Draining and rinsing them under running water removes about 40 percent of the sodium.
Step 5: Compare two brands side by side
Pick up two jars of the same item and read both. Pasta sauce is a good test, because the same half cup can range from about 300 mg to over 700 mg depending on the brand. Choose the lower one and save the name in your phone, so you only have to do this comparison once. The same habit helps when you eat out, which I covered in Dining Out on a Low Sodium Diet.
