Sodium

A quick random thought:

Well, two things. First of all, if you avoid most processed foods, you should never have to worry about your sodium intake. The amount of salt you add while cooking is minuscule when compared to your average package of—well, just about anything. Like the Turkey Pesto Cranberry Baguette sandwich from Starbucks. A whopping 980 mg of sodium in one dinky sandwich! That’s nearly half of your daily recommended value.

Also, on our road trip to California, I bought some sunflower seeds. It’d been awhile since I had them. So delicious and fun to eat! (As Ramon pointed out, also very good at helping you stay awake while driving long stretches.) Randomly, I was checking out the nutrition facts on my David brand Jalapeno Hot Salsa Roasted and Salted Sunflower Seeds. I thought, geez, these have got to be high in sodium.

Not so! Only 55 mg of sodium per 1/4 cup serving! The average-size package I had included 2.5 servings, so if I ate the whole bag (which I think is impossible because your lips and tongue just may start to dissintegrate) you would only consume 5% of your daily recommended value of sodium. Doesn’t that seem odd? They’re so salty, while that Starbucks sandwich doesn’t taste salty at all.

Lesson: Beware the hidden junk in packaged/processed foods! And it pays to read the nutrition labels…