Canned food Sodium

[Bendrx]

Can goods are great, they store well and are easy to put away. Unless you have to carry them they're great. The problem is there is yyyy to much sodium in them. Let's say Indianapolis got 5 feet of snow overnight and kept on snowing for a month. I'd be living off my stores and that is largely canned goods. Many of the things that aren't canned also have a lot of sodium. I know it helps them keep, but are there any ways to reduce the intake via preparation.

For example: 1 can of spinach (13.5 oz) has 600mg of Sodium.
1 can of carrots (14.5 oz) has 1.295g! of Sodium

I expect that rinsing those well would remove some sodium, but how much?

1 can of beef stew (24 oz) has 3.24g of Sodium
1 can of chicken and dumplings (24 oz) has 3.54g of Sodium

I don't plan on rinsing beef stew or chicken and dumplings. I would say drain off the extra sauce liquid or at least don't eat it. But any thoughts on non-rinseables?


Looking around on the web gives the obvious answer - eat less of it. But is there a way to reduce what's actually consumed or absorbed? Any naturalish ways to reduce absorbtion or counter sodium? Fresh produce is out because it doesn't sit on a shelf for very long. I'm thinking the trick would be to just add a single serving to a cup of rice or beans. I haven't gotten the whole nutrition thing worked out yet, but the sodium seems to be a huge issue. I'm trying to both improve my current diet (which wont be hard as bad as it is) and find things that store well. I like my 2012/3 expiration dates. I know it will be gone well before then, but I still like it.

How to Rinse Salt From Canned Foods | eHow.com - eHow is great, they reccomend putting them under the faucet and stiring well.

"rinsing them in a food strainer can reduce sodium content by 50%"

Ok, got my answer on the canned veggies, any tricks for the non rinsables? Seems like the answer is no. One place spoke of tuna and most of the sodium couldn't be removed.

 

[irishfan]

As far as emergency preps and food stores for that I don't see the need or real want to reduce sodium. Why is it that you want to eliminate with food stores sodium? However, as far as everyday diet you do want to limit the sodium you take in since we have plentiful food and water supplies and its not hard to mix in a whopper instead of a nice salad

 

[POC]

Just drink plenty of extra water...although that is gonna be hard to do during an emergency... catch 22.
The real problem with this is people that have heart or kidney problems. They can't stand the sodium.
We have had to go to frozen and home canned vegetables with my wife's illness.

 

[Bendrx]

The idea being that these are the foods I regularly eat and rotate out. So my SHTF diet shouldn't be too disimilar to my ignorant bliss diet. If the world ends, I still intend to eat well, least for a while.

I don't track my water consumption, but that's generally what I drink at work and home. Work does call for some Mountain Dew at times which is like liquid cancer I bet, I know they aren't much healthier than that. The water thing is a concern with the veggies. The 50% number, which I'm skeptical of, says 5 minutes of rinse with running water. My water supply would be greatly reduced if I did that. I was think I would end up draining the can, filling it about 1/2 way with water and swishing it around, drain and repeat one more time. I expect if a full on rinse is 40%, the amount redueced by what I described would be at least 30%.

 

[irishfan]

Ben, I understand where you are coming from but one thing to remember is that you won't have Mountain Dew and a LOT of other sugar and sodium loaded items if you are living off of your stores. Also, you will need that sodium if you are doing a lot of sweating if you are walking, gathering, defending, hoarding or even procreating However, you will burn through a lot of water as well but don't overlook the need for salt in your diet if you are in a survival situation. As far as vegetables go I would NOT use my water supply to rinse them to get sodium off but rather just peel and a quick rinse before cooking.

 

[Keith_Indy]

Loose some pounds, get more exercise, and that extra sodium shouldn't be a major concern...

Goes for me to.

 

[ATOMonkey]

You can buy canned goods that are low in sodium.

But sodium is very helpful in a survival situation as pointed out above. In fact, sodium can help you retain water and prevent dehydration and heat stroke as the body attempts to maintain the proper salinity levels. In other words, the more salt you eat, the more water your body can absorb.

 

[Kelevra TAR-21]

How long past the expiration date will canned food still be OK to eat?

 

[ATOMonkey]

There really is not expiration on canned food. Just recommended "sell by" dates, which are pretty much just stock rotation dates.

It's sealed, and heavily salted, and full of other preservatives. There really isn't much that can go wrong that hasn't gone wrong already. It should be free of bacteria and anything else that would make it "go bad." If it wasn't canned properly at the factory, then it would go bad in a matter of days and you'd know when you opened it because it would be full of CO2, from the anarobic bacterial process.

Good rule of thumb is to rotate it out every year though.

 

[irishfan]

How long past the expiration date will canned food still be OK to eat?

The general rule is to put new food in the back while moving the old to the front. That being said....I have tried a few cans of food that were almost a year past the sell date with no issues.