Limiting Sodium With Heart Failure: Care Instructions

Your Care Instructions

Sodium causes your body to hold on to extra water. This may cause your heart failure symptoms to get worse. Limiting sodium may help you feel better.

People get most of their sodium from processed foods. Fast food and restaurant meals also tend to be very high in sodium. Your doctor may suggest that you limit sodium. Your doctor can tell you how much sodium is right for you. An example is less than 3,000 mg a day. This includes all the salt you eat in cooked or packaged foods.

Follow-up care is a key part of your treatment and safety. Be sure to make and go to all appointments, and call your doctor if you are having problems. It's also a good idea to know your test results and keep a list of the medicines you take.

How can you care for yourself at home?

Read food labels

• Read food labels on cans and food packages. The labels tell you how much sodium is in each serving. Make sure that you look at the serving size. If you eat more than the serving size, you have eaten more sodium than is listed for one serving.

• Food labels also tell you the Percent Daily Value for sodium. Choose products with low Percent Daily Values for sodium.

• Be aware that sodium can come in forms other than salt, including monosodium glutamate (MSG), sodium citrate, and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). MSG is often added to Asian food. You can sometimes ask for food without MSG or salt.

Buy low-sodium foods

• Buy foods that are labeled "unsalted" (no salt added), "sodium-free" (less than 5 mg of sodium per serving), or "low-sodium" (140 mg or less of sodium per serving). A food labeled "light sodium" has less than half of the full-sodium version of that food. Foods labeled "reduced-sodium" may still have too much sodium.

• Buy fresh vegetables or plain, frozen vegetables. Buy low-sodium versions of canned vegetables, soups, and other canned goods.

Prepare low-sodium meals

• Use less salt each day when cooking. Reducing salt in this way will help you adjust to the taste. Do not add salt after cooking. Take the salt shaker off the table.

• Flavor your food with garlic, lemon juice, onion, vinegar, herbs, and spices instead of salt. Do not use soy sauce, steak sauce, onion salt, garlic salt, or ketchup on your food.

• Make your own salad dressings, sauces, and ketchup without adding salt.

• Use less salt (or none) when recipes call for it. You can often use half the salt a recipe calls for without losing flavor. Other dishes like rice, pasta, and grains do not need added salt.

• Rinse canned vegetables. This removes some—but not all—of the salt.

• Avoid water that has a naturally high sodium content or that has been treated with water softeners, which add sodium. If you buy bottled water, read the label and choose a sodium-free brand.

Avoid high-sodium foods, such as:

• Smoked, cured, salted, and canned meat, fish, and poultry.

• Ham, bacon, hot dogs, and luncheon meats.

• Regular, hard, and processed cheese and regular peanut butter.

• Crackers with salted tops.

• Frozen prepared meals.

• Canned and dried soups, broths, and bouillon, unless labeled sodium-free or low-sodium.

• Canned vegetables, unless labeled sodium-free or low-sodium.

• Salted snack foods such as chips and pretzels.

• French fries, pizza, tacos, and other fast foods.

• Pickles, olives, ketchup, and other condiments, especially soy sauce, unless labeled sodium-free or low-sodium.

If you cannot cook for yourself

• Have family members or friends help you, or have someone cook low-sodium meals.

• Check with your local senior nutrition program to find out where meals are served and whether they offer a low-sodium option. You can often find these programs through your local health department or hospital.

• Have meals delivered to your home. Most cities have a Meals on Wheels program. These programs provide one hot meal a day for older adults, delivered to their homes. Ask whether these meals are low-sodium. Let them know that you are on a low-sodium diet.

Current as of: September 20, 2023

Content Version: 14.0

Care instructions adapted under license by your healthcare professional. If you have questions about a medical condition or this instruction, always ask your healthcare professional. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information.