Low Sodium Breakfast

Hi, welcome to Kelly the Nurse. Today we are going to talk about low sodium breakfasts. In general, breakfast is going to be the easiest food that you're going to have that's gonna be low in sodium. In other words, breakfast foods traditionally, with some exceptions, are pretty low in sodium. Today I wanna talk to you a little bit about some traditional options.

First things first, yogurts, Greek or the regular, better tasting kind in my opinion, are all very low in sodium. These kinds of yogurts here have 95 milligrams. You can have a piece of peanut butter toast, a yogurt, and a piece of fruit and that is a perfect low -sodium breakfast that also happens to be pretty good for a diabetic. Diabetics would have to adjust that a little bit. That's a little too many carbs. You got to boost up the protein so you can have a boiled egg or an eggs of any kind with a little yogurt, something like that. The next thing I want to show you are eggs. I have come to appreciate eggs like I never have.

I don't like eggs. I didn't eat very many growing up, but eggs are one of the best foods there are. Number one, they're affordable. Number two, they have tons of vitamins and minerals, lots of protein, zero carbs. They are about 60 to 70, 80 maybe on a very large egg milligrams of sodium per egg. So eggs are not sodium free, they just happen to be very low. Eggs are low enough in sodium that you can have a couple of eggs every morning with either a couple of slices of thin sliced bacon. Thin sliced bacon for two slices is about 260 milligrams of sodium. Sausage unfortunately is higher so bacon and eggs is a breakfast that you can have if you're following a low -sodium diet.

You just have to be careful not to add things like a couple of pieces of toast to it because then it's gonna probably push you over the 500 milligrams you want to try to keep most of your meals in that in that amount of sodium. So So bacon and eggs is fine, bacon, egg, toast might be a little high.

There is a lot of information about cholesterol, well I have a cholesterol problem, I'm not supposed to have eggs. Please talk to your cardiologist because I believe that some of that instruction has changed and we are starting to look at cholesterol and the cholesterol in eggs in a different way. So please always check with your physician to be sure or or the nurse or the nurse Practitioner or the clinic and they can tell you the specifics for your particular health But in general eggs are easy to make cheap to buy Last a long time and very versatile and a wonderful source of protein for people following the low -sodium diet Remember bacon over sausage and limit it to two slices without the toast and you could probably do this breakfast.

Cereals like this are another excellent choice. Diabetics are going to have to pair that with a protein. Once again a little hard -boiled egg with a little bowl of cereal. Please watch the serving sizes on that bowl of cereal but that is also a good choice. It's interesting because in general cold cereals are quite low in sodium but There are a few, like one of my favorites, that don't have any. Frosted Mini Weeds is delicious and there's no sodium at all. Raisin Bran is also delicious, very healthy, with 200 milligrams of sodium in a serving, which is one cup. So look at your cereal labels, but in general, unless you go to the really, really bad, unhealthy kinds. They're all going to be probably all reliable for you following the low sodium diet.

When we get into pancakes and waffles, no can do. Waffles and pancakes have baking soda. They are light and fluffy. They rise. They're delicious. That rising and the light and fluffy takes sodium to do that in the way of baking soda so just to give you an idea this one half of a cup which would make you one delicious waffle is 800 milligrams 800 milligrams of sodium and this is another great thing to point out a couple of times the food labels some of the important stuff is right down here nowadays but unfortunately if you turn it over to the side it still says 800 milligrams in half a cup of waffle batter.

Oatmeal, it's no surprise here that oatmeal is among the best with eggs as your best and healthy breakfast item. If you get oatmeal like this you're going to have zero zero zero sodium. It is a perfect food. If you take this perfect delicious food and you mix it up with some flavors and bits and pieces of apples and cinnamon, you're going to increase the sodium to 200 milligrams in one packet that makes about a half a cup of oatmeal. So if you take two packets like I do, you're going to have 400 milligrams of sodium for your breakfast. That's not that bad, it's just that when you take this to this, you're gonna add sodium. Sometimes these packets have about 75 milligrams of sodium, but I looked very hard to find the highest sodium packet of oatmeal and the one that I found anyway was this delicious apples and cinnamon.

So when you're talking about your breakfast think about if you can limiting the sodium for that breakfast maybe below 500 because you can save a little bit of sodium for higher meals like lunch which is often notoriously high in sodium or even dinner. So breakfast is going to be the meal of the day that starts your day outright and start your day with the lowest sodium meal of the day.

Thank you for watching Kelly the nurse.