Sodium content of food: Dumb question.

[230RN]

When they say 1,000 mg of sodium in a food package ingredients list, do they mean 1,000 mg of metallic, elemental, sodium, or 1,000 mg of sodium chloride (table salt) equivalence?

(1000 mg of sodium chloride (table salt) contains 400 mg of metallic sodium, i.e. 40%.))

I poked around a bit, but could not find a clear answer to this right off the bat, so I figured someone around here would know the direct answer right off the top of their heads.

This site comes close, and is very informative, but except for an occasional reference to "sodium" versus "table salt," it doesn't answer it directly:

http://naturallysavvy.com/eat/sodium-doesnt-always-mean-salt

Could be a deficiency in language comprehension on my part, or poor searching skills.

Terry

[dogmush]

On the FDA's "sodium fact sheet", available here, they specify that sodium and salt are not the same thing, so I'd suspect they are using metallic sodium on the label and for the reccomended daily allowance.

They don't explicitly say it though.

[Marnoot]

If you look at the Nutrition Facts label for table salt, you'll see 1.5g of table salt contains 590mg of sodium:

[Sindawe]

If you look at the Nutrition Facts label for table salt, you'll see 1.5g of table salt contains 590mg of sodium:

Which indicates to me that the listing is for the element Sodium alone. 

[Brad Johnson]

Elemental.

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/InteractiveNutritionFactsLabel/factsheets/Sodium.pdf

Brad

[230RN]

If you look at the Nutrition Facts label for table salt, you'll see 1.5g of table salt contains 590mg of sodium:

Yup.  That's the clue: 590  Ã·  1500 = ~40%.

OK, so, as stated later, their "sodium" is actually the elemental sodium.

Now why the hell didn't I think of looking there?

dopeslap dopeslap dopeslap  

Good job, Marnoot !

Many thanks, all !

Terry

[KD5NRH]

If you look at the Nutrition Facts label for table salt, you'll see 1.5g of table salt contains 590mg of sodium:

Wow; aside from the sodium content, table salt is the perfect filler food for dieters.  We should figure out how to profit from this.

[K Frame]

Elemental sodium?

It's a tasty dinner until your food starts doing this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UsRiPOFLjk

[Jamisjockey]

Depends.  You gotta read the ingredients too.

[KD5NRH]

Depends.  You gotta read the ingredients too.

I don't want to know what what's in Depends.

[230RN]

Quote from: jamisjockey on Today at 06:23:36 AM

Depends.  You gotta read the ingredients too.

I don't want to know what what's in Depends.