A little help with daily intake totals please???

Ok, I am having a hard time trying to understand how to work out my intake totals for everything. When im looking at the supermarket for items i get confused by the totals, they all have sodium, carbs, calcium, mag etc and all have varying numbers with each brand, how do i know which one is the better one, it also tells ya how much total and then also per serve. So if im looking at the bread, yoghurt, pasta etc for what im eating that particular day, do i add up the serving sizes for each to get my total? Arrghh im just confusing myself while writing this as its probably not making sense!!! So for example, when im looking at pasta, which ones are the better ones to get?? Also is the packet pre made stuff that ya add a bit of water and cook for 10 mins ok to eat or is that a big no no?
Ive got the drink side of thing sussed, I think ive got the yogurt sussed, just using low fat, natural yogurt which has acodophilus (sp?) in it. but need help with working out all the other stuff with totals so i can understand it. so please anyone who understands how to read the labels please take your time to help me out :)

Thanks so much in advance

Yes, use the amounts listed per serving size on the packages of the food you buy to come up with your totals. Do be aware, though that those serving sizes are often smaller than the portions you may be used to. I use http://www.fitday.com to track my intake, and just input food in their 'custom foods' option if I can't find that food listed in their database (also beware because many foods they have in their system have incorrect totals for the amount of sodium since they seem to assume people add salt to everything. You want to try to keep your protein to 40g per day, your sodium to 700-1000 mg per day, your calories to 1500-1800 (though personally I find that impossible on this diet - I tend to get 1000-1200 calories per day), and your fat as low as possible, which I'm told means 20g per day whenever possible.

You'll find that most prepared food is far too high in sodium to include. Bread is often extremely high in sodium, so I opt to make my own salt-free bread at home. There are lots of other hidden sources of sodium, like milk, yogurt and lots of other things we don't think of as salty. At first I found sodium the hardest thing to keep low, then protein became the most difficult part, but now that I'm paying more attention to fat intake, I'm finding that the hardest.

Visit the 'For People That Want to Record What they are Eating' thread to get some ideas of what a typical day's eating might look like.

Hi Kiesse. I haven't been looking to hard yet at the supermarket foods but just comparing some pre package pasta i.e. dried pasta, from my cupboard and my mums I have found that even these vary in the amounts of sodium they have, I think though if you get the one with very little sodium the dried pasta should be fine to eat? I think diamond pasta was the one with low sodium??

Can you tell me what drinks you are using?? And what will you do about bread, make your own???? I think all supermarket breads are too high in sodium here so I think I will need to make my own or not have bread. cheers

Hi

I use supermarket bread - the one I use has 100mg of sodium per slice and I only ever have 2 slices each day so it's easy to build in to a daily allowance of 700mg-1000mg. It's funny people mention salt content of pasta because every packet I've picked up in the supermarket only has a trace of it!

I just happen to notice that one brand of pasta has about 38mg sodium per 100g and the other brand has 1 mg sodium per 100 g. Also I noticed tonight that my rice can have different amounts depending on the brand . But I guess if you can have 700 to 1000mg sodium per day then 38 grams per 100g pasta isn't a lot so it wouldn't matter what brand you use?? I was just going to try and get the brands with the lowest possible amount. Good to know that you can get bread with 100mg per slice so I will start looking at the bread in our supermarket.

I agree with Zanacal - with pasta, what you really have to watch is protein, not sodium, since on their own most pastas have little to no sodium. It's the sauces that will add sodium to your pasta.

You have to be careful with sodium on labels - 38g is 380mg! If it's quoted in g you need to x it by 1000. You're looking at dry pasta and not fresh aren't you? The discount brand of pasta and of rice in Tesco both have only a trace of sodium. The pouches of rice you put in the microwave have lots more!

Ok, right I think it may take me an extra hour to get around the supermarket this week! Hehe. Jude and I are both in nz so we dont get the same brands etc as what you guys do so your pasta and ours are probably a lot different, im one of those add salt to everything, it’s the way I was brought up and was told salt gives food flavour so um yea, hard to cook without it, but doing ok so far!

Jude, im drinking sprite zero as it has the aspartame in it, also drinking a glass of cranberry juice from the health shop which I dislike sooooo much and then just water every other time, I do add in a milo as I love my coffee so having a milo instead, and instead of adding sugar im using equal. As for the Bread im not a huge bread eater so I have just been using that bread that’s high in fibre im not sure of the brand but will let you know when I duck home at lunch, it’s a white bread but I maybe have 4 slices a week?? Kids have it for their lunch.

I havnt been having breakfast and been having a chicken salad between 11-12 it just has chicken, lettuce, cucumber, pasta, low fat grated cheese, and created my own dressing which is 2 parts natural yoghurt to 1 part dressing of my choice regardless of what the label says! Lol, then nothing else to eat until dinner time except maybe an apple with skin peeled off!

Im being very basic until I can work out this label thing!

Thanks Kiesse, I wasn't sure at all about drinks or bread. I didn't even think to look at the protein content on pasta, how silly is that!! Had a look at what's in my cupboard and it also varies depending on brand. Can someone tell me how much fat we are allowed per day? Sorry its probably written somewhere but I can't find it at the moment!! cheers

just seen the new thread on fat allowance :)