Eating healthy and limiting sodium intake is an important part of treating heart failure. Follow your doctor’s instructions about diet and the total amount of sodium you should have daily. Most heart failure patients are limited to no more than 2,000 mg sodium a day; the American Heart Association recommends an ideal limit of 1,500 mg per day (that’s less than 3/4 teaspoon). Talk with your doctor for his or her recommendation.

If you have heart failure, correctly calculating the amount of sodium in your diet is an important skill to develop. A key factor is learning how to read nutrition labels and how to calculate sodium content in foods you prepare.

Nutrition Facts

This is an example of a typical food label. It’s important to note that all nutritional labels list amounts of nutrients per serving.

This item, for example, lists 16 servings in the entire container. The sodium level is 120 mg for one serving. That means if you drink the entire container, you’ll get 1,920 mg sodium! That could be a critical error if you’re not careful. 

What’s in a Tuna Fish Sandwich?

When preparing your own food, you must figure in the sodium content of all the ingredients. The Sutter Health network provides classes to learn how to calculate sodium content. You can also meet with a heart failure nurse to learn more.

As an example, here’s the sodium content of a tuna fish sandwich made with sodium-restricted foods:

Tuna Salad (serves 2):

• 1 can low-salt tuna packed in water: 82 mg sodium
• 1/3 cup light mayonnaise: 583 mg sodium
• 2 medium stalks celery: 64 mg sodium
• 2 green onions: 4 mg sodium
• 1 tablespoon low-sodium sweet pickle relish: 50 mg sodium

Total = 783 mg sodium

Per serving (2): 392 mg sodium

Add to your meal:

• 2 slices no-salt-added wheat bread: 20 mg sodium
• 1 cup grapes: 3 mg sodium
• 1 cup low-fat milk: 125 mg sodium

Total for one meal = 540 mg sodium

(Made without sodium restricted foods, the meal’s sodium would be at least twice that amount.)