Sodium and healthy fats

[SusanMcL]

I've drastically cut down on sodium intake and saturated fats..

I'm on a 1600 calorie per day eating plan and based on my research..... I've found that one should stay below 30% total fat and 7% saturated fat.

I used 27% for total fat and that works out to 48 grams of total fat per day.
7% works out to less than 12.5 grams of saturated fat per day.

I've been doing that and all is well. And most of my non-saturated fat is coming from olive oil, almonds and avocado.

here is my confusion..... "healthy fats" are said to be heart healthy....
sooooooo.... if one is consuming mostly healthy fats, does one still have to keep the total fat under 30%? If these "healthy fats" are so good for the heart (i.e. reducing bad cholesterol) then one could think... the more the better !!!

also.... I've drastically cut down on my sodium levels. I've seen recommendations to keep sodium below 2000 or below 1500. But I've cut my sodium intake far lower than that...

I know that our bodies need a certain amount of sodium.

so the question is..... can one get too LITTLE sodium????? I wonder if there is a minimum daily requirement??? Does anyone know?

thanks in advance..

Susan

 

[SusanMcL]

I found the answer to one of my questions... lol

The recommended minimum sodium intake for adults is 500 mg. The recommended maximum is 2000, with many saying that a max of 1500 is better. So it looks like around 1200 - 1500 would be about right.

If one eats processed food, of course, the challenge is to lower one's sodium intake and that's true for 99% of people.

But I have been trying very hard to eat only non-processed food and was just curious if I was getting enough sodium.... I'll track it for a few weeks and see what it is currently.