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When you’re working towards weight loss, one of the first things you need to evaluate is your diet. Your health goals often start in the kitchen, and making small changes to your eating habits can make all the difference in how you look and feel. Instead of doing a complete overhaul of your eating plan, taking a look at more specific areas, like the condiments you use, could be a great place to start for cutting down on unnecessary calories and reaching your weight loss goals. As you work to improve your overall health, this is the one high-sodium sauce you should consider limiting if you want to see visible results within your body.
Although soy sauce can add robust flavor to your meals, it is also packed with sodium that can lead to instant bloating and water retention. Soy sauce may be low in calories, clocking in at a mere 10 calories per tablespoon approximately, but sodium dense foods have a bad rap for causing uncomfortable inflammation that makes you look as though you’ve gained several pounds, and can actually lead to true weight gain in the future.
According to Health, “A single tablespoon [of soy sauce] contains over 900 mg [of sodium], which is more than a third of the maximum recommended daily limit for healthy adults (2300 mg).” Regularly exceeding the daily recommended limit of sodium may have long term implications on your health, including high blood pressure, heart attack, and weight gain, so it’s best to keep soy sauce consumption to a minimum if you’re aiming to preserve your long term wellbeing.
Thankfully, you can still enjoy soy sauce without worrying about overwhelming your body with sodium. There are now a number of low-sodium options on the market which offer the same great flavor with a significant reduction in salt content, minimizing bloating and water weight after your meal. Additionally, coconut aminos are a great lower sodium option which have a similar flavor to soy sauce without packing the same punch. Your heart health and your waistline will thank you for limiting salt in your diet, making it easier to achieve your body goals and reducing uncomfortable inflammation.
While you can realistically eat all of your favorite foods in moderation even when you’re striving to lose weight, small alterations and swaps in your diet may make it easier in the long run to live a healthier lifestyle and feel better in your body. Sodium can cause you to hold onto water weight and feel tight and bloated immediately after eating, so finding a healthier replacement can leave you feeling better overall as you work to improve your lifestyle and enhance your quality of life.
