woodysroad

Anyone being treated for Afib and restricted to maximum of 2,300 mg of sodium intake daily? If so, how do you balance your limited sodium intake with the increased loss of sodium during the day while touring? I don't eat meat so I've always eaten a lot of canned beans while touring, but now have to eat sodium free canned food.

mtnbud

Have you explained to your doc what you're doing? It'd seem logical to up your sodium intake when touring, but decrease otherwise.

My caloric intake is higher when touring than not. I also worry less about sodium when touring.

djb

I doubt any of us have the proper medical knowledge about such things, let alone know your specific case even if we did.

My anonymous internet stranger advice is to not take any medical advice from anonymous internet strangers.

indyfabz

Have you discussed an ablation with your health care provider?

woodysroad

Thanks for the replies. I'm not seeking medical advice, I work with my cardiologist for that. My heart rhythm has been in normal range for several months with medication. We've discussed an ablation, but the research indicates about a 70% success rate, and the preferred course of action is to opt for the ablation if the medicine is not working. I ride 25-30 miles daily, no problems. I haven't done any touring since it first started 15 months ago, but I'm planning one. I'm just curious as to how others in a similar situation have developed their own individual strategy.

djb

All the best getting some experienced information.

(About to apologize in advance.....) But do take anything with a grain of salt!

indyfabz

Note that finding a wide range of food products (e.g., low or no-sodium canned beans) to purchase can be difficult in rural areas where you might be forced to shop at a small market.

MiE

A few things
1. Have your sweat rate tested. We are all different and this will help a professional figure out sodium needs during prolonged activity.
2. Triathletes sometimes use these salt tablet things. If you control sodium during eating, you can use those to be more precise on intake.
3. over/under hydration can also play a factor in the equation (also why I say test for sweat rate).

djb

you know, up until a few years ago I would have scoffed at the idea of a sweat test, but I do know a woman rider who had this done, and it does make sense to a degree. Seeing how your sweating and hydration affects your levels in your pee and specifically how someone with specific issues, it could help by giving proper values.
I've certainly felt a huge difference in how I feel riding in very hot conditions with lots of sweating, and being proactive with bananas and either gatoraid or simply powders for hydration with diarrhea, although I realize this is helping with too low levels of stuff due to excessive sweating.
I've ridden a lot in vey hot climates, and I think I'm a lot better now for getting it right for hydrating and salt and potassium balancing, although I realize I'm winging it and don't have a specific heart issue.

BigAura

Soak & wash canned beans to reduce sodium

Tourist in MSN

I do not have to control sodium, but I try to avoid excess sodium. One rule of thumb is to minimize foods that have more sodium (milligrams) than calories per serving on the label. Canned soups, chili, etc have a lot of sodium. Same with a lot of dehydrated soups.

When you are looking at the nutrition label, mentally think about the ratio of sodium to calories and keep that ratio low. If a serving is 100 calories and sodium is 400 milligrams, that is a ratio of 4 milligrams of sodium per calorie, don't buy it. You probably need an average ratio that is close to one, a ratio of four is too high.

Skip the canned pasta meals and instead buy pasta noodles and use a separate sauce. And you probably would need to make the sauce from scratch, for example spaghetti sauce in a jar often has a ton of salt added but you could make up your own sauce with tomato sauce and your own spices, etc.

I have to eat a low carb diet to keep blood sugar under control, so I know how complicated restricted diets can be, I try to keep my calories from carbs below 30 percent of my total calories, which for me means a lot more fats and protein. My point is that I know what you are thinking, but you will figure it out and not let your diet control your vacations.

Probably have to bring some foods from home if you are not sure if you can buy them where your trip is.

When I fly out of the country, I bring some dried foods that I suspect are unavailable where I am going, but first you need to check what is allowed in any other country you go to, each country has limits on what you are allowed to bring in.

Carbonfiberboy 

This is a pretty simple question that really doesn't need to have anything to do with Afib. There's a curve of longevity vs. daily salt intake. It has a sweet spot at 1500 mg. Lower than that is worse, higher is worse, though the high side is much worse than the low side. So for years, my wife and I have tried for about 1500mg/day, or 3/4 teaspoon of table salt. We eat natural foods, so we don't eat anything canned or packaged other than tuna and salmon. Everything else is fresh and cooked from scratch. Thus we are able to control our sodium intake quite well. When I cook breakfast cereal, I put in 1/4 t. for the 2 of us. Of course we don't eat packaged cereal. We make our own granola for cold. When we make dinner, we put in 1/4 t. per main course serving. We don't eat meat, so that's another place to cut salt. We don't salt any of our food, except for eggs. One gets used to the taste of food, rather than the taste of salt.

Now the interesting thing is that the less salt you consume, the less you need. That's counterintuitive, but that's how our bodies work. See: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-...es-salt-levels
Though that's a fairly recent article, this has been known for many years. I read about it maybe 15 years ago. So if you live somewhere hot, you need to watch your salt intake and keep it down, not up. Similarly, on the road, I need very little salt, even in hot weather. On short rides of up to 3 hours, I normally don't use any electrolytes. On longer rides I take one Endurolyte (Hammer Nutrition) per hour, that's 50 mg. of sodium/hour. I don't cramp, don't have any performance issues. I also don't have white stains all over my shorts.

So it's actually really easy, nothing to it, just a lifestyle change. Live long and prosper.

Tourist in MSN

I rarely salt my eggs now. When I first cut salt from my diet I found that some tobasco on eggs made you not even notice that you wanted any salt on them.

Carbonfiberboy 

Or want the eggs either, for that matter, right?.