Low-Sodium Low-Carb Diet

For those who need to restrict both sodium and carbohydrates, combining both dietary approaches can be simple and straightforward. Because modern convenience food is often high in salt, sugar, and other refined carbohydrates, the trick is to read nutrition labels carefully and to prepare as much of your own food as possible.

Lower Your Carbs

• Restrict your carbohydrate intake to 20 to 60 g per day. In the United States there is no legal definition of a "low carb" food, but select foods that give you a varied, satisfying diet while staying within your carb limit. This means consuming eggs, most green vegetables, meat, and cream, while limiting or eliminating bread, rice, sugary foods, pasta and potatoes.

Lower Your Sodium Intake

• Restrict your sodium intake to 1,500 (about 2/3 tsp.) to 2,400 mg (about 1 tsp.) of sodium per day. The FDA regulates "low sodium" claims on food packaging: A low-sodium food must have less than 140 mg of sodium per serving.

Cook Your Own Food

• A study by the Mayo Clinic estimated that Americans consume 77 percent of their daily sodium through processed food. Processed food is often also high in sugar and carbohydrates. By preparing food at home, from scratch, you can restrict both sodium and carbohydrates by controlling what goes into the food you eat.

Foods To Watch Out For

• Cheeses, processed and canned meats, canned vegetables and many convenience foods can be high in sodium, and any sort of processed/prepackaged food may have added sugar. Unfortunately, many convenience foods marketed for low-carbohydrate dieting are high in sodium, so you may have to avoid these foods or seek low-sodium alternatives.

  While low-carbohydrate diets allow butter for cooking, make sure that you choose unsalted butter to keep within daily sodium guidelines.

Portion Size

• Read food labels carefully, and if you are looking up the carbohydrate and sodium counts for fresh food, always check the portion size on which the carb/sodium counts are based. If you don't pay attention to portion size, you can end up consuming far more carbs or sodium than you intended.