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Sodium & Serving Sizes

Estimated time to read 5 minutes

Oh hello! We thought we would share a few thoughts on sodium and serving sizes, as this can sometimes be a little hard to figure out.

Understanding sodium levels can be confusing due to a cheeky trick that a lot of companies play with…. the ‘serving sizes per container’. But, don’t worry, at Proper Good we have made it very easy to see exactly how much sodium is in each of our soups! You can find all of our tasty soups and their nutritional information here.

Please remember that sodium does not mean just added salt. It is all the sodium in our meals from all ingredients, i.e the sodium on the nutritional label includes the sodium from the veggies, meats and so on in the soups as well as any actual added salt. Most of the sodium on our nutritional panel comes from the wholesome ingredients, we add a very low amount of salt to our soups, keep reading to find out more!

So, how does serving size affect sodium?

In many cases the serving size listed on the nutritional panel is not reflective of what you actually eat. For example, most canned soup lists ‘2 servings per container’, yet are you only consuming half a can of soup for a full meal? Me neither.

So what does this mean for brands that say ‘2 servings per container’? This means that if you don’t do the math of multiplying up the sodium level for the whole meal then you will think you are consuming less sodium than you actually are.

If you're concerned about sodium levels please always check the serving size and then the servings per container - if you’re planning to eat the whole container (as is common) then you need to multiply all the nutritional panel numbers by the servings per container.

Calculating sodium based on serving size in canned soups

So, unless you’re planning to eat only 2/3rds of a 12oz can of soup for a full meal, then you’re consuming 1200mg of sodium and not the 800mg you may have seen at first glance on the nutritional panel.

All Proper Good soups are 12oz, which is a full bowl and a ‘good size meal’ in our view - our nutritional panel reflects this and shows just ‘1 serving per container’ so you know exactly what you’re eating and don’t have to think about doing any math.

Proper Good Serving Size

What’s the recommended amount of Sodium?

Of course, we would always encourage you to do your own research and take your doctor's advice, but the general agreed upon recommended daily sodium intake is 2,300mg for the American diet. The ‘average’ American consumes just over 3,000mg. When you see the ‘%’ on a nutritional panel this is based on 2300mg of sodium a day, this is an FDA standard. Remember to do the math on this % if you're eating more than one serving size.

Consuming a full pouch of Proper Good soup, which we believe constitutes as one of your three daily meals, should put you in good standing to be below your daily recommended goal as our average sodium for the full meal is 600mg…. which is less than 1/3rd of your recommended daily allowance (RDA).

How does Proper Good sodium compare to other brands?

“The healthiest soups contain 360 – 600 milligrams of sodium per serving, but one cup of canned soup can contain 800 or more milligrams of sodium! Since a typical can holds at least two cups, a bowl of soup may pack a day’s worth of salt.” - As you can see, it’s very easy to be misled by the cups, ounces, grams, milligrams, servings per container, and all the other tricks some brands use.

Proper Good soups fall in the lower end for sodium levels of all packaged soups. While we are not the lowest on every item, we are certainly low in the sodium rankings, see full nutritional information here. If you look at the other soups available in-store and online you can see this for yourself, also keep in mind that Proper Good soups are often packed with meatballs, chicken breast, beans, farro and other deliciousness to make a full meal, so comparing to a ‘mushroom bisque’ where the main ingredient is water wouldn’t be directly comparable. Even with that in mind, we’ve seen other brands with Mushroom Bisques as high as 1,500mg of sodium.

To give you a couple of concrete examples, we have found many packaged soups that are actually up to 1,700mg for a 12oz serving… most Proper Good soups are 60% less than this!

Why do you add sodium to your soups anyway?

The sodium listed on the nutritional panel is from both the natural sodium found in our ingredients and the sodium from some added salt.

Since our soups are full of whole ingredients it is impossible to take out all the sodium, for example, our Chicken & Mushroom Soup is packed with chicken and there is about 70mg of sodium in a chicken breast. Equally we have a lot of carrots and tomatoes in our soups which also have sodium in them. Sodium is a very common mineral found in most, if not all, meats and veggies.

Moving on to the added salt, the reality is, salty things taste good to most people, so when we created our Proper Good recipes we tried to find the salt ‘sweet spot’, i.e keeping the salt as low as possible while also making sure our taste testers enjoyed the flavor. This is a delicate balance and we use a low-sodium Sea Salt in all soups to help with this aim.

Why is there more sodium in your keto soups?

Our Keto soups have been designed with the keto diet in mind, this means that they are low in net carbs, high in good fats, and also have a little bit more sodium added to them, as people on a strict keto diet tend to need a bit more salt. Although, having said this, our keto soups still fall well within the recommended daily allowance for one of your three meals. And, of course, dedicated keto-ers can add in additional salt as needed to their soup!

Thank you for reading all about sodium and what serving size really means, you can find all of our delicious soups here and if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us at hello@eatpropergood.com and we would be delighted to chat.

From the Proper Good Team