I had my wisdom teeth removed Friday. The experience itself was wonderful, because I got to be asleep in the middle of the afternoon, which is almost always excellent. The rough part, of course, came after I woke up and found that I had a mouth full of gauze, a bruised and swollen left cheek, and four fewer teeth in my head.
For me, the worst part of recovery hasn’t been the pain. My pain has been manageable, and for that I am quite thankful. The worst part, aside from feeling generally gross due to not being able to maintain proper dental hygiene, is the whole not being able to eat solid food thing. Since Friday afternoon, I have eaten nothing but yogurt, soup, and ice cream slash milkshakes. I did eat some scrambled eggs last night, in a desperate attempt to consume some protein, but that doesn’t really count as “solid” food. For the most part it’s been tomato bisque, cherry yogurt, and milkshakes. I mean, I love milkshakes, but I just really want a burger right now.
I noticed something shocking this morning. I was always under the impression that soup is a healthy choice when you’re not feeling well; it’s warm, it usually contains chicken or some other protein, and it just generally makes you feel better. My mom got me some “Healthy Request” chicken noodle soup to aid in my recovery, and I brought it to work today for lunch. I started reading the nutrition info, and was shocked to discover that one serving, or ½ cup of condensed soup, contains 480 mg, or 20% of my daily value, of sodium. There are 2.5 servings per can, so assuming I eat this whole can of soup for lunch, I will have consumed 50% of my daily value of sodium. Um, that’s half. The entire can of soup only contains 150 calories. 1,200 mg of sodium divided by 150 calories is 8 mg of sodium per calorie.
The most shocking part? There is a label on the front of the can that reads “40% LESS SODIUM THAN OUR REGULAR PRODUCT.” That means a normal can of chicken noodle soup contains nearly 2,100 mg of sodium.
Does anyone else find this surprising, even shocking? If I eat a can of Healthy Request soup for lunch, then another can for dinner (which I probably will since I still can’t chew well enough to eat solids), I will have consumed my entire daily value’s worth of sodium. I guess I’ll just have to guzzle water to make up for it.
