Is the salt in baking soda harmful for low sodium diets?

ok, so i'm purposely leaving out the salt required in baking recipes because i'm trying to follow a low salt diet - only to now find out (thank you sincerely - yahoo answers!!!) baking soda has tons of salt. I'm wondering if the sodium carbonate used in baking soda is as detrimental as regular sodium. If i'm using 1 teaspoon of baking soda - is that the exact same thing as 1 teaspoon of sodium - in regards to dietary considerations? if so ...sh*t sh*t sh*t :-( - but heck, at least now i know.

Yes it will affect your diet!
1 teaspoon baking soda = approx. 1000 mg sodium.
1 teaspoon salt = approx. 2,300 mg sodium
But it's not the end of the "baking" world. Remember you need to divide the number of servings in your recipe by the amount of teaspoons of baking powder. So unless you eat whatever you baked in one day you wouldn't get the whole 1000mg (if you used 1tsp). But if you're using yeast you're going to need salt for the chemistry. Anyway hope this helped. And check this store out. It has sodium free baking powder which helped me keep baking -- Livinglowsodium.com

Good luck!

Yes.

ANYTHING with sodium in it contributes to the sodium levels in one's diet. That includes sodium bicarbonate. That's why things like crackers and cookies, and soups tend to be high in sodium.