21 Apr Take with a grain of salt

When my kids were young, we kept guinea pigs as pets. Aside from feeding them guinea pig food, I hung a little salt lick in the cage. Why would I give something so deadly as salt to our guinea pigs? Did they all die of high blood pressure?

If we admire someone, we call them the salt of the earth. That sounds like an insult nowadays. Gandhi led a protest against the British for refusing to allow the Indians to extract salt from seawater, without paying for it. Gandhi knew his people’s lives depended on salt.

So is salt good or bad? Maybe we can say the dose makes the poison. That means almost anything you can consume can be toxic if you take in too much. Too much salt can raise your risk of heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular conditions. But, as in the case with the guinea pigs, too little salt is bad for health. If you severely restrict salt, you could be setting yourself up for the possibility of stroke, heart attack and death. Wait, those are the same conditions as from eating too much salt!

So we might want to be like Goldilocks and get our salt consumption just right.

Where do we find the salt in our diet?

The most obvious answer is the salt shaker. It’s on your dining table and in your kitchen. The cook of your family sprinkles it on the food being prepared, and some people add more shakes at the table. That’s usually the smallest source of salt in our diet.

The largest source of salt is from processed food. It’s actually sodium, which is what salt is made of. Sodium is used to flavor food that has the flavor processed out of it. And sodium has a preserving effect. The top ten sources of sodium according to the CDC are mainly processed food: bread is number one, then pizza, then sandwiches, then cold cuts/cured meats. Chicken even makes the list because a sodium solution is often injected into the raw chicken before you buy it.

How much salt do we need?

Before we can figure out how much salt we need, we have to consider potassium. Yes, everything about a healthy human body is complicated. That’s why it’s so hard to understand all the guidelines and rules we get from experts. You need to balance your potassium and sodium because these are electrolytes that help you maintain fluid and blood volume. As potassium goes up, your blood flows more smoothly. But as sodium goes up, your blood pressure can rise.

The problem is it’s easy to get too much sodium and too little potassium. If you eat a large salad, you are getting potassium. That’s because the main source of potassium is vegetables, and who eats a lot of vegetables–too few of us. If you eat processed food or restaurant food, you are getting sodium. And yes, we all have fallen in the trap of convenience and enhanced flavors of processed and fast food.

If you like to measure out your sodium grams, you’ll find that recommendations vary widely. And in my opinion, counting out grams or even teaspoons of sodium each day is a real bother. I have seen recommendations vary from 2300 to 7000 milligrams a day! That’s quite a range. I prefer what I consider a  common sense approach. That would be, avoid processed food and emphasize whole foods in your diet. The salt added to the whole food you prepare yourself is likely to be around 2 to 3 teaspoons a day. That is probably within a healthy range by anybody’s guidelines.

Does it matter the type of salt?

Table salt in the round boxes is one more processed food–it’s highly refined. Often it has additives to make it flow–as in, when it rains, it pours. I avoid additives and chemicals in my food whenever possible. Better options are Himalayan salt, or sea salt. These are unprocessed, natural salts with many trace minerals. Your body needs these minerals.

Salt occurs naturally in sea vegetables, fish, shellfish, and meat. Which leads me to say that once again, we should Just Eat Real Food. That’s my motto. Eat lots of vegetables and prepare your own food. You can’t even have confidence that processed food labeled low sodium is good for you. To make up for the loss of flavor from salt, there is often sugar or MSG, a neurotoxin and endocrine disruptor, which is linked to many undesirable conditions.

Would you like an ally in figuring out all this?

Contact me. I listen to your concerns, and I help you find the answers you need. I don’t tell you what to do, but I help you make an informed decision. And then I help you stick to your decision. Knowing what to do is not the same as actually doing it. Forming habits is difficult, and I make it easier. The first intro phone call is free.

Comments: Have you ever tried to restrict your salt?

Chris Kresser: history, need for salt, salt restriction, recommendations

Children’s Health Defense: commons

Dr. Mercola: war on salt

CDC: salt

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