We do need salt for our body to function. Salt is required for our nerves, muscles, body fluids. However, if we consume too much salt over time, we will develop hypertension, heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, and brain damage.
According to Food and Drug Administration: “Approximately 1 in 3, more than 100 million, American adults have high blood pressure. But only half of those people have their condition under control. Many people develop high blood pressure when they are in their late 30's or early 40's, and it occurs more frequently as people age.” That is such an alarming number and what is so dangerous is we don’t realize it at younger age but everything is accumulated and it is impossible to reverse organs damaged. Based on The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, we should take no more than 1 teaspoon of salt per day which is equal to approximately 6g. (2300mg)
Since the pandemic, I started cooking at home more often and have been making more fresh food, mixing my own sauce instead of relying on processed and packaged food. If certain things I have to purchase from the supermarket, I pay attention to nutrition facts label: 5% or less is low and 20% or more is high and keep in mind that I shouldn’t take more than 6g of salt per day. In addition, I broke some myths about salt intake such as: I need salt after my workout to replenish my lost fluid or mineral salt is better than regular salt. These myths make us unconscious in salt usage.
According to Harvard Health Publishing, there are 6 ways to eat less salt:
1. Choose unprocessed or minimally processed foods. Canned, processed, and frozen foods are often loaded with added salt.
A fair number of people are actually consuming too little salt because of this sort of thing. Your body can compensate for too much salt within a very wide range (google "renin–angiotensin system") but it has a lot of trouble compensating for too little.
You have to eat an enormous amount of salt to cause noticeable health problems, and the risks of consuming too little are far more serious than those associated with too much.
High blood pressure has nothing to do with dietary salt. It's a consequence of a very complex cascade of metabolic dysfunction that causes abnormal fluid retention and (eventually) results in hardening of the arteries. Ordinarily, your arteries flex and contract to smooth out the pulsatile flow of blood; if they lose their compliance, then systolic pressure will become abnormally high.
The primary cause is junk food, in particular processed carbohydrates. The USDA continues to recommend that Americans consume enormous quantities of non-foods like bread ... which also happens to account for about 50% of the average American's sodium intake - hence the misconception that sodium is the problem.
Food and Drug Administration confirmed that: “According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, diets higher in sodium are associated with an increased risk of developing high blood pressure, which is a major cause of stroke and heart disease.” Therefore, diet with higher the amount suggested will increase the risk of high blood pressure.
Ofcourse, all junk food, snacks are packaged food they contain sodium therefore they can increase your risk also.
I’m aware of Hyponatremia which is very dangerous also.
The key is raising awareness in salt intake by staying away from packaged and processed food and read nutrition facts label without salt overload.
I agree people should stay away from junk. But the physiology is pretty clear: it has nothing to do with the sodium content. Low-salt junk is still junk.
Unfortunately, US food policy is seriously messed up because of enormous conflicts-of-interest between producers and regulators. There is indeed an "association" between high-sodium diets and heart disease, but that's because there is an association between the things that cause heart disease and added sodium.
Ok sodium is from NaCl, the Na is the sodium so salt that increases the risk.
Fact: “Sodium makes up 40 percent of salt. If a food label lists sodium instead of salt, multiply the answer by 2.5 for an accurate picture of the salt content.”
I guess this won't be resolved by referring to Medical News Today
I'll just point out that that article merely repeats the opinion of the AHA.
The fact remains that "salt is the proximate cause of hypertension" has been disproven by experiment and has no physiological basis. There is no known mechanism by which excessive dietary salt might cause hypernatremia and/or high blood pressure. In an otherwise-healthy body, it cannot happen. If you know differently, then what's the mechanism?
If you have hypernatremia, it's because Na/K regulation is functioning incorrectly; and the cause of that is not excessive dietary salt.
Hi TheAwfulToad I have to agree with Hidden here as too many people in the U.K. consume too much salt and here’s what the NHS say about consuming excess salt.
We do need a balanced diet containing salt but it’s like everything and salt is a flavour enhancer that also makes us thirsty and then we want to consume more, so we have a nice! Fizzy drink with too much sugar...🤢
All I can suggest is that you go and read the research, Jerry. It's unfortunately one of those myths from long ago that seemed plausible at the time, but refused to die in the face of emerging evidence.
It's true that some people do have a somewhat deranged Na/K balance. But it has nothing to do with salt intake, for much the same reason that high cholesterol has nothing to do with dietary cholesterol.
Unless you know something about physiology, it's counterintuitive. But it is what it is. Unfortunately the regulation of Na/K, blood volume, and blood pressure is incredibly complicated, involving several coupled control loops and some weird this-controls-that-which-controls-the-other-thing mechanisms. It's hard to understand.
Of course you're right that a salty meal will make you thirsty, and if you happen to be sitting in McDonalds consuming a salty meal, you might be inclined to drink a supersize Coke. But as I'm sure you realise, the problem there is the Coke and the marketing of junk food, not the salt per se.
“Public Health England (PHE), speaking out as promotion of DiNicolantonio’s book gathered pace in the UK, said his advice was not only wrong but dangerous. Prof Louis Levy, head of nutrition science at PHE, said: “Diet is now the leading cause of ill health. By advocating a high-salt diet this book is putting the health of many at risk and it undermines internationally recognised evidence that shows a diet high in salt is linked to high blood pressure, a known risk for heart disease.”
I think the problem is that a lot of people eat the SAD diet, not only in America but in UK and Australia too. Eating a diet high in sugars, breads and processed oils causes inflammation and the body hangs onto fluid.. hence higher blood pressure... When people eat a low carb diet, the excess fluid is released along with salt and potassium so it's important to keep the salt intake up. My blood pressure, eating very low carb is now 117/80 (no meds) and I eat plenty of salt whereas before, when I ate the SAD diet I needed medication to lower my blood pressure because it was 155/90. I think people should do their own research, read all that's available. So much of what we've been told over the years is incorrect.
Yes we should all do research and so far we have many articles to support. As a matter of fact, Public Health England announced: “DiNicolantonio’s book gathered pace in the UK, said his advice was not only wrong but dangerous.” It is dangerous to public health awareness.
So you said. And that's their opinion and in their interest. Have you researched yourself? Have you read the trials and papers published on PubMed supporting higher salt intake?
Each to his own. Thankfully we're all still able to make our own choices.
Many years ago when we were children we were taught that everything In moderation would do us no harm! This has stood me and many of my generation in good stead over the years regarding blood pressure, as with all over discussed subjects of this nature, common sense seems to have been completely forgotten about!
Amazing, you read them all? No I haven't read them all but then I have my own results to prove its right for me. When all is said and done we need to be responsible for our own health.
Oh, you misunderstood. It wasn't a compliment.. more disbelief that anyone would have read ALL the citations, papers, and articles relating to salt intake. But, take it as you please.
I have to say that this is controversial advice so I'd take the merits of a high salt diet literally with a pinch of salt as this book goes against NHS and the PHE's advice which we would recommend everyone follows.
I understand your opinion. I also know my own blood pressure and bloods have improved immensely. No denying my own results and many others who have changed their eating habits and increased their salt intake. Of course anyone eating the regular SAD diet would already be getting a great deal of salt.
No, I haven't read it, but I've heard of it. Have you read it? What did you think?
I notice Levy's words are very carefully chosen:
"Diet is now the leading cause of ill health."
True but irrelevant to the salt issue.
"By advocating a high-salt diet..."
Define "high", Levy. If you mean that DiNicolantonio advocates a handful of the stuff with every meal, then you might have a point. If you mean "more than the NHS recommends", then I would suggest, Professor, that you dust off some of your old physiology textbooks and have a good read, because you were apparently snoring through Physiology 101 the first time around.
"a diet high in salt is linked to high blood pressure"
Yes indeed. But that doesn't prove that salt is the proximate cause of high blood pressure. All it shows is that people who have high blood pressure eat foods that have a lot of salt in them - which, we may surmise, means lots of processed crap.
If it were true that dietary salt causes high blood pressure, then nobody would be on blood-pressure-lowering medications, because the solution would be as simple as eating less salt.
One also wonders what people who have religiously restricted their salt intake, and yet have high blood pressure, are supposed to do about their problem. As per the link I posted below, people who artificially restrict their salt intake are more likely to have hypertension.
In short, Levy's comments are clearly intended to mislead without actually lying.
Have to be honest, it's on my book shelf along with a dozen others that I'm going to read. I've read some of most of my books. I watch a lot online and listen to podcasts. I love having the hard copies, and I will read them... I feel like I'm building a library for my kids and grandkids.I agree with all your statements above. makes me question everything these days, it seems we've been misinformed/lied to for years. Yudkin got it right but Keys got all the attention. Fortunately I seem to have a grip on what's working for me. 20 years ago I was on blood pressure meds and Zoloft for depression.
I've been off those meds for years now. Salt, cholesterol, diabetes, we all have to do our own research. Fortunately there are some wonderful doctors willing to share their knowledge. Tim Noakes, Gary and Belinda Fettke, Robert Lustig, Gary Taubes, Zoe Harcombe, Nina Teicholz, Ken Berry, Siim Land, William Davis, Jason Fung. So many lovely helpful people. Oh and how could I forget the fantastic Ben Bikman. There's lots more too. Dr Unwin in UK. Oh yes and the wonderful Sarah Hallberg from Virta Health. Okay that's enough, I could go on. I'm retired so I have time and an interest in mine and my family's health.
It has everything to do with excess salt intake because according to heart.org, they emphasized on we need to break up the excess salt: “Potassium is only one component of a well-rounded plan for blood pressure health.
Even though potassium can lessen the blood pressure-raising effects of sodium, eating more potassium should be combined with your efforts to break up with that excess salt and develop other healthy eating and lifestyle habits.“
"BOTTOM LINE: Cutting Salt Prevents Future Heart DiseaseExcess sodium is believed to be the number one nutritional driver of early cardiometabolic death. And consider that the mass majority of humans survived for hundreds of thousands of years on only natural sodium from unprocessed, plant predominant foods, therefore with natural sodium only (under 1000 mg per day). Now, consider that the occasional “high sodium is good!” outliers are essentially saying that the optimal modern human diet is one that continues to be processed with high amounts of added sodium. Chew on that for a moment…Sound credible? I think not." February 26, 2020.
"What wasn’t emphasized adequately is that excess sodium intake, independent of its effect on blood pressure, can increase the risk of kidney disease and stroke. The reason quite likely is, at least in part, because excess sodium can damage the inner lining of our arteries via a process called “oxidative stress,” an analogy for which would be how salt can rust our cars." February 26,2020.
My bf gets annoyed with me because I refuse processed foods except a snack. This means no bottled or bagged stuff. This is exactly what I have been explaining to my bf. He is Asian so we eat all the yummy Asian foods; however, I have told him we need to cut this soya sauce yummy stuff out abs only have these things once and a while. He eats ramen so often. The sodium is not just from bones of animals. Then, chips. Gosh. I can say no mostly to these foods. Sometimes him eating such things i can’t help myself and I eat too because he is eating it and I need to have more will power. I’m more of a chocolate or sweety which is no better. But I physically can’t eat salty stuff like this. Lol. People wonder why it’s winter and they need a fan on or air conditioner. It is because of the high daily intake.
I think our Whole Foods have more than enough salt to avoid extra adding a of it.
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I hear you Happenstances, yes I love soysauce also 😅 we use a lot for cooking as our habit. I try to get the low sodium just in case I want some soysauce in my dish. Yes all those ramens, snacks, packaged and processed food are so dangerous for our health in the long run. I’m glad you are so aware and help him reduce the amount. I know it’s hard for our taste buds when it comes to salty and sweet stuffs. It’s hard to resist for many people. 😂
This is very interesting Koko, I also make most of my meals from scratch and add very little salt when cooking I do use a small a,Lunt of celery salt. And now I find that the majority of processed foods are either too sweet or too salty.So thanks for sharing this with us. 😊
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You’re welcomed Jerry. 😊🙏 I love to make my own meals these days, I find it very therapeutic to be one with the kitchen. I don’t like salty or sweet stuffs, I actually love sour stuffs 😁
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Mmm sour soup recipe ls??? Mmmm
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I loveee sour soup with bamboo shoots. 😋 I use mushroom broth, tofu, fungus, and balsamic vinegar with a bit of starch to make it thick. Pretty simple recipe I think 😁
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Thanks sweety hahaha have a good day.
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You are always welcomed! 🙏 Have a wonderful day ahead! 😊🙏🕊🌺
I never add salt to my cooking and so if anyone cares to sprinkle a little on their food it's up to them, everything is a matter of choice isn't it Jerry?
Its important we raise our awareness about the dangers of too much salt in our diets. It would be silly to think we could eat all the salt we want and be unharmed. Thanks for posting😁🙏.
You’re welcomed Zazen. 😊🙏 It is so true, even when I rinse my throat with salt water when it is irritated, I make sure I don’t swallow it. 😅 Ok have a good night! I’m off to bed now. TTYL 👋🥱😴💤🛏
Salt seems to be a complicated one, and one I don't know which side is correct with.
One of the main issues with the salt narrative, is that it's based on large scale observational studies, which are notoriously unreliable and which I think tend to miss the mark when they blame a singular ingredient.
Salt tends to be higher in processed foods, and we can say with confidence that a diet high in processed foods will be bad for you, but is it the salt or is it the rest of the food? That's where the room for doubt comes in.
This article on healthline explains why too little is dangerous too:
According to this article, it said there’s no evidence that low sodium diet would improve our health for a healthy person. Currently, we can be healthy but over time, accumulating of excess salt will put us in health risk. It is about sustaining our health. We try to reduce the risk of excess salt because it can possibly increase the risk of kidney and heart disease. We can’t risk our health just because it is not proven the cause. There’s still no scientific proof for Alzheimer’s, dementia but we learn the risk factors to protect ourselves the best we can.
I'm not too sure what you mean. There is some pretty reasonable research to suggest low salt intake is bad for us, from reputable sources. Salt offers some essential electrolytes for our bodies, and we function very poorly without them, and it does strike me we'd be risking our health by ignoring that advice.
It is about reducing excess of salt. I understand low salt intake is bad for us as we do need salt for our body to function. According to Food and Drug Administration: “It’s no easy task for consumers to consume the recommended amount of sodium in their diets,” says Susan Mayne, Ph.D., director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “We want to help reduce the amount of sodium across the entire food supply by setting reasonable goals.”
Indeed, for medical reasons I have to have a very high salt diet as I said in a post on here only a few days ago. It took me ages to adjust as I never had slot of salt before. I am also prescribed "slow-sodium" tablets. I was really worried about having a high salt intake but my prof said that it was essential and there was little evidence linking salt to raised BP. He said it is more often a genetic problem which comes on later in life.Everyone is an individual with individual needs and this is just me.
I don’t know enough about the physiology of sodium processing to comment either way, but cutting out junk foods seems like a sensible choice - as it will cut out a lot of other unhealthy ingredients as well as excess salt. I don’t eat any of the usual ultra processed salty foods so I don’t worry about the tiny amount I might add to food on my plate for taste. My body will tell me if I have too much as I get a headache (probably from not drinking enough water to counteract it) so things like halloumi cheese I just have a small portion.
I would just like to highlight a reoccurring issue. If anyone in this group has Adrenal Insufficiency diagnosed by an endocrinologist - please read the following addisonsdisease.org.uk/blog...
Thank you for this. I've just shown it to a family member who has read it and it has helped her understand. I used to eat spoonfuls of marmite to get salt and told my Dr "I just want to lick a block of salt." That got the alarm bells ringing. Thanks for posting this as it's been really helpful to me. 👍
Absolutely. Low cortisol can kill. I don't eat traditional English chips out of a bag very often but you should bsee the amount of salt and vinegar I out on them if I do!!😋
I totally get what your saying koko. No canned foods, no frozen pizzas, no canned or bottle pasta sauce, as much as possible to reduce the unnecessary intake of sodium. It’s much better to make our own sauce or eat Whole Foods.
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Exactly those are hidden salt in processed and packaged food. I’m getting in the habit of making my own sauce now also. Way to go! 😁👍
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Great you got lots of post ideas then girl. Have a beautiful day. Beautiful soul. Xo
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Thank you, you are too kind! 😊🙏xo
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I hope your day was filled with laughter. If not there are always funny things to view and so hahaha.
I come to find koko. I get some love and free education.
They say when the student is ready the teacher appears. Hahaha.
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Reading this you bring me smile at this moment. Thank you so much for your kindness and support. Much love and lights to you! 😊🙏
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“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine……” in a sing voice.
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Aweee such a classic and cute song. I can imagine it’s sung by such angelic voice! 😊🙏
I was sort of hoping it was about people enjoying food and discussion about recipes, good cooking tips etc. That is what I was hoping to pick up. If I want clear advice on weight management or dietary intake I will go to my doctor who is medically trained and knows my individual needs.I thought there would be more recipes on here and encouragement about food.
I'm not a big fan of being told what to do, just my nature I suppose. I prefer to make my own individual adult decisions. But I was definitely hoping for more inspiration and recipes. Hopefully in time they will come 👍
I get what you are saying but I am being looked after by a specialist team my weight is a big part of my health because of the meds I am on and so far my weight is ok. It's more body shape that bothers me. I'm under a great dietician as well. Out of all of them he has been the best. But thank you. I do acknowledge and understand your point. There is very little understanding within the medical profession.
I do not understand this public health advice. Salt in normally palatable amounts (i.e. drinking enough sea water will kill you, but that's not what we are discussing) is only possibly harmful if you have high blood pressure or oedema. The salt does not damage your kidneys, it's the raised blood pressure that does that. Similarly for the heart.
So, for 2/3 of the population, there is no reason to cut salt. This annoys me because of the decades I was being careful with my salt intake and my BP was 110/60 🙄
And for those with hypertension only some are salt sensitive, that is their blood pressure goes up when they eat more salt. Many are not salt sensitive, and quite a few are inverse salt sensitive, that is their blood pressure goes up when they reduce their salt.
So we are all being given health advice that is completely useless to about 75% or so of us, helps about 20% and is actively harmful to about 3%. And that's not taking into account the fact that all cause mortality relative to sodium intake is a J-curve. Some of those 75% will be cutting their salt back to the level that is causing them harm.
There are so many more useful changes we could make to our diets than cutting focussing on salt.
And I am another testimonial to the importance of cutting carbs. My BP has normalised since I did that, and lower insulin has stopped my body holding on to sodium, so I have had to increase my intake of salt quite dramatically to prevent severe muscle cramps. And if you want an insight into the dangers of low sodium, remember that the heart is a muscle and you don't want it cramping. I add salt (or lo/lite salt for potassium) to my coffee now.
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