Easy Health Tip #20: The Salt! Hold the F&*%ing Salt!
October 30, 2006 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Drink, Easy Health Tips, Food and Drink, Misc., Prevention, Your Body
Are you an American?
If you answered yes to this question, chances are you eat waaaay to much salt. Or, more to the point, sodium. It’s absolutely crammed into fast food, pre-packeaged food, frozen foods, canned foods and almost all commercially marketed foods. That’s a hefty blanket statement, to be sure, but it’s got a mountain of truth behind it.
So why all the salty food? Well, if someone is trying to sell you a food how do they do that better? Make it taste better, course! And salt is a natural flavor enhancer. It makes almost everything you put it on taste better. So adding sodium to a product is a total lock in a salesman’s eyes.
Here’s the problem…
Salt raises your blood pressure when consumed en masse. Raised blood pressure leads to heart disease, heart attack, stroke or kidney failure. Eek.
I’m a salt-a-holic myself, but I try to take steps, and I would like to arm you with this fact as you go out in our sodium-riddled culture of slick marketing and value-menu options delivered to the window of your running car…
Salt is an acquired taste.
Once you cut it out, it may take a few days, you won’t miss it, I promise.
Now, our bodies use salt for lots of important things*. Don’t go all-knee jerk and become a salt-phobic weirdo. I’m just saying pay attention and try and cut down a little.
[tags] salt, sodium, fast, food, diet, health [/tags]
*Your body uses salt to do stuff in your cells that are essential to hydration. You don’t want to cut it out entirely. Having no salt intake at all will kill you. It’s a nasty condition called hyponatremia. It occurs when blood sodium levels fall below 135mmol/l. This occurs mostly in children because of diarrhea, but it does rarely occur in adults. Particularly athletes that are losing mass amounts of salt & sodium through the process of sweating, but they’re only replacing the water by drinking it in mass quantities. Think marathoners, Ironman traithletes, etc… This is why sports drinks contain sodium.
The simplified explanation is that you’re dilluting your blood too much. The really awful thing about this condition is that’s it’s symptoms are almost identical to dehydration, which can lead first-aid givers to try and hydrate a victim, which can kill them. So, if you’re doing a strenuous activity for more than 40 minutes, you may want to look into a sports drink or other supplement that contains sodium/electrolytes.
Remember: the best way to keep yourself hydrated safely is to drink when you’re thirsty.
Oh man, I was once having some health issues and had to go on a low sodium diet. IT SUCKED. I did miss it. But I’m also kind of the anti-health nut. I mean the stuff’s interesting to read about, even discuss. Applied? Maybe some day.