It’s Just White Poison: Busting Common Salt Myths

There is nothing to discuss. We recognize it as obvious: in high doses, salt is harmful to health. With its excess, the structure of the vessels changes, their walls weaken. But in reasonable quantities, impossible to do without.

To begin with, the presence of salt is a prerequisite for the existence of red blood cells (erythrocytes). There are other arguments in favor of seasoning. For example, it is responsible for muscle excitability. Thanks to sodium chloride, the muscles execute the commands of the brain. It forms hydrochloric acid in the stomach, without which it would be impossible to digest and assimilate food. Finally, salt plays an important role in complex metabolic processes, so you cannot completely lose this substance. If you suffer from edema or kidney disease, you should limit the amount of salt. Keep in mind that the recommended intake for a healthy person is 4-5 grams per day (including food), or just under a teaspoon. In hot climates and during physical exertion – 5-6 grams.

It is almost 100% the same sodium chloride as regular table salt. In too high a dose, it will also harm your health. And the minerals that fans of the product rely on are not contained in sufficient quantities to have a significant effect on the body. To get real benefits, you’ll need to eat not a pood, but a whole carload of seasoning. If you’re more willing to believe marketing gimmicks than experts, keep buying sea salt, which contains absolutely nothing magical to make you healthier, prettier, and stronger.

By consuming 9 grams of salt, the body retains about one liter of water. You, of course, conclude: there is no harmful substance – there are no kilograms. But it is better to forget about any idea of ​​a salt-free diet. Only physical activity, good nutrition and healthy sleep are your reliable allies in losing weight. Otherwise, having lost excess weight, you will quickly restore it as soon as you start adding salt to your food again. Moreover, its deficiency is just as dangerous as its excess. A salt-free diet is exclusively therapeutic in nature and is indicated for people with kidney disease, high blood pressure, frequent edema and a high degree of obesity. Such a nutritional plan must be drawn up by a doctor, otherwise prolonged abstinence from sodium chloride will cause a breakdown, and then more serious symptoms and diagnoses, for example, diseases of the cardiovascular system.

Many of us suffer from a lack of this substance. Alas, the most popular products from the refrigerator contain iodine in a small amount. But don’t shift the solution of the problem to salt. Some of the substance is lost during cooking. Seafood, seaweed, fish and milk remain the best sources of iodine. With them you will get not only iodine, but also other essential trace elements.

For people with normal blood pressure, a determined attempt to exclude seasoning from the diet will lead to a decrease in readings by only 1-2 points, this value will not be recorded by the tonometer. By the way, Belgian scientists conducted a study, during which they took health indicators of 3.5 thousand people who do not have heart problems and recorded the amount of salt they eat. Seven years later, it turned out that the number of heart attacks and deaths was highest in the group that used little sodium chloride in the kitchen. One conclusion can be drawn: salt does not have such a negative effect on the body, which is often attributed to it.