Hello! I have been a doctor for 21 years. My name is Georgy Olegovich Sapego. In this article, I'll talk about salt.
Table salt is sodium chloride. We use it for sodium. We can still get this very sodium with soda or, for example, with glutamate.
Why do you need sodium
Sodium is very important for maintaining the volume of extracellular fluid. He pulls on the water and holds it. Therefore, approximately 95% of sodium in our body is located in the intercellular space.
Sodium is also needed for the cells to maintain the correct balance of electrical charges.
Excess sodium
People love the taste of salt. If you stick to a diet with a small amount of sodium, then gradually you can wean yourself from salty. But this is always difficult.
Excess salt increases blood pressure. If you limit the salt, then the pressure will decrease markedly.
Some people are salt tolerant. Their pressure does not rise so much. Others, on the contrary, are sensitive. This should be strictly limited to salt. High blood pressure leads to strokes or heart attacks that can lead to death. Therefore, limiting salt can be life-saving.
In addition to increasing blood pressure, salt harms our body in other ways. Found a link between salt intake and the development of stomach cancer.
Also, salt lovers often have kidney stones and osteoporosis. This is believed to be related to the balance of calcium and sodium. If a lot of sodium is supplied with salt, then calcium begins to be excreted in the urine. This will cause kidney stones and weak bones.
Too much salt can cause headaches.
It is believed that excess sodium in our body leads to the development of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis.
Lack of salt
It happens. But this is very rare. The body readily adapts to low dietary salt intake and limits sodium loss.
Lack of salt can lead to insulin resistance and blood cholesterol problems. There will be strange swings in blood pressure.
Salt is sometimes used as medicine. And not just for rinsing. People who regularly faint are prescribed a diet rich in salt. You can read about it in my article at the link below.
Now it's a lie
In my opinion, some of the neighboring channels are just making up horror stories on the go, just to attract attention. Below I will quote someone's ideas and immediately explain what is wrong with them.
People who abuse salt get fat.
They swell, maybe. There is no direct effect of salt on obesity. Another thing is that there is a lot of salty in fast food, processed meat and similar products. You can really get overeating with such products.
The sausage sandwich has a daily salt requirement
Somehow somehow I can’t believe it. Let's count? The ideal daily sodium intake is somewhere around 2000 mg. Sausage has an average of 900 mg sodium per 100 g. Bread contains 500 mg sodium per 100 g. A piece of bread from a sliced roll weighs 30 g. That is, it contains 150 mg of sodium. About the same amount of sausage on a sandwich is another 270 mg of sodium. A total of 420 mg of sodium is obtained in a sandwich. Ideally, you can eat five of these sandwiches, and this will be the normal amount of salt. Our neighboring authors are lying about something. Thicken paint.
Personally, I have never seen a person who would have too much limited sodium in their diet. People usually freak out with water. Either they try to dilute salt in their body with a lot of pure water, or they restrict water where it makes no sense.
Excess water is common for those who drink any liquid that is low in sodium. A good example is inadequate beer drinkers who can drain half a bucket in an hour. From this, by the way, you can get dangerous cerebral edema, because the level of sodium in the blood drops sharply.
People also sometimes try to lower their blood pressure by restricting water. It doesn't make sense. This is done only with large edema such as ascites, renal or heart failure. It is not water that is more important for blood pressure, but salt itself. It is also limited.
Do you have examples of strange diets with or without salt?
If you liked the article, then like it and subscribe to my channel. Check out my articles on related topics:
How not to faint
How much water is in women and how much water is in men
