Such questions drive me into a stupor. Rather, because the questioner himself usually does not understand what he is asking. Here we were talking about a filter for softening water. It contains an ion-exchange resin, which takes calcium with magnesium from the water, and gives sodium. Well, the person claims that there is little chloride in such water, so it will not be salty.
In my opinion, the person is mistaken. When we taste a salty taste, it is sodium and chlorine ions that tickle our cells in our tongue. That is, it is not crystals of table salt that dig into our tongue, but positively charged sodium ions and negatively charged chlorine ions (chloride). Water disassembles salt into parts, and chlorine and sodium float in it separately from each other.
We can get sodium and chloride by themselves from other compounds. Sodium usually tastes salty and chloride enhances it. If there is a lot of chloride, then it itself feels like something salty.
When sodium is combined with chlorine, we experience that purest salty taste. It can only be replaced with lithium chloride. Because lithium is like sodium. A hundred years ago, someone tried to make a salt substitute out of lithium chloride. But people got drunk. Lithium is bad for the nervous system.
It turns out that, apart from sodium chloride, no one can satisfy our need for a pure, salty taste.
Sodium can combine with various other negatively charged ions. And the larger such a molecule is, the weaker the salty taste of sodium will be. That is, there is no substitute for chlorine. Some negative ions when combined with sodium will be edible, but give a bitter taste. Almost nothing is left of salty.
That popular potassium chloride salt substitute cannot reproduce the pure salty taste. It will be rather bitter and salty.
So no, brothers. Sodium in drinking water will be either salty or bitter-salty. It all depends on the negative ions that accompany it.
Well, that water from the softener is more likely to be salty. If there is more than 200 milligrams of sodium per liter, then you will notice it. If you brew coffee from such water, you will notice the salty taste at a sodium concentration of more than 400 milligrams per liter.
This sodium is not particularly regulated. It is limited only to people with high blood pressure, heart failure, cirrhosis of the liver, or kidney problems. Well, babies need very little sodium. So think carefully before stirring a baby's mixture in water from your own well or from under a softener.
