The Truth About Salt

Now that the summer months are here and the days are warmer, we tend to sweat more, so staying hydrated is important, particularly if you exercise regularly. You stay hydrated by ensuring you drink enough fluid but salt (made up of sodium and chloride) also plays a critical role in keeping you hydrated and is an essential mineral that your body needs to stay healthy and function properly.

For many years salt has been demonised as being one of the biggest contributors to heart disease because it increases your blood pressure. This is partly true but widely misinterpreted and is causing more healthy people to reduce their salt intake to unhealthy levels and in some cases, remove it from their diet completely. We lose salt through sweating and urination, so it must be replaced. In severe cases, low salt levels can lead to muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting and dizziness. Eventually, lack of salt can lead to shock, coma and even death, therefore it’s important to understand the role that salt plays in keeping your body healthy.

By studying the facts, a little closer, you will see that salt is not the ‘bad guy’ it’s made out to be!

High blood pressure or hypertension is a complex health condition which is not caused by excess salt alone. It is caused by many additional factors such as lack of exercise, obesity, poor nutrition, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, genetics and age. However, if you already have high blood pressure, excess salt can make it worse, and unfortunately that’s where the misadvise about reducing your salt intake has come from. As with many things, the devil is in the detail. A healthy adult, consuming the right amount of salt daily, will not develop high blood pressure due to their salt intake alone, in fact they will be healthier than someone eating too little salt.

For example, one study in the Journal of Hypertension showed that in over 6,000 subjects, reducing salt intake made no difference to the risk of heart disease in people with normal blood pressure.

So why has salt been labelled the ‘bad guy’ if it’s essential for health and survival?

Let me explain – The sodium and water balance in your body are precisely regulated by hormones. The total amount of sodium in your body affects the amount of fluid in your blood (blood volume) and around your cells. Your body continually monitors blood volume and sodium concentration and when either becomes too high, sensors around the body detect the increases and stimulate the kidneys to increase sodium excretion, thus returning blood volume to normal.

When your blood volume or sodium concentration becomes too low, the same sensors trigger the release of hormones to increase blood volume by retaining sodium and maintain the equilibrium between sodium and water. So if you regularly eat an excess amount of salt, the higher sodium levels causes fluid retention and increases your blood pressure. So, if you already have high blood pressure, and you eat too much salt each day, it will make it worse. High blood pressure can damage your kidneys and vascular system which can then contribute to kidney and heart disease. If you have high blood pressure and your GP tells you to reduce your salt intake, then that’s very good advice that you should follow.

SO WHAT ROLE DOES SALT PLAY IN THE BODY?

Salt is typically made up of 40% sodium and 60% chloride. Both are two of the most important and essential electrolytes in keeping your body functioning properly.Sodium facilitates the transmission of nerve impulses in your body and regulates the electrical charges in and out of your cells so that vital minerals can be passed in and out of each cell. Sodium helps control taste and smell and helps your muscles contract, with the most important muscle being your heart. Sodium also plays a role in maintaining normal blood pressure and blood volume.

The chloride part of salt is essential in the digestion process. It is used in the production hydrochloric acid in the stomach which is essential for digestion. It also preserves the acid balance throughout the body and helps to carry carbon dioxide from working tissues and muscles to the lungs.

SO HOW MUCH SALT DO YOU NEED EACH DAY?

The NHS recommend no more than the following:

• 11 years and over - 6g

• 7 to 10 years old - 5g

• 4 to 6 years old – 3g

• 1 to 3 years old – 2g

Under 1 year old – 1g. Note, babies and infants should not have much salt as their kidneys are not yet fully developed and cannot process it.

Although the above are the normal healthy guidelines issued by the NHS, many of us are consuming far more than this due to the over consumption of unhealthy processed foods. Without realising it, you could easily consume 3 times the daily recommended amount through the consumption of salt hidden in processed foods. The best way to avoid too much salt is to eat un-processed whole foods where you add the salt yourself.

Assuming you are eating the right amount of salt, don’t forget you may need a little extra on a hot day where you tend to sweat more, or if you have been exercising and sweating a lot. There are now many electrolyte supplements on the market for this very purpose that contain salt. These products can be very useful, especially during exercise but if you have been sweating a lot, a good pinch of salt in a glass of water is just as good.

Now that you know how important salt is, don’t avoid it, just consume a healthy amount.