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Wait, more salt? What about salt being bad? Doesn’t salt cause hypertension and heart disease?
While it is true that too much sodium in a person’s diet might correlate with certain diseases, more recent studies show an equal prevalence of those diseases with too little salt in one’s diet.[1]
What does that mean for you?
It means that while you don’t need to start eating salt by the spoonful, you don’t want to cut it out of your diet entirely either.
You can consume too much or too little of anything, and salt is no different.
- Sodium vital?
We have all heard it before: “Salt leads to hypertension.”
This isn’t entirely true, at least, not in the sense you think.
Hypertension is an unhealthy high blood pressure. However, blood pressure that is too low is often the result of low blood volume.
That usually means you’re suffering from dehydration on a cellular level.
That’s right, when you’re dehydrated, your cells are dehydrated too! That’s why you feel like crap when you’re dehydrated, because your entire body is suffering.
Fortunately, there is a readily available, vital mineral that can help fight dehydration! It’s called sodium, and without it, life would not be possible.
Your body, right down to your cells, needs sodium to perform its most basic functions, like maintaining a healthy blood volume.
- Digestion
I should back up and point out that salt and sodium are not the same thing. Salt is sodium and chloride, and both minerals are necessary for your body’s functioning.
As Dr. James J. DiNicolantonio points out in his interview with Dr. Mark Hyman, chloride is an essential component of Hydrochloric acid, the acid your stomach secretes to digest your food.[2]
You cannot absorb the vital nutrients you need to live without sodium and chloride in your system.
This is especially true for people with intestinal conditions such as Crohn’s disease, IBS, Celiac’s disease, and ulcerative colitis.
People with these conditions have a harder time absorbing sodium in the intestines and colon, and therefore need to ingest more sodium.
However, even if you do not have any of these conditions, you still need salt in your diet to maintain necessary levels of sodium for your body to function at its best!
- Kidneys
Can we talk about your kidneys? They work non-stop to keep your blood clean and your vital fluids properly balanced.
One of the most important functions your kidneys perform is absorbing and flushing sodium.
Your kidneys can filter up to three and a half pounds of sodium in a day![3]
That’s their job, but it’s easier for them to flush sodium than it is to re-absorb it. What does that mean to you?
It means you can eat sodium and your kidneys can just flush out what they don’t need.
Your kidneys have an important job to do, and with plenty of water, sodium can help them keep you feeling your best.
When your kidneys suffer, you suffer. Plain and simple.
Things like adrenal fatigue and dehydration are the result of too little water. As it turns out, too little sodium can make that even worse.
- Exercise
We all like to exercise right? It calms the mind, strengthens and invigorates the body.
It also costs your body sodium, and other minerals, too.
For example, in an hour of exercise, you could sweat out up to a teaspoon of sodium.[4]
This isn’t so much of a big deal if you have the sodium to sweat out.
It becomes a problem for you, however, if you’re salt-deficient.
If you’re exercising an hour a day and you’re consuming less than a teaspoon of salt a day (the government recommendation) your body will release minerals like calcium or magnesium in your sweat instead, as a defense mechanism.
We all know the hazards of magnesium and calcium deficiencies headaches, anxiety, muscle spasms, weak bones, etc.
Keep in mind, folks, these are minerals your body can’t produce; you need to absorb it from your food.
This doesn’t mean head for the potato chips.
Healthy foods like olives, pickles, and salted nuts are a great way to get more sodium into your diet by eating real food.
- Cravings
Salt can cut down on cravings for sugar, alcohol, even drugs.
One of the most interesting points Dr. DiNicolantonio makes in his book, The Salt Fix, is that your brain knows when it needs sodium, and will reward you for getting it.[5]
It works the same way sugar does. Your body needs something, you crave a snack, and your brain releases a little dopamine as a thank-you.
So, if you’re addicted to sugar like the majority of the United States, one of the things you can do for yourself is to add a little bit of salt to your diet.
This could be something as simple as blending a tablespoon of salted butter into your morning coffee, or having lightly salted nuts with lunch.
I like to say that there are no “bad” foods.
Salt, like fat, has been labeled as “bad” for a long time, and people in this country are still sick and dying, even without salt.
The takeaway, here, is that you need a certain amount of sodium just to live, let alone to feel your best. Just like fat, make sure you’re getting enough.
I recommend Himalayan Pink Salt. It contains 81 trace minerals and is WAY healthier than the processed table salt most people use.
Click here to order it from Amazon.
[1] Hyman, Mark MD. “The Downside of a Low Salt Diet” http://drhyman.com/blog/2017/11/03/downside-low-salt-diet/ 1/7/2018
[2] DiNicolantonio, James J. PharmD. “The Downside of a Low Salt Diet” http://drhyman.com/blog/2017/11/03/downside-low-salt-diet/ 1/7/2018
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
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