Posted on July 07, 2016 by Jenny Cromack
Avoid Salt Like its the Plague
Picture taken from Pixaby.
It’s a big thing in the nutrition world that salt is bad for your health. Most people have accepted that good fats won’t make you fat and higher protein diets won’t damage your bones, but salting your food is definitely still taboo.
Don’t get me wrong it is true that a high salt intake is a problem if you have high blood pressure or high insulin levels and if you’re overweight or consume a high level of processed foods.
However if you eat a good clean diet, restricting any salt at all could be a disaster if you have just run a marathon or finished a session where you have sweat a lot. Sodium plays a primary role in heart function and hydration.
Did you know that water on its own does nothing to your hydration? It needs sodium and other electrolytes for your body to retain it.
A low salt diet can be dangerous for someone trying to recover from excessive stress resulting in overworked adrenal glands this can lead to excess excretion by the kidneys producing electrolyte imbalance and dehydration.
To sum up, your salt intake needs to be individualised the sweeping statement that everyone should cut out all salt needs to be looked at. People who may need a little salt in their diet are athletes, people on high protein diets and those who don’t eat processed foods. With this being said even if you think you eat a clean diet just monitor how much salt products you use may have.