Can someone give me the skinny on sodium?

chris0912

For a healthy person, is sodium really all that bad? I read all this stuff about how sodium makes you retain water and about water weight. But our bodies are made up of up to 75% water, so why is retention a bad thing? I mean, we're told practically from birth that you should drink at least 8 glasses of water a day, so wouldn't retaining water be a good thing?

Don't get me wrong... when I see the levels of sodium in packaged foods I cringe sometimes, but I loves me some salt!! On a lark, I started tracking my sodium and am shocked at how quickly it adds up. It's kind of funny, when I cook I use very little (cuz hubby hates it) and then I just salt my portion once it's on my plate. But for someone who claims to hate salt, he sure loves his fast food, which has to be the worst culprit of over-salting out there.

nyctraveler

I would like to know too. I also heard that if you actually COOK AT HOME that you don't need to worry about sodium but that it's mostly a concern for when you eat processed foods (e.g., canned, etc etc)

Ms_Natalie

New water is better than old retained water I guess?

I certainly feel better after I've flushed the sodium from bad meals away. :flowerforyou:

lloydrt

sodium in excess is bad. It has potential to raise your blood pressure. It also raises cholesterol levels. It puts a strain on your kidneys, putting them in risk for renal failure,
too much sodium causes swelling and bloating of the extremities. Also, in retaining fluids in our body, this excessive fluids build up around the heart, causing the heart not to beat normally causing high blood pressure, congestive heart failure or stroke.......

Id pass on it if you can, maybe stay with the recommended 2500 mg daily...........Lloyd

callipygianchronicle

Sodium is actually an important nutrient. And we need it. But the average American gets more than 5000 mg a day, while the most we need is around 3500. For many people this isn’t an issue, but there is a large portion of the population that is sodium sensitive and excessive amounts of sodium raises their blood pressure and contributes to diabetes.

The problem is, that you don’t necessarily know whether you are a person who should have a lower sodium diet until you develop a life threatening problem or begin to have kidney failure due to the ongoing assault of excess sodium in your blood stream. So, it is better to be conservative with your sodium intake, than aggressive. I have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, and my recommended intake is no more than 1500 mg/day.

As for water retention, retaining too much water has negative effects on the body (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_retention_(medicine) ). It can also frustrate weight loss, as excess water will inevitably create excess body weight.